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603. MARGINALIZED STUDENTS

February 24, 2005

Folks:

The posting below looks at how to address the issues faced by some groups of marginalized students. It is from Chapter 3: Today's College Students, in: Success Strategies for Adjunct Faculty by Richard E. Lyons, Faculty Development Associates, College Division, Allyn and Bacon, 75 Arlington Street, Suite 300, Boston, MA 02116 [www.ablongman.com] Copyright © 2004 Pearson Education, Inc. Reprinted with permission.

Regards,

Rick Reis
reis@stanford.edu
UP NEXT: Learning-Centered Teaching

Tomorrow's Academy

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MARGINALIZED STUDENTS

College Students Who Are Often Marginalized

In addition to greater age group diversity, other factors-some easily observable, others not-are increasingly reflected in the composition of college class enrollments. These factors have great potential to foster within students a sense of being marginalized from the mainstream, and often lead to isolation, lower success rates, and other challenges. On the other hand, they have potential for enriching the quality of education for all (Tatum, 1997). Adjunct professors who strive for success must understand the major marginalizing factors inherent at their institutions and formulate strategies for eliminating the impact of each.

The effort of colleges and universities to expand their proportion of minority students effectively has been the focus of countless news stories and legal actions in recent years. Since 1980, that effort has shown remarkable success as African-American enrollment has increased by 50 percent, Native-American enrollment by 75 percent, Hispanic enrollment by 200 percent, and Asian enrollment by 300 percent, as compared with a 5 percent increase in white enrollment (Chronicle Almanac, 2002). Today, nearly 25 percent of all college students are members of a minority group of some type. Dialogue on the somewhat heated issues of admission criteria, targeted recruitment, and related factors that achieve the above enrollment increases is beyond the scope of this book. However achieving success with these more diverse students, who tend to enter higher education in the evening and weekend courses that are so often taught by adjunct professors, is a critical need for this book's re!
aders. In many metropolitan colleges and universities, recent immigrants are an especially significant student population, whereas rural colleges often are charged with serving an indigenous population segment that historically has been undeserved. Both cases and the myriad of other college cultures expand the range of issues on which adjunct professors must demonstrate sensitivity and effective strategies. Group values and beliefs, gender roles, and others each influence students' learning paradigms. The successful adjunct professor will begin to see these differences as an opportunity to enrich the learning of all, rather than an obstacle.

Looking ahead, the critical trends and issues that will affect your classrooms include the following:

* Over the next several decades, people of color, foreign-born residents, and children of foreign-born residents are projected to increase their proportion within the population of the United States and enrollments of colleges and universities (Howe & Strauss, 2000).

* Addressing the terrorism threat effectively will acquire us to leverage the foreign language skills and cultural perspectives of our diverse citizenry and the nurturing of those skills through higher education (Cox, 2002; Gedda, 2002).

* Only through the delegation of individual responsibility throughout the population-a basic tenet of the overall accountability movement-are we likely to improve the economic and social outlook for marginalized citizens (Banta and Borden, 1994).

Institutional initiatives that are driven by the accountability movement will continue to emerge and seek to address aspects of these issues. Remain apprised of each program's target groups and objectives, and leverage their resources to build "win-win" outcomes for students, administrators who must demonstrate results quickly, and yourself. At the same time however, remember that it will become incumbent on all professors, full and part time, to reach out more proactively to marginalized students to foster their academic and career success. Several groups of marginalized students deserve further analysis.

First-Generation Students

Those and their siblings who are the first from their families to attend college, commonly referred to as first-generation students, usually face formidable obstacles to success. Sandra Rodriguez (2002) studied first-generation students and discovered that their success in college allowed them to radically improve their social and economic tracks after graduation. In so doing, those students also positively affected the upward mobility of many others, by becoming activists who give back to society at a rate far above that of most college graduates. The forces that seem to have life-changing effects on first-generation students are "ascending cross-class identification" and "positive naming"-that is, someone of higher socioeconomic status often shows them the way to "switch the tracks" to become socially, economically, and politically enfranchised. Someone-often a professor-plays a transforming role in helping these students see capabilities that they had not previously r!
ealized.

Those who have at times felt marginalized by their institutions in teaching have a natural stake in helping first-generation students become more successful. Typically, first-generation students have arrived in our classrooms from environments that did not value higher education, schools whose resources did not foster their fullest development, and with little or no advisement that might help them formulate a clear path to success. Our sensitivity in recognizing these factors, mentoring such students, and ensuring that the gaps in their technology and other skills are closed, as early in their college careers as possible, can pay great dividends for their futures, out institutions' accountability scorecard, and our own success. First-generation and other marginalized students should be especially encouraged to participate in student organizations and other campus activities that help them adjust to college life more quickly and connect with those capable of contributing t!
o academic success (Light, 2001). All professors can do an even better job with first-generation students by withholding judgment, listening to and genuinely understanding, connecting students more efficiently to campus resources, and modeling excellence.

Students with Disabilities

One of the most drastic changes on college and university campuses in recent years has been the influx of those with physical, mental, or psychological disabilities. Like other minority groups, students with disabilities and their families have become quite politically active and assertive and expect accountability from all faculty members and institutional support services. State and federal laws require colleges and universities to adopt policies that will guarantee full access to educational resources to all students who voluntarily disclose their disabilities. Depending on the students' situation, such services as note-taking, special seating arrangements, or changes in testing environment might be prescribed. Most sizeable colleges have created offices of disability services within their student services operations, developed detailed processes and documents, and taken other appropriate measures to ensure compliance. Adjunct instructors must be sensitive to this is!
sue, understand exactly how to implement institutional policies, and take reasonable measures to ensure that those who have qualifying disabilities are made aware of self-disclosure procedures. There are several ways to do this without compromising students' desires.

First consider adding an appropriate section to each course syllabus, even if your institution is not yet among those requiring this action. Investigate and obtain suggested wording from the appropriate campus resources to ensure compliance with all rules. In addition, include a phrase on your student profile form (see Appendix 5.1 at the end of Chapter 5) that prompts students to share their needs with your privately. Asking the students to talk to you about their challenges during a private conversation will help you direct them to resources that can provide additional services and organize learning materials to accommodate their needs.

International Students

Over the past few years, stories of tragic conflict between ethnic and religious groups throughout the world have punctuated nearly every television newscast and newspaper front page. Few readers of this book would deny that the root cause of these conflicts is a lack of understanding that can be addressed most effectively through education. Today there are 25 colleges and universities within the United States that count at least 3,000 international students among their student bodies and hundreds more whose foreign student enrollment was extensive (Chronicle Almanac, 2002). If you have yet to have an international student in your classes, there is a good chance that you soon will. Research indicated that international students are among those most marginalized on college campuses but, when empowered by their professors, can be among the highest achievers and most interesting to teach.

Differences in language, culture, religion, and values often manifest themselves in loneliness, loss of social status, and discrimination. In North America for only a few years, by nature, international students tend to feel in rather than form new ones. Learning is fostered in a place perceived as safe by environment (Lacina, 2002). Chapter 5 provides a number of suggestions that will help international students adapt more easily to your course, become comfortable with peers, and begin to achieve confidence in your course, and Chapter 8 focuses on teaching and learning strategies that emphasize learning in groups. The employment of these strategies should go a long way toward not only improving the success of international students but also helping your domestic student leverage the potential of their involvement.

Although we typically think in terms of teaching accounting, world religions, or some other course, or of teaching evening students, athletes, or some other group, those professors who derive the greatest reward from their teaching careers and demonstrate the greatest accountability to diverse stakeholders have adopted a different paradigm. They see their classrooms as mosaics made up of individuals, each with a unique background of academic, occupational, family, social, economic, military, recreational, and other experiences. In that sense, all students have some sort of "special needs." Such teachers are energized by students who are in the dark because they relish the challenge of helping these students turn on their light bulbs. Such professors view differences of opinions as adding depth to the classroom rather than challenging their authority. They view themselves as a facilitator of learning rather than "a sage on the stage."