A Call to Arms
The landscape of higher education is drastically changing and doing so quickly. This is particularly true when we look at its student demographics. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) report “Status and Trends in the Education of Racial and Ethnic Groups 2016,” the number of minoritized students in higher education is drastically increasing. For example, the report notes that the percentage of White students has dropped from 79% in 1990 to 58% in 2013, and that the Latinx community is the fastest growing group in those two decades. Furthermore, in the California Community College system, Latinx students make up 42.7% of the students. And when disaggregated by gender, the NCES found that more and more women are attending college while the enrollments for men are falling across all racial and ethnic demographics.
However, even as our student demographics change, the demographics of the professoriate have been slow to reflect our students’. Unfortunately, this has led to disparities in the success, retention, and graduation rates of minoritized students, including students of color, immigrants, English language learners, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and religious minorities, to name just a few.
All students have the right to pursue an education free of bias, hostility, and other forms of discrimination. However, certain groups of students are not succeeding at the same rate as their peers, and I refuse to entertain the notion that they are less capable, less motivated, or less prepared. The impetus is on us as educators to ensure that all students have equitable access and opportunity.
As a result, this website is my attempt, as a white, male educator, to understand my students’ educational needs and experiences better and to develop my pedagogy accordingly. It is my hope that my blog can help you also, no matter your own race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc. (I believe that no matter how we identify, professors will always have privilege that our students don’t have access to).
But before you dive in, let me include a few disclaimers. First, I am not an expert in educational equity nor am I an expert on the needs and experiences of minoritized students. I have worked in a program that serves African American students for many years, and many of my reflections are a product of those experiences, but I can never be an expert. In fact, I have advanced degrees in literature and composition. These are the only two fields I can truly call myself an expert in (and even then that statement probably has its flaws).
Second, this is not academic writing. It is a blog, and it should be treated as such. Most of my writings are my own reflections, experiences, and ideas, and while I include as many sources as I can, my posts wouldn’t be comparable to what you can find in a journal or other educational resource.
Third, my writing may focus on higher education and educational equity, but I wouldn’t say that my audience is exclusively educators in higher education. I do believe that the lessons and stories on my blog are appropriate for those who work in any space filled with diverse people, including K-12 classrooms, businesses, non-profits, sports teams, or community groups. Unfortunately, the disparities that exist in higher education exist in these other industries and spaces.
Finally, I have subscribed to a few style techniques. For example, I try as much as possible to refer to groups of people using the names they have chosen for themselves or that are widely accepted within these communities. So you will see labels like Latinx instead of Hispanic or Latino/a (the former has colonial connotations while the latter excludes those who use a variety of gender identifications outside him and her). Similarly, I will use the gender neutral pronoun “they” or “their” instead of “him/her” or “him or her” (which is a little clunky, anyhow). I will, of course, adapt as these labels do. Lastly, I use the term “minoritized” instead of “minority” because of scholarship that convincingly argues that there is no such thing as a minority, just groups of people who are in the minority in certain contexts (in other words, a Chinese-American person might be a minority in school but not in their neighborhood).
This website is a “call to arms” of sorts. This is particularly true for myself. This journey began several years ago, and I am still learning. A lot. I truly want every student who steps onto my campus to prosper, so this website is a way to explore my students’ needs and is a constant reminder that I need to continue to grow as an educator and white ally and that I need keep working towards educational equity. This is as much a communal journey as it is a private journey. I hope you’ll reach out and offer advice, comments, and questions. Enjoy the website and “arm” yourself in the fight for our students.
P.S. check back often. I plan to post new essays every week or two, depending on the complexity of the topic. Make sure you subscribe to keep up to date on my latest posts.