Description:
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.]
Brief description: Robert A. Rhoads is Assistant Professor of Education, Department of Educational Administration, Michigan State University.
Review Quotes:
"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