Community College Classroom Research Articles

“Why you Throwing Subs?”: An Exploration of Community College Students’ Immediate Responses to Microaggressions

Background/ContextCurrent research within four-year university settings reveals the daily encounters students of color and faculty have with microaggressions—brief, intentional or unintentional comments and behaviors communicating covert biases toward individuals based on their social group membership. The majority of all undergraduate students of color currently attend community colleges, but the occurrence of microaggressions in the community college classroom has been overlooked. We situate our study of microaggressions within the racial microaggressions model framework, which addresses how microaggressive events are mediated by institutional racism through systematic policies, practices, and processes that (re)produce inequitable stratification in higher education. Further, we analyze the immediate effects of and students’ responses to classroom microaggressions.Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of the studyThe present study explores students’ immediate responses to 51 microaggressions observed in three community colleges. We examine microaggressions in community colleges with the objective to provide a lens into the immediate effects and responses students display to observed classroom microaggressions. In exploring both the effects on students and their responses to microaggressions experienced in 17 classrooms, we gain insight on how these events contribute to or undermine students’ in-the-moment learning experiences, as well as target their academic identities. To this end, we examine the following research questions: 1) In what ways were students’ academic identities targeted by these microaggressions? 2) What were the immediate effects of and students’ responses to the microaggressions experienced in their classrooms?Research DesignTo examine our research questions, we utilize a mixed-method research design, whereby mixed-method “connecting” was used to systematically quantify the microaggressions that occurred, which were qualitatively recorded in ethnographic fieldnotes from structured observations. We conducted content analyses of the observed microaggression ethnographic fieldnotes using the racial microaggressions model.Findings/ResultsMicroaggressions stigmatized multiple identities the students occupied (e.g., college student identity). Using the racial microaggressions model analytical framework, we found that the most common immediate effects of microaggressions were: disengagement, silence, and discomfort. Immediate responses included laughter and responding with a joke or distraction. While less common, students sometimes resisted through actions of peer support and questioning of the perpetrator.Conclusion/RecommendationsBy expanding the racial microaggressions theoretical framework to develop an analytical frame that allows for the examination of responses to microaggressions, we can engage in a deeper understanding of the nature of the microaggressive classroom, and the ways that microaggressions target students’ academic identities. As found in our study, some students are engaging in immediate resistant acts to counter the microaggressions they experience, which warrants deeper investigation. Facing the reality that students with marginalized identities are likely to experience microaggressions, institutions should assist students in developing strategic responses that will help them adapt, cope, and resist.

The Value of Peer Interaction in the First-Term Community College Classroom: A Faculty Perspective

ABSTRACTExisting literature suggests that social connection with peers is beneficial for first-term college students. First-term community college students are less likely to experience social interactions than their counterparts at residential universities. However, recent attention has pointed to the classroom as the main place where social interaction can occur. The objective of this study was to understand the value in promoting social integration in the first-term community college classroom. This qualitative study used a multiple case-study design to interview 13 instructors who promote social interaction in their community college classrooms filled with primarily first-term students. The sampling was reputational. Coding and thematic analysis was applied to each completed interview, and then a cross-case analysis was used to generate comprehensive themes for the entire study. According to the data generated by this study, the value of promoting social interaction in the community college classes is found in: (a) enhanced learning, (b) appealing classroom atmosphere, (c) student development and growth, (d) membership in supportive community, (e) student success, and (f) safety and comfort. The themes that emerged from the data indicate that there is qualitative value for both the student and the instructor when social interaction is present in a community college classroom. This study also suggests further research is needed to better understand how social interaction activities impact the student, and how practices can be delivered effectively and beneficially.

Mindfulness and Transformation in a College Classroom

Community college classrooms afford students from a variety of backgrounds the possibility to engage and inform one another with respect to their unique perspectives and life experiences. Unfortunately, in many of these situations, students find themselves self-critical, and their internal comparisons with others may impede the potential of a transformational educational experience. This article discusses the benefit of utilizing mindfulness meditation as a way of bringing students more in touch with their internal processes, which in turn allows them greater availability to others in the classroom and thus creates more transformational learning experiences for these community college students.

African American Students in the Community College Classroom with White Teachers

African American Students in the Community College Classroom with White Teachers

African American Students in the Community College Classroom with White Teachers

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine African American student pedagogical experiences in classrooms with White teachers at a community college in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. The intent of the study was two-fold: (a) to search for evidence of how culture shapes African American students’ view of themselves, and (b) to explore how African American student pedagogical experiences with White teachers shape their attitude about school. The results of this study revealed that many of the White teachers experienced by the research participants demonstrated some aspect of colorblindness in their pedagogical practices. The results also found that the African American community college students in this study valued the use of culturally responsive pedagogy in the classroom.

William Blake’s Perspectives: Teaching British Romanticism in the Community College Classroom

“My colleagues who had taught at community colleges were encouraging, informing me that it was in community colleges that they had encountered some of their best students (while also cautioning me that there they had also met some of their greatest challenges as teachers).”

Supporting veterans: Creating a “military friendly” community college campus

ABSTRACTVeterans are entering the community college classroom as part of their transition from military to civilian life. This article explores what leaders of community colleges could do, and have done, in developing programs, implementing changes, and adopting policies to attract and accommodate the unique needs of student-veterans.

A Systematic Replication Comparing Interteaching and Lecture in the Community College Classroom

ABSTRACTResearchers demonstrated the effectiveness of interteaching relative to lecture in 4-year university classrooms, but exploration in other settings is deficient. This systematic replication examines the extent to which interteaching leads to increased exam scores compared to traditional lecture in the community college classroom. Participants in two introductory psychology sections took identical exams following counterbalanced alternating lecture and interteaching conditions. Most student exam scores following interteaching were slightly higher than exams following the lecture condition, with statistically significant differences in two of the six exams. Students in both sections correctly answered more interteaching-based than lecture-based questions on the cumulative final exam, although these differences were not significant. During interteaching, students earned significantly more points throughout the semester compared to the lecture condition. Also, more students reportedly preferred interteaching relative to lecture. The results of this study comparing interteaching to lecture in a community college setting are consistent with the results in the original study within a 4-year university classroom. Students’ exam score gains and significant cumulative point differences suggest interteaching may be an effective alternative to traditional lecture, potentially producing meaningful differences in student performance within the community college setting.

Toxic Rain in Class

In this article we share exploratory findings from a study that captures microaggressions (MAs) in vivo to shed light on how they occur in classrooms. These brief and commonplace indignities communicate derogatory slights and insults toward individuals of underrepresented status contributing to invalidating and hostile learning experiences. Our aim is to expand the ways in which we research and think about MAs in educational settings. Our data are drawn from structured observations of 60 diverse classrooms on three community college campuses. Our findings provide evidence that classroom MAs occur frequently—in nearly 30% of the observed community college classrooms. Although cultural/racial as well as gendered MAs were observed, the most frequent types of MAs were those that undermined the intelligence and competence of students. MAs were more likely to be delivered on campuses with the highest concentration of minority students and were most frequently delivered by instructors. We conclude by reflecting on the implications of these events for classroom climate and make recommendations for both future research and practice.

Two-Year Community: Implementing Vision and Change in a Community College Classroom

Two-Year Community: Implementing Vision and Change in a Community College Classroom

Preliminary Analysis Of Interteachings Frequent Examinations Component In The Community College Classroom

Interteaching has shown to be an effective alternative to traditional lecture in a number of studies, but thorough analyses of its components, including frequent exams, is limited. Research suggests that increasing the frequency of exams may improve student learning. This study assessed the effectiveness of interteachings frequent exams component on student exam scores in two introductory psychology course sections at a community college. Six unit exams were given to Section 1 and 12 to Section 2. Both sections received identical pretests and posttests. Although statistically insignificant, Section 2 consistently scored better or equal to Section 1 on all exams. Section 2 also produced a greater difference between pretest and posttest scores. Although not reaching traditionally significant levels, the results suggest that students given frequent exams may achieve higher exam scores and increase retention of overall course material.

Valuable Knowledge: Students as Consumers of Critical Thinking in the Community College Classroom

This ethnographic study examines the negotiation of the value of critical thinking by a group of community college students and their instructor in a required general education literature course. Using a sociological analysis, the authors explore how the students situated themselves as both learners and consumers in the classroom, a social field that contrasts marketplace realities and academic expectations.

Hip-hop(e): the cultural practice and critical pedagogy of international hip-hop

Contents: Michael Viola/Brad J. Porfilio: Hip-Hop(e): Introduction: Cultural Practice and Critical Pedagogy of International Hip-Hop - Muna Jamil Shami: Toward a Critical Pedagogy of Possibility: Arab American Hip-Hop and Spoken Word as Cultural Action for Freedom - J. Lorenzo Perillo: An Empire State of Mind: Hip-Hop Dance in the Philippines - Ove Sernhede/Johan Soderman: Hip-Hop in Sweden - Folkbildning and a Voice for Marginalized Youth - Leslee Grey: True Fuckin' Playas: Queering Hip-Hop through Drag Performance - Michael B. MacDonald: Hip-Hop Citizens: Local Hip-Hop and the Production of Democratic Grassroots Change in Alberta - Brad J. Porfilio/Shannon M. Porfilio: Hip-Hop Pedagogues: Youth as a Site of Critique, Resistance, and Transformation in France and in the Neoliberal Social World - Crystal Leigh Endsley/Marla Jaksch: Troubadour: K'Naan, East Africa, and the Trans-National Pedagogy of Hip-Hop - Michael Viola: Hip-Hop and Critical Revolutionary Pedagogy: Blue Scholarship to Challenge The Miseducation of the Filipino - Darius Prier: Public Enemies: Constructing the Problem of Black Masculinity in Urban Public Schools - Brian Lozenski: Rebellion Politik: A Tale of Critical Resistance through Hip-Hop from St. Paul to Havana - Travis L. Gosa/Tristan G. Fields: Is Hip-Hop Education Another Hustle? (Ir)Responsible Use of Hip-Hop as Pedagogy - Lisa William-White/Dana Muccular/Gary Muccular: Reading, Writing, and Revolution: Spoken Word as Radical Literocratic Praxis in the Community College Classroom - Debangshu Roychoudhury/Lauren M. Garder: Taking Back Our Minds: Hip-Hop Psychology's (HHP) Call for a Renaissance, Action, and Liberatory Use of Psychology in Education - Jeremy Bryan: R.U.N.M.C. (Are You an Emcee?) or Rhetoric Used Now to Make Change - Akesha Horton: Hip-Hop as a Global Passport: Examining Global Citizenship and Digital Literacies through Hip-Hop Culture - Don C. Sawyer III: Stupid Fresh: Hip-Hop Culture, Perceived Anti-Intellectualism, and Young Black Males - Decoteau J. Irby/Emery Petchauer: Hustlin' Consciousness: Critical Education Using Hip-Hop Modes of Knowledge Distribution.

Metacognitive Enrichment for Community College Students

Recent research was conducted to explore how introducing metacognitive enrichment into courses containing implicit or explicit critical thinking goals would affect the students' personal epistemological maturity. At the beginning of a fall semester at a moderate sized community college in the southeastern United States, 733 students were divided into two groups: one in which faculty members taught subjects as they had normally done in the past, and the other group was taught by faculty members who had received training in adding metacognitive enrichment into the classroom. Students were administered Schommer Epistemological Questionnaires (SEQs) at the beginning and at the conclusion of the 16-week semester. Of the 469 acceptable posttest questionnaires, only 188 that could be properly positively matched pretest to posttest were analyzed. While the expectation was that those receiving metacognitive enrichment in the classroom would exhibit maturing in their measured personal epistemologies, this was true in only one of four measured factors. In fact, both groups showed statistically significant decreases in measured epistemological maturity levels. However, the group receiving metacognitive enrichment showed far less de-maturing than the control group. This research proffers insight into the need to not only introduce metacognitive enrichment into the community college classroom, but also the need to ensure faculty members are trained to do so.

Flow in the Community College Classroom?: An Autoethnographic Exploration

Flow theory has not been previously applied to faculty experiences in higher education. Upon carrying out this autoethnographic self-study, I discovered that my experiences as a community college instructor were riddled with periods of being in flow. During the spring academic semester of 2010, I created weekly journals of my teaching life. Then, I coded and analyzed the journals and three themes were generated: preparation rituals, feedback, and solidarity. This self-study provided me with a wealth of knowledge about my own teaching and could assist others in understanding their own teaching experiences. It also highlighted the importance of affect in the college classroom. This study adds to the existing literature on flow theory, college teaching, and autoethnography.

Leading by Example: A Case Study of Peer Leader Programs at Two Achieving the Dream Colleges

This report draws on the experiences of two Massachusetts community colleges that employed academically successful students to serve as peer leaders. The Achieving the Dream initiative supports colleges’ investments in the resources and personnel needed to make desired institution-wide changes. As part of the initiative, Northern Essex Community College has used Supplemental Instruction Leaders, and Bunker Hill Community College has used Peer Mentors in order to strengthen student success and promote institutional improvement efforts.Both colleges chose to implement peer leader programs in developmental (remedial) and gatekeeper (introductory college-level) courses that have historically been difficult for many students to pass. This report describes recruitment, training, activities, and costs related to developing these peer leader programs as well as how peer leaders worked with students and faculty inside the classroom. Students, peer leaders, faculty, and administrators offered perspectives in focus groups and interviews during the 2010-2011 academic year. Key findings include the following:--Peer leaders at both colleges offered additional academic assistance to students by introducing and reinforcing lessons covered in class and by helping their faculty partners facilitate classroom activities.--Program staff and faculty members recruited and selected peer leaders with strong academic and interpersonal skills. However, specific peer leader tasks and functions inside and outside the classroom varied based on how assigned faculty members agreed to have peer leaders work with students.--Students in peer-assisted courses generally felt that they benefited from receiving peer leaders’ guidance and support, and they appreciated that this guidance and support was provided by fellow students.--Both colleges have expanded their peer leader programs across sections and disciplines, prompting them to establish more program standards and articulate more practices. College administrators generally considered the programs affordable and cost-effective.The development of peer leader programs at Northern Essex and Bunker Hill reveals innovative ways in which colleges can enhance student learning and engagement in community college classrooms. Over the past years, both colleges have carefully implemented and expanded peer leader programs for students in need of extra support. Peer leaders provide a unique perspective for students and have the ability to create a learning environment unlike that of the typical instructor-student relationship. Community colleges interested in creating or expanding their own peer leader programs may find lessons in the theoretical, operational, and fiscal challenges and considerations that marked the implementation of the two programs discussed in this report.

Engaging Students as Critical Storytellers: Classroom Observations from a Boricua Anthropologists

AbstractPublic and private higher education's need to recruit “the brightest and most accomplished students” has created social and economic barriers to college admissions and student retention. In contrast, community colleges, due to their open door policies, provide an academic home for students who might otherwise be unable to attend college. However, the community college classroom is a continuum of academic potential and problems requiring innovative teaching to bridge these divides. Storytelling is a teaching tool that I use to unmask social inequalities while helping students with different educational backgrounds understand and personalize the lessons that different anthropological writings strive to teach them. In this commentary, I share some of my own racialized and privileged experiences, the complexities of teaching and learning at a community college, and the experiences and voices of students engaging in their own knowledge building and storytelling.

Book Review: Rebecca D. Cox The College Fear Factor: How Students and Professors Misunderstand One Another. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009. $24.95 (cloth). ISBN 978-0-67403-548-5

Rebecca D. Cox The College Fear Factor: How Students and Professors Misunderstand One Another. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009. $24.95 (cloth). ISBN 978-0-67403-548-5.When I think back my undergraduate experiences, I mostly remember college as the beginning of independence, the genesis of a career path, and the social bridge into adulthood. After a few minutes, memories of assessments, papers, essays, and study groups make me realize that along with the positive, exhilarating moments, something else was also lurking - anxiety. 77ie College Fear Factor: How Students and Professors Misunderstand One Another provides an in-depth account of the fears of students entering community college and how they are exacerbated by interactions with college faculty members.Some may say that can serve as a motivator, heightening the intensity of a student's achievement and creative output. However, this book examines from the student perspective and how it causes students become disengaged learners, driving them to the point of quitting (p. 39). The College Fear Factor mixes analysis from qualitative research studies with a pedagogical insight, helping the reader understand the disconnect between student and faculty perceptions of learning styles and the learning process. Cox's view of community college issues reflects rigorous scholarship and research methodology from major qualitative studies over a 5-year period. During that time, she observed student-professor interactions and analyzed more than 120 personal interviews at a large sampling of community college campuses so as create educational theories related the disconnect between the teaching styles of professors and the needs of community college students. The data provide a detailed account of student aspirations, individual student perspectives on learning, and how college falls short of, meets, or exceeds student expectations.Cox reviews student behaviors and classroom dilemmas, providing the reader with an understanding of community colleges specifically and higher education generally. She further defines the college fear factor by focusing on the students' perspectives on college and then showing how these beliefs influence dynamics within the classroom. The qualitative themes that emerge from the study allow the reader fully understand the tensions and miscommunication that can occur in the community college classroom. The book explores the gap between faculty understanding of college-level coursework and the work that students are prepared do by drawing from and analyzing common threads from past studies at the community college level. This gap often leads faculty members assume that those students who enter college unprepared do work are just not capable of success. Cox examines the disconnect between what teachers teach and what students expect, and she explores the challenges for college professors with regard student anxiety and a lack of college preparedness.Divided into three major segments, the book investigates and analyzes student fears, classroom dynamics, and gatekeeping as they relate the control of student academic progress. Throughout the book, Cox utilizes ethnographic accounts of classroom observations and student interviews support the analysis. Using the actual transcript records and field notes, Cox affords the reader the opportunity make connections by viewing the raw account from the student and faculty subjects. In the first part of the book, chapter 1 describes students' reasons for choosing matriculate at the community college, and Cox dissects anxieties, stressors, and perceptions of factors that cannot be controlled by the college (e.g., financial hardship, family obligations). In chapter 2, Cox uncovers student concerns about their educational trajectories, in particular, their ability succeed regardless of age, ethnicity, academic background, goals, or high school preparation. …

Conflict in the Community College Classroom.

Violence and aggression in the community college classroom is something overlooked by many. "In agiven month, 11 percent of all students reported having something stolen, 1.3 percent of all studentsreported being physically assaulted, and 12 percent of all teachers reported having something stolen, 5percent of these thefts occurring by way of force, weapons, or threats" (Barton, 1998). At this level ofeducation, it is typically assumed that students will act professionally and know how to control angerand situations of conflict. On the contrary, at this level, students may be under more stress thanelementary and/or secondary students. One in four professors witness conflict and/or violence in thecollege classroom ("One in four," 2009). Conflicts arise from many different reasons in the communitycollege classroom. Academic egos, social class, high school locale, and other factors give reason tomany conflicts in the college classroom.

Motivational Factors Affecting Advanced Literacy Learning of Community College Students

This article explores the possible intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors that community college students may bring with them into the classroom. It examines how these motivational factors affect students' learning inside and outside the community college classroom walls. The motivational factors such as mastery, self-determination, belongingness, and social responsibility that drive first language learners to achieve a level of advanced literacy is an important avenue of exploration. Such exploration helps develop an understanding of many of the problems related to developing highly literate community college students. By gaining a stronger understanding of what motivates our students, especially what motivates them outside of the classroom, both community college leaders and instructors may be better equipped to provide appropriate environmental and pedagogical opportunities for literacy learning.