"Whiteness Is Not a Culture": Investigating Students' Salient Cultural Communities and Factors Supporting Their Success

• In Event: 63.087 - Sheraton Roundtable Session 11 - Grand Centre
  In Roundtable Session: 63.087-5 - Student Experiences of Racial Campus Climates

Abstract

Students’ perceptions of cultural identities and communities are lacking in student success research, but integral to their collegiate experiences. We employed cognitive interviewing to understand how 15 racially diverse students interpreted items from the Culturally Engaging Campus Environments (CECE; pronounced see-see) survey. CECE is drawn from 30 years of research on student success and addresses critiques that students must commit "cultural suicide" to adjust to norms and values of institutions. Preliminary findings from this study reveal the following: (1) importance of studying students’ perceptions of salient cultural communities, (2) call to disrupt campus cultures and environments that maintain White supremacy, and (3) the significance of subculture campus spaces and student organizations that validate students’ minoritized identities cultivates their success.

Authors

• Lucy Anne LePeau, Indiana University - Bloomington

• Samantha Silberstein, Indiana University - Bloomington

• Donte Miller, Indiana University - Bloomington

• Josh Manlove, Indiana University - IUPUI

• Sacha Sharp, Indiana University - Bloomington