The literature on Latino college students, particularly at Predominantly White Universities, suggests that they are enrolling at higher rates at the beginning of the first year in college than prior years, but dropping out at higher rates than any other racial/ethnic group. For students whom are the first in their family to attend college, attrition rates are even more pronounced. In the present study, based on Bourdieu’s Social Capital Theory, group differences based on race/ethnicity and college-generational status were examined for reported anxiety, depression, and academic problems at the beginning and end of the first semester of students’ first year at a university. The results indicated that differences in reported outcome measures were greater when examined between college-generation Mexican American groups, rather than between racial/ethnic groups more generally. Additionally, it was hypothesized that for Mexican American first-generation college students, perceived family support at the beginning of the semester would mediate the relationship between academic self-efficacy and academic problems at the end of the semester. The results of the study provided support for this hypothesis, suggesting that perceived support from family, even when it is not entirely instrumental, offers benefits for first-generation Mexican American college students. Implications for future interventions, both pre and post-college entry are discussed. / text

Traditional psychological research on resilience has focused on individual traits and abilities and minimized the role of cultural and socio-political contexts in its analyses. In this tapestry, I use a narrative framework to learn about ten Vietnamese refugee youths, who have received university scholarships to attend university, but whose life chances would otherwise be considered, at high risk of failure because of their race, ethnic, and income status. I also interviewed their parents. Their narratives are discussed in the light of historical, cultural and social contexts in which they live and learn. In reporting the students' life stories, I use the concepts of "dance of life " that takes place within a context of shared human stories. The parents' endurance, struggles, and hopes accumulated over generations, become a story of collective resiliency. This story provides the informative thread for a collaborative weaving of the students' "dance of life" in which the children's individual responsibility for their academic (achievements. For the refugees academic resilience is a pervasive individual and collective experience, rooted in the distortions of social relations and the disruptions of community life that are the product of an oppressive society. Resiliency becomes the common "process" of participation open to all individuals, and conjoins deep personal meaning and shared common purpose. Thus, academic achievement is seen by the refugees as an effective instrument of empowerment and liberation for the entire family, community, and the hope for the future The self as narrated by these students orchestrates a dance between and among themselves within a family, a community, and across generations. The students' achievement is motivated by a debt of love and gratitude to those members of the family achievement is motivated by a debt of love and gratitude to those members of the family and the community to which they belong. Students stated that through their own efforts and the "right attitudes" they could reach their goals in school and break down the barriers of discrimination. They reported growing closer and more emotionally dependent on their parents over time. They struggled more with how to have and maintain satisfying peer relationships without becoming independent from their parents. This study opens a door to the discussion of socio-cultural perspectives that may partially explain previously reported outcomes of high achievement among Vietnamese refugee youths, despite their humble origins and their parents' low level of in come and education.

Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 23-28).

Traditional psychological research on resilience has focused on individual traits and abilities and minimized the role of cultural and socio-political contexts in its analyses. In this tapestry, I use a narrative framework to learn about ten Vietnamese refugee youths, who have received university scholarships to attend university, but whose life chances would otherwise be considered, at high risk of failure because of their race, ethnic, and income status. I also interviewed their parents. Their narratives are discussed in the light of historical, cultural and social contexts in which they live and learn. In reporting the students' life stories, I use the concepts of "dance of life " that takes place within a context of shared human stories. The parents' endurance, struggles, and hopes accumulated over generations, become a story of collective resiliency. This story provides the informative thread for a collaborative weaving of the students' "dance of life" in which the children's individual responsibility for their academic (achievements. For the refugees academic resilience is a pervasive individual and collective experience, rooted in the distortions of social relations and the disruptions of community life that are the product of an oppressive society. Resiliency becomes the common "process" of participation open to all individuals, and conjoins deep personal meaning and shared common purpose. Thus, academic achievement is seen by the refugees as an effective instrument of empowerment and liberation for the entire family, community, and the hope for the future The self as narrated by these students orchestrates a dance between and among themselves within a family, a community, and across generations. The students' achievement is motivated by a debt of love and gratitude to those members of the family achievement is motivated by a debt of love and gratitude to those members of the family and the community to which they belong. Students stated that through their own efforts and the "right attitudes" they could reach their goals in school and break down the barriers of discrimination. They reported growing closer and more emotionally dependent on their parents over time. They struggled more with how to have and maintain satisfying peer relationships without becoming independent from their parents. This study opens a door to the discussion of socio-cultural perspectives that may partially explain previously reported outcomes of high achievement among Vietnamese refugee youths, despite their humble origins and their parents' low level of in come and education. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

This quasi-experimental study examined the impact of living-learning communities on GPA and fall-to-fall retention rates for college freshmen at Regional University (RU). The specific focus of this study was the effect of these communities on students of different ethnic groups and on the potential of these communities to reduce the academic performance gap. RU was a small public university that offered both undergraduate and graduate degree programs. RU required all freshman students to live on campus in living-learning communities beginning with the 2007-2008 academic year. This study utilized the 343 student freshman cohort class of 2008 in the living-learning communities as the treatment group. This treatment group was compared against the 193 student freshman cohort class of 2008 living off campus and against the 643 student freshman cohort class of 2006 living on campus prior to the implementation of living-learning communities. In addition, the statistics were analyzed by ethnicity to examine the impact of these communities on White, Hispanic, African American, and Native American students and their ability to reduce the academic performance gap. The research revealed that the communities implemented at RU were not statistically significant at improving academic performance or at reducing the achievement gap. The results of this study were not consistent with the literature available on living-learning communities. Current research identifies six fundamental factors critical to the success of living-learning communities: positive working relationship between academic affairs and student affairs, involvement of faculty in the residence halls, appropriate funding, assessment strategies, university wide buy-in to implementing these communities, and commitment from institutional leadership. Examination of the inputs and processes on which these learning communities developed and operated indicated that the majority of these were not well developed to sustain these communities. The divergence of these findings from the literature may be attributed to key departures from the literature regarding the set-up and operation of these communities at RU.

In the years since the advent of the Black Lives Matter movement, American art museums have increased attempts to address the racial inequities that persist in the field. These inequities impact all aspects of museum work, not least of which education. Because museum educators are often seen as the conduit between museum collections and audiences, the work of implementing anti-racist programming often falls to them. However, the museum education field is majority White, and while there is a rich body of literature treating the adverse impacts of Whiteness on classroom teaching practices, very little exists on how Whiteness might manifest in gallery teaching practices specifically for White museum educators. Utilizing participatory action research, practitioner inquiry, and a White affinity group model, this qualitative study explores aspects of Whiteness that impact the gallery teaching practices of four White museum educators. Our research questions seek to understand better how Whiteness manifests in our teaching specifically in the context of single visit field trips, how those impacts might shift depending on the racial demographics of the groups we are teaching, what questions come for us as a White practitioner-researcher group dedicated to undermining Whiteness in our teaching, and how, if at all, does participation in such a study impact how we think about and implement anti-racist teaching in our practice. As per the research traditions guiding this study, I treated myself as a participant alongside three other White museum educators, and together as a practitioner inquiry group we co-generated our research questions and agreed to our research methods. These included the formation of a digital space in which we could communicate with each other, observations of our teaching, reflective writing responding to the observations, and conversations in the digital space based on these writings. This period of data generation was followed by interviews between myself and each participant as well as a focus group with all of us. Findings surfaced various avoidance techniques we each employed in our teaching to avoid race talk or push our anti-racist teaching more deeply. Our avoidance pointed to perceived tensions we felt between our trainings and the demands of anti-racist teaching, as well as the limitations of the single visit field trip model. Findings also surfaced anxiety when discussing Blackness in particular, as well as problematic assumptions about both White students and students of color we work with. Analysis of these findings provide insights into the ways art museum pedagogies in addition to critical emotional pedagogies might be deployed towards anti-racist teaching, as well as the emotional qualities of naming and dismantling Whiteness as White practitioners. While the findings are limited to the four museum educator participants and the specific contexts in which we work, this study points to ways we might begin to develop deeper understandings of how Whiteness might impact gallery teaching practices. More importantly, in the tradition of practitioner inquiry, this study raises important questions around how visitors of color experience Whiteness in museum education programs, how professional development might be reimagined for museum educators, as well as ways to rethink the traditional single visit field trip model to better accommodate anti-racist learning goals.

My study documents the formation and impact of the student-led movement of Black Lives Matter in Higher Education (BLMHE) that is housed within Teachers College Higher and Postsecondary Education Program (HPSE). This group consists of HPSE students and faculty that have come together to analyze the effects of systemic societal forces on members of the HPSE community and their broader effects on higher education. BLMHE has since come together to show solidarity and support for students of color at TC through demonstrating their general commitment to social justice in the form of an educational seminar program. This study, which relies on oral history interviews with BLMHE’s three student co-founders, examines the formation and impact of BLMHE, how they analyze the effects of systemic societal forces on members of their community, and their broader effects on higher education. I am interested in learning to what extent BLMHE plays a role in increasing equitable spaces for Black students who identify as scholars on campus because I want to find out how this form of student activism empowers students as agents for change against systemic racism within higher education. This will permit me to understand how this form of student advocacy compares to other forms of advocacy that seeks to address such inequality in higher education. This exploratory oral history study centers on three themes: student advocacy within the realms of equitable epistemological spaces, how BLMHE is distinctive from the Black Studies and Black Lives Matter movements, and the role of Teachers College in supporting equitable epistemological spaces that can combat racism in higher education. BLMHE applies an alternative mode of viable activism beyond rallies and protests. I am interested in exploring the effect that involvement in student-led groups such as BLMHE have on increasing equitable spaces for these students as critical scholars within higher education scholarship, as well as their impact on TC as an institution. This student group is challenging not just the inequities within institutional infrastructures of higher education, but the thought processes behind what frames higher education scholarship itself, and which types of academic spaces for this scholarship need to be created for people of color. Further, their work demonstrates the degree to which marginalized Black and Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) students are not content to sit on the sidelines. This study also goes in-depth in discussing how inclusive archiving that accompanies this research can actively support and empower communities in the collective documentation of their own histories. Study findings will portray how these student members of BLMHE perceived social inequities in higher education, along with their experiences and reflections on microaggressions, diversity and inclusion, have informed their forays with activism. Study findings indicate that in order for higher education to better support these students, it is critical to center them in the process of knowledge creation via educational seminars; this, in turn, can inform change in scholarship. This study concludes that inclusive epistemological spaces created by BLMHE challenge dominant views of power in higher education, validating BIPOC-centered methods and theories while providing resources for scholars of color to thrive in the academy.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether: 1) Southwest Region TRIO high school students between the years 1991 - 2001 continued to college immediately after high school at rates significantly different than similar population students on national and state levels; and 2) immediate college continuation for this group was a function of social and economic characteristics including race, gender, parental education, and home-care environment. The sample included 414 TRIO program participants from Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Louisiana, and Arkansas. Data on the 414 participants were gathered using an existing database containing demographic and post-secondary enrollment information on study participants. The findings of this study reveal Southwest Region TRIO students during this ten-year period continued to college immediately after high school at rates not significantly different than the national low-income population of students. Results indicate that when compared to all students in the five-state southwest region, the majority low-income, first-generation TRIO population continued to college at rates not significantly different than all-income students in the region. Findings of this study also revealed select social and economic characteristics were not predictors of immediate college continuation for this group. Finally, the study showed out-of-home care environment students continued to college at significantly higher rates than in-home care Southwest Region TRIO students.

The purpose of this study was to determine how graduates of master's degree programs perceived the ethnic and cultural climate at Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS) during their enrollment there. The population (N=2,223) consisted of graduates of master's degree programs who attended Dallas Seminary from 1996-2005. The study utilized a non-experimental design methodology using a mailed survey questionnaire. A 37.2 % response rate was achieved. Most results were statistically significant at the .05 alpha level utilizing chi-square goodness-of-fit tests.

Colleges are struggling to retain students of color at four-year academic institutions (Kuh, 2005). The result is that while African-American and Latino students are entering college, fewer successfully complete their programs of study and obtain an undergraduate degree (ACE, 2006). For this reason, institutions are establishing supportive learning communities to not only recruit, but to retain this population.Learning communities have become welcoming places in the academy, and are designed to help students succeed in college by providing a formative, integrated academic experience that builds strength, perspective, and commitment. Employing Vincent Tinto`s (1975) student integration theory as a conceptual framework, this qualitative case study examined the relationship between student participation in a learning community, college persistence, and college retention. This research addressed the experiences of eight students of color who participated in the Louis Stokes Alliance Minority Participation (LSAMP) learning community program. Participant experiences were gathered through the administration of demographic questionnaires, in-depth interviews, a focus group, and a non-participant observation. The findings of this research study revealed that college persistence and retention is a function of four strategies, all of which are incorporated into the Louis Stokes Alliance Minority Participation Program: (a) Social Integration; strengthened connections amongst students of color and between students, faculty and staff (b) Academic preparedness; making sure students of color have the resources and skills needed in order to be academically successful (c) Group identity; helping students overcome feelings of isolation that are common on large college campuses (d) Providing both an academic and social atmosphere where students can succeed. The implications of this study assert that learning communities have a profound impact on positive student outcomes for both African-American and Latino students who attend predominately white institutions.