Strangers in a Strange Land: How Black Students Succeed at a Primarily White Institution

Teaching for Student Success

Higher education is recognizing the importance and value of diversity and inclusivity in our institutions, our classes, our majors, and in the workforce. Along with this recognition are efforts to increase the success and graduation rates of all students with particular attention to our historically excluded, minoritized, marginalized, and first generation students. Many approach this work from a perspective of deficits: students aren’t succeeding because of what they are missing. An alternative perspective is anti-deficit: recognizing what students are doing to succeed. For example: Instead of the deficit perspective: “Why don’t certain groups of students persist?” One might reframe the question and ask “How do certain groups of students manage to persist and earn degrees despite any number of negative forces that are working against them?“. Dr. Julie Stanton, Associate Professor in the Department of Cell Biology at University of Georgia in Athens Georgia talks about her Participatory Action Research project that informs us about strategies that black students use to succeed at a primarily white institution. Please listen for an engaging and fascinating discussion of community cultural wealth.