Valuing Teacher Knowledge: First Year College Composition (FYC) in Hawai'i Community Colleges

• In Event: 31.080 - English Language Learners in Community Colleges: Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

First year college courses at community colleges have become sites of contestation. Community colleges in the United States are the first (or the last) point of entry for the majority of Americans to access a higher education, a career, a new start and a new skill. Community colleges have also become the entry point for international students into an American four-year research institution. Since the 1960’s, a focus on higher education access for traditionally disenfranchised Americans has been paramount in community colleges’ mission (see Shaughnessy 1977). Today, access, a focus on and acceptance of the non-traditional college student, is debated as colleges trim their remedial and development education curriculum, combining freshman composition courses with support – either, remedial or development courses- in efforts to ameliorate what has come to be known as the “leaky” pipeline, when students drop out of community college, particularly at “gateway” courses, such as freshman composition. With the sharp decline in numbers of students going to college, and the commensurate push for a more educated populace in the face of robotized technology and stagnant wages, there has been an equally commensurate push for English faculty to make curricular changes in FYC. In addition, many states are decreasing their funding to higher education and seeking ways to get more “value” from public higher education. Although curricular changes are faculty purview, state legislatures and the state’s and colleges’ chancellor’s office have mandated changes and offered financial incentives to move students through the pipeline (“student success”) in faster ways. The rise of big data and advanced statistical analysis has led the charge that community colleges must operate differently. Faculty face forced curricular changes with the loss of remedial English classes and must “accelerate” FYC to provide students access with “acceleration” and “co-requisite” classes. Because the changes have been made without any qualitative data such as an examination of student writing, classroom observations, teacher or student interviews, or even interviews with transfer institutions, and have been based solely on completion rates and student pass-fail rates, it is important to question the efficacy of these changes. This research focused on teacher narratives about their experience in community college FYC.

Ten teachers from three different Hawaiian community colleges were interviewed over a 2 month period. Typical of small scale studies, the purpose was not to generalize or test hypotheses but to go deeper into teachers’ everyday lived experiences (Barkhuizen 2016). The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed thematically. The findings suggest that teachers focus on the changing student population and student success factors. This focus includes socio-economic, cognitive and motivational factors. Therefore, my findings challenge the prevailing narrative of acceleration and neoliberal models of education based on pass-fail algorithmic data. This paper suggests a broader look at poverty, employment opportunities, and societal issues facing students in higher education is necessary if public higher education is going to change the face of poverty and employment in America.

Author

• Meryl Siegal, Laney College