Transforming Conceptions and Practices of Learning: A Collaborative Inquiry With and for Community College Students

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 70
  In Roundtable Session: Equity by Design: STEM, Narrative, and Assessment

Abstract

This paper describes the implementation of a collaborative inquiry project with students participating in a peer-based co-curricular program that offers an alternative model to retention in community colleges. Drawing on cultural-historical activity theory (Leontiev, 1978; Vygotsky, 1978) expanded by the transformative activist stance (Stetsenko, 2008, 2016), this project engaged students as co-investigators in critically examining and transforming their conceptions and practices of learning. This project, which culminated in a paper presentation at college-wide conference, provided students with the space and tools to actively discover and author their knowledge about learning as a social practice with consequential ethical-political implications. This paper discusses the centrality of students’ activist contributions to their educational practices as key to emancipatory approaches in higher education.

Authors

• Michael Rifino, The City University of New York

• Francisco Medina

• Eduardo V. Vianna, LaGuardia Community College - CUNY