eugene fujimoto, ph.d. september 15, 2010. contextualize efforts to close gaps leadership &...
TRANSCRIPT
Contextualize efforts to close gaps• Leadership & campus culture
• Structure & systems
• Decision making process
• What are campus-based factors that influence the decisions made in attempting to close racial achievement gaps?
• What does a campus-based process reveal about obstacles that may inhibit colleges and universities from closing achievement gaps?
• What do administrative decisions that support or hinder the closing of racial achievement gaps tell us about creating the necessary conditions?
Critical theory
Critical race theory/ critical management studies
Organizational theory/ organizational change
Multi-site case study (3 campuses) Qualitative focus Interviews (N = 30) Focus groups (3) Document analysis Participant-observers (4)
Watertown College
Middleton University
Delton University
Type of institution
Public 2-year college
Public 4-year comprehensive
Public 4-year comprehensive
Student population (UG) 1,175 11,605 9,730
% students of color 11% 8.2% 10.1%
Degrees/ programs offered
Liberal arts & pre-professionalstudies; associate degree programs; cont. education/ community service programs
55 undergraduate majors; master’s deg 15 disciplines, 16 certificate programs
46 undergraduate majors; master’s deg in 13 disciplines; 4 post-baccalaureateCertificate Programs
System 1 of 13 colleges in 2-yr college system
1 of 13 universities in 4-yr university system
1 of 13 universities in 4-yr university system
Presidents Provosts/Vice Presidents of Academic Affairs Vice Presidents of Student Affairs Academic Deans Faculty leadership (faculty senate chairs,
present and past) Equity team members (focus group)
Institutional Culture & Context
Cul of evidence
Education & Whiteness as property
rights
Decision
makingEQUITY
Faculty involvement
Leadership & making of meaning
Administrative leadership influence Color blind approach: Denying difference; other
priorities take precedence; dominant narrative
Administrative commitment without multidimensional strategy: Stagnation, confusion, discouragement.
Explicit, clear commitment to diversity and equity: Administrators and limited faculty engagement; extensive remediation efforts.
Stage
Context Noticing (subjective)
Interpretation (subjective)
Action (objective)
Ecologicalcontext
Achievement gap (prior to intentional equity
effort)
Racial/Cultural deficit Access denied
InstitutionalContext
Question individual racism; “color blind”
(intentional equity effort)
K-12/SES deficit passed to students
(African American & Latino/a)
Access with
remediation
Social-relationalContext
Question “color blindness”;
e.g. assessment of student learning
(authentic interaction with students of color;
contextualizing student exp.)
Question core values that shape
institutional culture
(identifying institutionally racist polices & practices)
Change
institutional culture
(develop inclusive values, policies &
practices)
CRT and sensemaking analysis “Society is based on property rights and not
human rights” (Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995; p. 58) Race as a ‘floating signifier’; Whiteness as
‘signifier’ of privilege through property ownership
Property ownership value laden, conflictual and political
“Expectation” of a right to higher education. Policies/practices:
Who is admitted, Who succeeds, Who is hired, What knowledge, skills and abilities
determine success, All remain largely exclusionary .
Policies & practices codify White, middle class values to maintain higher education as property that is raced and classed
Normative
(race)(class)
Academically prepared
(White students; middle & upper
class)
Academically unprepared
(Students of color; working class; poor)
Exceptions: Whites; middle &
upper class
Honorary status: Students of
color; working class; poor;
Non-normative
Faculty involvement at very low level
Faculty seen as most important & most difficult group
Administrative leadership can be highly influential
How leadership makes meaning of achievement gaps has large effect on
campus efforts
Deconstruct the binary of student preparedness - underpreparedness
Leaders need authentic interaction with students of color and low income students
Multidimensional strategy is crucial
Develop strategic and structural ways for faculty collaboration on achievement gaps
Transformative leadership rooted in democratic principles & emancipatory
theory is a necessity
To close the achievement gap we must make transformative change to avoid “the tranquilizing drug of gradualism”
(Martin Luther King Jr., 1963)