God, Success, and Persistence: Community College African American and Latina/o Writing Students' Perceptions

• In Event: 46.069 - The High Cost of Secularism on the University in the Age of Pluralism

Abstract

Community colleges not only offer more remedial courses and enroll more students who generally spent more time in remediation than they do at other types of institutions (Parsad & Lewis, 2003), but they also offer more remedial courses in “institutions with high minority enrollments” (Lewis & Farris, 1996, p. iii). In developmental courses, White and Asian students are more likely to be retained than African Americans and Latino/as (Bettinger & Long, 2005). Additionally, students who postpone taking remedial writing courses are more likely to be non-White students (Crews & Aragon, 2004). According to Boylan and Saxon (1999), successful remediation has been measured by examining “college-level academic performance variables such as course completion rates, student grade point averages (GPAs), or student retention,” but more studies that investigate non-traditional factors are necessary. Valeri-Gold, Kearse, Deming, Errico, and Callahan (2001) found that “religion and faith in Jesus” was one of three major reasons that students in developmental classes gave for their success. Astin, Astin, and Lindholm’s (2010) seminal work argues the importance of examining college student development and spirituality.
Therefore the aim of this mixed methods study was to ascertain African American and Latino/a students’ perceptions of what helps them to succeed and persist in developmental and transfer-level writing courses and college. With Institutional Review Board approval, African American and Latino/a students enrolled at an urban community college in California’s Los Angeles Community College District were surveyed and interviewed. Students were recruited from English 28, a basic writing course, and the laboratory attached to it, and English 101 and English 103, two transfer-level courses. Using SPSS, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) models were run on 81 surveys. Of the 81 students surveyed, 40 were interviewed. Grounded theory was used to analyze the interview data (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Patton, 2002; Strauss & Corbin, 1998).
The ANOVA results revealed that “asking God to help you pass the English”, “having strong spiritual/religious beliefs (believing that God is with you),” and “having God’s help” were statistically significant at less than <.05. African American students rated all three items higher in importance than Latino/a students to their success and persistence in their English courses and/or in college. Interviews did not reveal major themes related to God and spirituality. Instead, students spoke of their own determination to succeed and persist.
This study found that African American and Latino/a students differ in their perceptions of the importance that their religious/spiritual beliefs and God have on their success and persistence in their writing courses and college attendance. Because African American students placed greater importance on God and spirituality than did Latino/as, it is recommended that partnerships between community college districts and local Black churches be formed. How race and/or gender affect the perceptions that students have about the role of God and spirituality in their success and persistence is also necessary as is how colleges support and/or hinder students’ freedom to express their spirituality.

483 words

Author

• Lourdes Villarreal, University of La Verne