Possibilities and Challenges for English Learners in a Community College Intervention Program

• In Event: Into, Through, and Beyond Community College: Pathways for English Learners and Language Minority Students

Abstract

Community colleges disproportionally serve the nation’s most vulnerable students—including first-generation college students, low-income students, and English learners (ELs)—who face significant challenges in earning a certificate or transferring to a four-year institution (Bunch et al., 2011; Karp & Bork, 2012; Olsen, 2003; Roueche & Roueche, 1993). This paper explores issues relevant to ELs and other students from language minority backgrounds (LM) in an intervention program designed to serve students who are among the least likely to succeed in, or even attempt, higher education pathways without intensive support. Issues of identity in general, and academic identity in particular, play a critical role in students’ pursuit of higher education and are therefore particularly important to address in such programs.

With a particular eye on implications for ELs and LM students, this paper examines students’ experiences in an intervention program that provided spaces for those it referred to as “very high risk”—students who have been previously incarcerated, are homeless, or have mental health issues—as well as students who face other academic challenges, to consider their current academic identities within the context of inequitable educational structures. The curriculum invited students to reflect on painful experiences to leverage success and participation in the program and envision themselves as college students. Using Bakhtin’s notion of “self-authorship” (Bakhtin, 1994; Holquist, 2002), I explored the ways in which students constructed their identities in relation to others as they completed two types of narratives: formal written narratives about personal aspects of their lives and voluntary spoken narratives to reflect on personal experiences and the role of education. I observed one cohort of 13 students for a semester and conducted multiple interviews, including follow up interviews in the subsequent semester, with three focal participants. I iteratively coded my observation notes, interview transcripts, and analytic memos to analyze the data.

Findings revealed that the program succeeded in providing important spaces for students to challenge deficit ideologies that had clouded much of their K-12 experiences and to reposition their lack of success as impacted by structural issues rather than personal fault. The written and spoken narratives that students constructed were pivotal to their membership in the program. At the same time, and with particular implications for ELs and other students from LM backgrounds, students found the written narratives “painful,” “awkward,” and challenging to compose.

Intervention programs like this one may provide spaces to counter deficit views, but greater writing support, especially for ELs and other LM students, is required to amplify students’ opportunities. Situated in larger efforts to explore identity in post-secondary student populations (e.g. Ivanič, 1998; Karp & Bork, 2012; Urrieta, 2007, 2011), this study makes a particular contribution to efforts to uncover students’ conceptions of their identities as they progress through higher education, especially at the community college level. As it becomes especially important to support and retain the growing numbers of language minority students attending community colleges, it is crucial to see how particular spaces offer these students occasions to view themselves as successful college students.

Author

• Kylie Alisa Kenner, University of California - Santa Cruz