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Questions whether, and how, community colleges confront the challenges of diversity and provide real opportunities for upward mobility.
Community colleges are positioned to play a critical role in the process of upward mobility in American society. Yet despite the "open door" accessibility of these institutions, the question remains as to whether or not community colleges enhance the social mobility of working class and minority students.
The contradictory and often paradoxical nature of research on community colleges suggests that making generalizations about the sector as a whole is perhaps misguided. This book takes an important step toward developing a more nuanced understanding of the rich and varied cultures inherent in community colleges. The contributors approach this task by examining community colleges as "cultural texts," using critical qualitative frameworks to address the question of whether, and how, community colleges confront the challenges of diversity and provide real opportunities for upward mobility.
[Contributors include Marilyn Amey, Eusebio Diaz, Stanford T. Goto, Berta Vigil Laden, Dennis McGrath, Laura I. Rendón, Robert A. Rhoads, Kathleen M. Shaw, Armando Trujillo, James R. Valadez, and Bill Van Buskirk.]
"A well-written and integrated collection, this volume presents the strongest and most cogent argument for the importance of the development of social, cultural, and emotional capital among community college students that I have read. Researchers, commentators, policymakers, administrators, staff, and faculty concerned with community colleges and their students will find this newer dynamic-interactionist view to be a challenge to the static-structural view they are likely to hold." — Mark Oromaner, Hudson County Community College
List of Figures and Tables
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1
Community Colleges as Cultural Texts: A Conceptual Overview
Kathleen M. Shaw, Robert A. Rhoads, and James R. Valadez
Chapter 2
Cultures of Support for At-Risk Students: The Role of Social and Emotional Capital in the Educational Experiences of Women
Dennis McGrath and William Van Buskirk
Chapter 3
The Struggle for Mobility in the Contact Zone of Basic Writing
Stanford T. Goto
Chapter 4
Navigating the Raging River: Reconciling Issues of Identity, Inclusion, and Administrative Practice
Marilyn J. Amey
Chapter 5
Preparing for Work in a Post-Industrial World: Resistance and Compliance to the Ideological Messages of a Community College
James R. Valadez
Chapter 6
The Politics of Culture and Identity: Contrasting Images of Multiculturalism and Monoculturalism
Robert A. Rhoads
Chapter 7
"Be a Name, Not a Number": The Role of Cultural and Social Capital in the Transfer Process
Armando Trujillo and Eusebio Diaz
Chapter 8
Defining the Self: Constructions of Identity in Community College Students
Kathleen M. Shaw
Chapter 9
Celebratory Socialization of Culturally Diverse Students Through Academic Programs and Support Services
Berta Vigil Laden
Chapter 10
Toward a New Vision of the Multicultural Community College for the Next Century
Laura I. Rendón
Contributors
Index
Suny series, Frontiers in Education