Introduction

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of the book’s themes and organization. I introduce my experience as a struggling student and contextualize it in the current discourse on limited learning in higher education. I highlight key literature on the student learning crisis and situate my analysis in this scholarship. I identify the audience for my current work, namely college educators who care about struggling students, but find it difficult to reach them. I argue that researchers have successfully studied student struggle in the big picture, but miss insights that can only be discovered by delving deeply into the details of the student experience. I offer this book as an attempt to fill the gap in our collective understanding of student struggle.