Residual effects on students of a college poverty immersion experience created by Michael W. Firmin, Ruth Lowrie Markham, Kurt J. Stultz, Heidi J Johnson and Elizabeth P. Garland

The authors report the results of a phenomenological, qualitative research study involving 20 students who participated in a weekend poverty immersion experience. Analysis of the tape-recorded interviews included coding, checks for internal validity, and the generation of themes common to most of the research participants. Two overall results were evident. First, students identified three particular enduring frameworks that they had maintained as a result of their respective poverty immersion experiences. Second, students generally had not actively engaged in helping the poor, despite their earlier thoughts that they would have done so. The findings are discussed within the context of the social psychology literature showing that disparity often exists between beliefs and behaviors. Implications for instructional psychology are noted.