scholarly journals What I Have Learned from Conservative Students Teaching American Politics at a Predominantly White Institution (PWIs): Reflections of a Minority College Professor

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Earnest N. Bracey
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
College Students ◽  
Predominantly White ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
American Politics ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
College Professors ◽  
The Social

<em>Disruptive, conservative college students are a symptom of a larger problem that we have in higher education today. Also, many of our students are unprepared academically, but some think that they should pass American politics—and other controversial courses—anyway, without doing the necessary work. Of course, this higher education issue has taken on new gravity, given that liberal college professors are being verbally attacked and threatened by these conservative, college students, especially if they are from a minority group, or if they are African Americans at Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs). Their major complaint is always about there being a liberal bent in academia, but many are tricked into thinking in a certain, conservative way. These are carefully crafted, politically motivated attacks, because some of these students don’t respect or believe in the veracity of anything told by minority professors, particularly their diversity of ideas about current political issues. As we might imagine, for example, the social injustices and racial terrorism of the past toward minorities, in the United States, just doesn’t register with some of these conservative students, with latent prejudices, because they mostly want to just rail against liberal professors of all stripes, ratcheting up the divisions we have at the higher education level. Moreover, these conservative students also applaud the tactics and rationale behind their verbal, classroom attacks and threats, as they monitor certain (liberal) college professors. Perhaps they have a prevalent belief that most liberal professors are somehow evil. Finally, these disruptive students believe what they want to believe, which isn’t the best way to consider important policy matters today. Indeed, these misguided students should think more critically about the social and political issues, without blindly following someone because they tell the best story, or because of their conservative values. In the final analysis, we must wonder if the traditional ways of teaching students at Liberal Arts College and Universities are dead.</em>

scholarly journals Moving Beyond the Statements: The Need for Action to Address Structural Racism at Predominantly White Institutions

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 174-179
Author(s):  
Monica Burke
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Black Students ◽  
Predominantly White ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Institutions Of Higher Education ◽  
Structural Racism ◽  
White Institutions ◽  
The Social

Higher education may once again be at a crossroad with the racial climate in the United States and what that means for college campuses. Consequently, institutions of higher education must commit to ensuring a supportive organizational structure for the social and psychosocial well-being of Black students and guaranteeing support resources for the psychological well-being of Black students. Such efforts require significant and enduring structural changes within institutions of higher education that should be ongoing and consistent.

Ethnographic Service Learning: An Approach for Transformational Learning

Journal ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie A. Medeiros ◽  
Jennifer Guzmán
Keyword(s):  
Service Learning ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Transformational Learning ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
The United States ◽  
Field Methods ◽  
The Social ◽  
Service Learning Projects ◽  
Transformational Experiences ◽  
Learning Projects

Trends in higher education pedagogy increasingly point to the importance of transformational experiences as the capstone of liberal arts education. Practitioners of ethnography, the quintessential transformational experience of the social sciences, are well-positioned to take the lead in designing courses and term projects that afford undergraduate students opportunities to fundamentally reshape their understanding of the social world and their own involvement within it. Furthermore, in the United States, colleges and universities have become proponents of service learning as a critical component of a holistic educational experience. In this article, we describe how service learning can be incorporated into training students in ethnographic field methods as a means to transformational learning and to give them skills they can use beyond the classroom in a longer trajectory of civic participation. We discuss strategies, opportunities, and challenges associated with incorporating service learning into courses and programs training students in ethnographic field methods and propose five key components for successful ethnographic service learning projects. We share student insights about the transformational value of their experiences as well as introduce some ethical concerns that arise in ethnographic service-learning projects.

International students’ lived experiences in a predominantly White institution in Southwest Florida

2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Clarisse Halpern ◽  
Hasan Aydin
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
International Students ◽  
Predominantly White ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Global Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Predominantly White Institution ◽  
Southwest Florida ◽  
White Institution ◽  
Dominant Society

AbstractYearly, thousands of international students seek the United States to further their education, bringing cultural and financial capital into the country. Though previous studies have examined international students’ experiences adapting to the receiving country, research is needed to investigate their lived experiences in a predominantly White institution (PWI). Thus, a narrative inquiry was applied to explore international students’ life stories at a PWI in Southwest Florida. Data collection comprised in-depth individual interviews with 12 participants that resulted in four themes: multiracial identities, otherness, self-representation in the dominant society, and perceptions of the dominant culture. The narratives revealed challenges related to isolation, segregation, and feelings of inferiority, contributing to understanding the value of diversity and global education in higher education. Recommendations are included to better serve international students in higher education institutions.

A critical approach to academic, community, and family literacies of first-generation college students in Latin America

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Lina M. Trigos-Carrillo
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
College Students ◽  
Latin America ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
First Generation College Students ◽  
Community Cultural Wealth ◽  
Cultural Wealth ◽  
The Social ◽  
First Generation College

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] In this study, I investigated the social practices related to reading and writing of first-generation college students and their families and communities in Latin America from a critical sociocultural perspective (Lewis, Enciso and Moje, 2007). This embedded multiple-case study was conducted in Mexico, Colombia, and Costa Rica. Using an ethnographic perspective of data collection (Bernard, 2011; Lillis and Scott, 2007) and the constant comparative method (Heath and Street, 2008), situational analysis (Clarke, 2005), and within and cross-case analysis (Yin, 2014), I analyzed specific literacy events (Heath, 1982) and literacy practices (Street, 2003) in social context. First, I argue that access to the academic discourse and culture is one of the main barriers first-generation college students faced, although they constructed strong social support systems and engaged in rich literacy practices that involved critical action and thinking. Second, I found that, in contrast to the common belief that socially and economically nonmainstream college students were deficient in literacy, these students and their families possessed a literacy capital and engaged in complex and varied literacy practices. Using their literacy capital, first-generation college students and their families and communities procured the preservation of cultural identity, resisted the effects of cultural globalization, served the role of literacy sponsors, and reacted critically to the sociopolitical context. These literacy practices constituted a community cultural wealth for the families and communities of first-generation college students. I argue that a positive approach towards first-generation college students' identities and their community cultural wealth is necessary in curriculum, instruction, and policy if universities are truly committed to provide access to higher education to students from diverse backgrounds. Finally, I investigated first-generation university women's gender identities, discourses, and roles as they navigated the social worlds of the public university and their local communities in Mexico, Colombia, and Costa Rica. While dominant discourses and roles associated with women reproduced the machismo culture in the region, these group of first-generation university women contested, challenged, and resisted those roles, discourses, and identities. From a Latin American feminist perspective, I argue that bonds of solidarity and communal relations are values that resist the negative effects of global capitalism in marginalized bodies. In particular, public universities, women's supporters, emancipatory discourses, and situated critical literacies played a critical role in improving gender equality in higher education in Latin America. This study contributes to a better understanding of the literacy practices in situated social contexts and informs the ways in which more equitable college instruction, policy, and practices can be developed and promoted.

A Historical and Global Perspective on Liberal Arts Education

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kara A. Godwin ◽  
Philip G. Altbach
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
United States ◽  
Future Development ◽  
Liberal Education ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Arts Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Global Perspective ◽  
General Knowledge ◽  
Liberal Arts Education

Debates about higher education’s purpose have long been polarized between specialized preparation for specific vocations and a broad, general knowledge foundation known as liberal education. Excluding the United States, specialized curricula have been the dominant global norm. Yet, quite surprisingly given this enduring trend, liberal education has new salience in higher education worldwide. This discussion presents liberal education’s non-Western, Western, and u.s. historical roots as a backdrop for discussing its contemporary global resurgence. Analysis from the Global Liberal Education Inventory provides an overview of liberal education’s renewed presence in each of the regions and speculation about its future development.

Teaching globalisation in the social sciences

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 20-33
Author(s):  
Stacy Keogh George
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
The United States ◽  
Application Process ◽  
Refugee Families ◽  
The Social ◽  
Liberal Arts Institution ◽  
Social Empathy ◽  
Student Reactions ◽  
Refugee Experience

Abstract This article describes the incorporation of a refugee simulation into an upper-division sociology course on globalisation at a liberal arts institution in the United States. The simulation is designed to inform students of the refugee process in the United States by inviting participants to immerse themselves in refugee experiences by adopting identities of actual refugee families as they complete four stages of the refugee application process. Student reactions to the refugee simulation suggest that it is an effective tool for demonstrating the complexities of the refugee experience in the United States and for evoking social empathy.

“You Speak Good English”

2015 ◽  
pp. 133-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rong Chang ◽  
Sarah L. Morris
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
United States ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Model Minority ◽  
The United States ◽  
Female Immigrant ◽  
The Social ◽  
Psychosocial Impacts ◽  
Political Conditions

This chapter describes how the first author, Rong, has experienced stereotyping as a Chinese female immigrant and doctoral student in America, as her experiences typify the experiences of the model minority. Drawing from Rong's personal journal reflections, the authors use autoethnography as the methodology to present her lived experiences as research. Through reflections on Rong's own understandings, this writing seeks to connect individual experiences to larger social, cultural, and political conditions of the United States (Ellis, 2004). The authors recount four different personal encounters with stereotyping in Rong's local community and in the process of pursuing higher education, and discuss the psychosocial impacts resulting from this type of discrimination. Through this work, the authors seek to contribute to the discourse of the social problem of stereotyping for the so-called “model minority.”

Diffusion of Technology in Higher Education Classrooms

2010 ◽  
pp. 130-144
Author(s):  
Jill Harrison ◽  
John Ryan
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Technology Use ◽  
Social Process ◽  
The United States ◽  
Production Of Knowledge ◽  
Diffusion Of Technology ◽  
Digital Divides ◽  
The Social ◽  
Self Production ◽  
Incoming Students

Technology use is contextual and tends to follow, often invisible, ground rules. Within the situational context of a higher education classroom the rules and sanctions regarding technology use become increasingly complex. Many universities in the United States now require that all incoming students have laptops, with the rationale being that technology is an important tool used to help students organize and catalogue knowledge. Laptops allow students to connect to library and campus resources. Further, requiring laptops on a networked campus creates a sense of digital unity rather than digital divides among students and faculty. The message to students is that personal laptops are important and even required. However, within the context of the higher education classroom, laptop use is often being limited or banned by classroom instructors, a contradiction of the larger university message. As Marcuse (1982) noted, technology is a social process. The diffusion of laptop technology into higher education has altered the modes of producing knowledge and the social relationships organized around that production process. The purpose of this chapter is to highlight how the use of this technology is negotiated between faculty and students and how issues of engagement, the self-production of knowledge, and security influence this negotiation. The authors argue that issues of laptop use in the classroom are rooted in concerns of power, legitimacy, and identity associated with the production of knowledge.

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