Beyond cultural capital: Understanding the strengths of new migrants within higher education

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 657-673 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Harvey ◽  
Mark Mallman
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Cultural Capital ◽  
Ethnically Diverse ◽  
Structural Barriers ◽  
University Campuses ◽  
Regional University ◽  
University Access ◽  
University Experiences ◽  
Compositional Diversity

This paper explores the experiences of new migrants in Australian higher education, based on interviews conducted across two regional university campuses in 2017. New migrants, particularly from refugee backgrounds, often have limited university access and face specific challenges throughout and beyond their university experiences. Under-representation has led to a focus on what new migrants lack, in particular their putative paucity of cultural capital required to navigate and succeed in higher education. It is institutions, however, which frequently lack the willingness or capacity to recognise various strengths and forms of capital possessed by ethnically diverse students. Adopting a critical race theory lens enables identification of those forms of student capital, along with the barriers that may prevent capital from being widely recognised within the academy and/or being fully realised for students in their navigation of work, study, and life. Specifically, this article examines the value of resistant, familial and linguistic capital. New migrant students face specific challenges when their cultural strengths meet institutional and broader structural barriers. It is critical for institutions that the diverse and complex perspectives of under-represented students be harnessed to increase the quality of learning for all students. Compositional diversity on campus is necessary but insufficient to promote deep learning and a positive student experience.

scholarly journals Cultural Wealth

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-89
Author(s):  
Sharon leonie Brown
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Cultural Capital ◽  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Academic Culture ◽  
Doctoral Degree ◽  
Cultural Knowledge ◽  
Survival Strategies ◽  
Diverse Students ◽  
Cultural Wealth

Graduate students who come from a background where neither parent has pursued higher education or specifically, who are Women of Colour (WOC), lack important cultural capital that could otherwise threaten or derail their pursuit of a doctoral degree. Yet, even with this prior familial knowledge, WOC still succeed because they depend on their developed cultural wealth (CW) to navigate through their doctoral studies. To thoroughly analyze this assessment, a theoretical framework that included: critical race theory, cultural capital theory, and Womanist theory was implemented. A six-item structured instrument was utilized to examine the educational experiences of 10 WOC doctoral students who were attending an elite Canadian university. The aim of the survey was to assess how these diverse students cultivated unique forms of CW through the telling of their stories.  An analysis of the data revealed six categories of cultural wealth that were significant and instrumental in graduate student achievement. These elements were: 1) Mother’s Influence, 2) Age Capital, 3) Survival Strategies, 4) Navigating Academic culture or “Know- How” 5) Mentorship, and 6) Spirituality.  The majority of the participants interviewed acquired; grants, publishing and funding opportunities, possessed all six components. Findings of this study suggest that experiential/cultural knowledge of WOC is valuable and important for further research in higher education; and that academic supervisors and administrators should consider using cultural knowledge as a guide and tool for practical mentorship, academic development, and supervision to ensure successful outcomes for current and future diverse students, especially for WOC in doctoral programs.

scholarly journals When Students Rally for Anti-Racism. Engaging with Racial Literacy in Higher Education

Philosophies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 48
Author(s):  
Hari Prasad Adhikari-Sacré ◽  
Kris Rutten
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
University Campuses ◽  
Institutional Processes ◽  
Critical Awareness ◽  
Educational Concept ◽  
Diversity Policy ◽  
Racial Literacy ◽  
Racial Hierarchies ◽  
European University

Despite a decade of diversity policy plans, a wave of student rallies has ignited debates across western European university campuses. We observe these debates from a situated call for anti-racism in Belgian higher education institutions, and critically reflect on the gap between diversity policy discourse and calls for anti-racism. The students’ initiatives make a plea for racial literacy in the curriculum, to foster a critical awareness on how racial hierarchies have been educated through curricula and institutional processes. Students rethink race as a matter to be (un)learned. This pedagogical question, on racial literacy in the curriculum, is a response to diversity policies often silent about race and institutionalised racisms. Students request a fundamental appeal of knowledgeability in relation to race; diversity policy mostly envisions working on (racial) representation, as doing anti-racist work. This article argues how racial literacy might offer productive ways to bridge the disparities between students’ calls for anti-racism and the institutional (depoliticised) vocabulary of diversity. We implement Stuart Hall’s critical race theory and Jacques Rancière’s subjectification as key concepts to study and theorise these calls for anti-racism as a racial literacy project. This project can be built around engagement as educational concept. We coin possibilities to deploy education as a forum of engagement and dialogue where global asymmetries such as race, gender and citizenship can be critically addressed.

Liberate our Library: doing decolonisation work at Goldsmiths Library

2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 148-154
Author(s):  
Marilyn Clarke
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Study Skills ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o ◽  
The Self ◽  
Hierarchical Systems ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Race Theory ◽  
The Mind

Library work now has a role to play when it comes to decolonisation. This article outlines what Goldsmiths Library, University of London is doing, through the Liberate our Library initiative, to diversify and decolonise its collections and practices against the backdrop of worldwide movements for education and social justice led by both students and academics to challenge the dominance of the ‘Westernised university’.2Examples of how we are doing this work are explained using critical librarianship as our guide, whilst recognising that we are still developing expertise in this evolving field of practice. This decolonisation work also uses critical race theory (CRT) as a means to dismantle racial inequality and its impact on higher education.Here, I would like to acknowledge the excellent and inspirational content of ALJ, Critical Librarianship: Special Issue (v.44, no.2) and I see this article as an ongoing companion piece.Goldsmiths Library's liberation work endeavours to empower its users with critical thinking and study skills whilst conducting their research using hierarchical systems and resources which in themselves are in the process of being decolonised.Decolonising a library collection and a profession must of course always begin or at least happen in tandem with the self, through a process that Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o describes as ‘decolonising the mind.’3

Muslim Women’s Experiences of Higher Education in Britain

2007 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 46-69
Author(s):  
Fauzia Ahmad
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Identity Construction ◽  
South Asian ◽  
Muslim Women ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Women’S Experiences ◽  
Women's Experiences ◽  
It Impacts ◽  
The Social ◽  
University Experiences

I explore British South Asian Muslim women’s experiences of higher education and how it impacts identity construction and negotiation. Through semi-structured interviews with thirty-five undergraduate and post-graduate Muslim female university students, I reflect on their perceived and actual experiences. By stressing how representations of them influence their participation and experiences, I analyze how individual subjectivities are mediated and negotiated while reflecting common experiences. I also consider their accounts of the social and personal benefits they felt that they gained during their studies, as well as to the more disturbing and racialized aspects of their experiences. They differentiated between three overlapping forms of beneficial experience: academic, social, and personal. While instances of anti-Muslim racism were rare or subtle, certain university structures and expectations of what being a mainstream student means often contributed to a noted sense of “othering.” I conclude by highlighting how their accounts of their university experiences directly challenge those stereotypes that misrepresent educated Muslim women as “religious and cultural rebels.”

The Road to College: Hmong American Women's Pursuit of Higher Education

1997 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
pp. 803-828 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stacey Lee
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cultural Transformation ◽  
Early Marriage ◽  
Structural Barriers ◽  
Welfare Policies ◽  
American Women ◽  
The Road ◽  
Educational Persistence ◽  
Hmong American

In this article, Stacey Lee examines the phenomenon of low educational participation and achievement among Hmong American women. She argues that the focus on cultural differences as the sole explanation for this fact ignores the existence of economic, racial, and other structural barriers to Hmong American women's educational persistence and success. Lee shares the stories of several Hmong American women who are pursuing or have completed higher education in the United States, investigating the factors — economic, racial, and cultural — that helped or hindered their decisions to continue their education. These women are part of a movement within the Hmong community that questions traditional expectations for women and girls, in particular early marriage and motherhood. Lee illustrates how these women's experiences are also shaped by social factors such as welfare policies and racism. Their stories demonstrate that cultural transformation is neither a smooth nor unambiguous process.

scholarly journals Exploration of the path of art education resources in Colleges and universities in Jiangxi

2020 ◽  
Vol 189 ◽  
pp. 03004
Author(s):  
Lai Wenqing
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Cultural Capital ◽  
Art Education ◽  
Colleges And Universities ◽  
Cultural Resources ◽  
Cultural Inheritance ◽  
Cultural Elements ◽  
Education Resources ◽  
The Law ◽  
Aesthetic Concepts

Art education in colleges and universities is an important part of China’s higher education. It takes art as the content and educates people. Through educational activities, it fosters college students to form correct aesthetic concepts, improve their personal personality, and stimulate their imagination and creativity. The integration of art education into Hakka cultural inheritance has the problem of compatibility between the law of cultural inheritance and the law of education. Efforts should be made to activate static local cultural resources into dynamic educational and cultural capital. Hakka culture curriculum system should be integrated with traditional cultural characteristics and art education concepts. The contents should be closely related to art education, and the Hakka spirit of simplicity and diligence should be transmitted through the connotation of Hakka culture. The “cultural resources into curriculum resources”, “cultural elements into cultural creativity” double path teaching implementation, to achieve the value of Hakka cultural resources inheritance.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document