Transfer Students Are Not Empty Receptacles: A Critical Perspective of a Transfer-Receptive Culture

• In Event: 66.040 - Higher Education Access for Marginalized Students: Toward Justice in College Readiness and College Transfer

Abstract

Through this qualitative study framed by critical pedagogy and critical race theory, we discuss how the Summer Intensive Transfer Experience Plus (SITE+) program at the University of California, Los Angeles employs a problem posing approach to transfer. Fifty-six of SITE+ participants over a five-year span were questioned through an electronic survey in addition to 22 students participating in focus groups. Guided by the five elements of a transfer receptive culture, transfer students are viewed not as empty receptacles devoid of knowledge and life experience, but rather as dynamic individuals who can make substantial contributions to a four-year campus. This critical perspective to transfer results in high transfer rates for students of color to both public and private four-year colleges.

Authors

• Dimpal Jain, California State University - Northridge

• Iris Lucero, University of California - Los Angeles

• Santiago Bernal, University of California - Los Angeles

• Alfred Herrera, University of California - Los Angeles

• Daniel Gilbert Solorzano, University of California - Los Angeles