Flipping the Script: Using Community Cultural Wealth to Challenge the "Remedial" Label

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 10
  In Roundtable Session: (Re)Defining Risks, Acknowledging Cultural Wealth, and Improving Success Odds

Abstract

Increasing numbers of first-time freshmen, particularly English Learners and/or first-generation college students, enter colleges and universities with placement exam scores indicating they are not “college-ready” (Chen, 2016; Kurlaender & Howell, 2012; Rodriguez, Jackson, & Mejia, 2017). Often labeled remedial, they must take additional coursework before they can take credit-bearing courses. For many, the label brings feelings of being stigmatized as “less than” (Doran, 2017) because it focuses on what they lack rather than the knowledge and experience they have. Using the community cultural wealth framework (Yosso, 2005) to examine the experiences of 16 Latinx first-generation college students who entered the university with a “remedial” designation, this study aims to flip that narrative to understand the resources these students bring.

Authors

• Juliet Michelsen Wahleithner, California State University - Fresno

• Ana K. Soltero Lopez, California State University, Fresno