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Faculty Are Subverting Racial Injustice and Expanding Educational Opportunities for Students Through Practitioner Research at Our Minority-Serving California Community College

Fri, April 12, 9:35 to 11:05am, Pennsylvania Convention Center, Floor: Level 200, Room 201A

Session Type: Invited Speaker Session

Abstract

Known as “America’s most diverse city” (US News & World Report, 2020), Stockton, California is the home of San Joaquin Delta College. With a population greater than 322,000 people, Stockton’s racial and ethnic configuration includes: 40.7% Hispanic/Latinx, 21.8% Asian, 21.5% White, 11.5% African American/Black, and 3.3% bi-/multi-racial. This proposed AERA 2024 Presidential Session spotlights important work being taken up by equity-minded Delta College professors who are committed to subverting racial injustice and expanding educational opportunities for the ethnically and racially diverse students that we serve. In submitting this proposed AERA 2024 Presidential Session, we, Delta College professors affiliated with the Faculty Equity Training Academy (FETA) seek to honor our AERA annual meeting theme of “Dismantling Racial Injustice Across P-20 Systems” by anchoring the practitioner research (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1991) taking place at our institution in the historical context of racial injustice in America.
The historical legacy of racial injustice throughout the history of the United States of America has manifested itself through the genocide of Indigenous people and expropriation of their land (1492-1918) and the subsequent widespread disenfranchisement, forced assimilation, and removal of Native children from their families to state-run boarding schools (1860-1978), through the atrocities inflicted upon Black people during US enslavement (1619-1865), the Black Codes (1865-1867), and the Jim Crow Laws (1877-1954), through the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) and persistence of an anti-Mexican/anti-Latino sentiment in the US (1840s- 1890s and beyond), through the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882-1943), the Japanese Internment Camps (1942-1946), and the racial covenant laws which discriminated against all non-white Americans from (1910-1968). In the contemporary era, while we no longer have blatant racist legislation that promotes “de jure” discrimination, the fact remains that “de facto” discrimination has managed to survive and propagate throughout our nation. As noted in Racial Inequality in the United States, “These and other policies and actions not only led to continued racist disparities in access to resources and opportunities, they also led to differences in the extent to which people of different races benefit from the resources and opportunities they

already possess…This includes racial disparities in wealth, education, employment, housing, mobility, health, rates of incarceration, and more” (2022).
Racial injustice manifests in a variety of ways that impact community college students like those that we serve at Delta College. AERA president, Dr. Tyrone Howard notes (in his video-recorded discussion of AERA 2024 annual meeting theme), “Focusing on macrolevel structures alongside microlevel interactions helps identify the complexity of why such gaps in education exists” (2023). As President Howard aptly continues, “…practitioners are in dire need of the knowledge and skills that can assist them in their classrooms on a daily basis…therefore, providing practitioners with a knowledge base, as well as practical reference skills, from which to better educate students from diverse background, can be a valuable response to the macro-cultural and structural poverty issues that are beyond the scope of individual teachers…” Delta College’s FETA leadership opportunity has become one important resource to provide equity-minded faculty with the very knowledge and skills that Dr. Howard is referencing. Delta College’s commitment to our (6) Equity Guiding Principles of 1) inclusion, 2) inquiry, 3) social justice, 4) student centeredness, 5) transparency, and 6) flexibility present our faculty with opportunities to deepen our understanding about the ways that racial injustice influences the educational outcomes for the students that we serve. With this understanding, FETA participants explore ways to neutralize and undo the historic impacts of racial injustice within our own classrooms. We seek to accomplish this by engaging in practitioner research designed to improve teaching and learning within our own classrooms. We make clear distinctions between equality and equity and we align our efforts in promotion of the latter.

Through the equity-minded interventions that we investigate through our practitioner inquiry projects, we seek ways to level the playing field between the traditional-aged college students that we serve who may live at home with their parents in middle-class and upper middle-class homes from those who are working class, working poor, food-insecure, homeless, caretakers of dependent children and/or aging and ailing parents. By designing class-based interventions that align with one (or more) of our 6 equity guiding principles, we are able to Implement instructional features within our courses that allow us to more accurately gauge our students’ academic progress and potential—all while keeping academic rigor and educational standards high.
FETA was created at Delta College during the Covid-19 pandemic at a time when rates of college enrollment, engagement, persistence, and achievement dropped dramatically at Delta College. Two years later, the rates of academic enrollment and persistence of many of our historically marginalized and disproportionately impacted Delta College students continue to be on the decline as more and more students consider dropping out of college before attaining their degree. Findings detailed in “The State of Higher Education 2023: Breaking down the barriers to student enrollment and retention” (Lumina Foundation-Gallup, 2023), build upon insight gained from the 2020 and 2021 studies, which polled adults about existing barriers to their college enrollment, persistence, and achievement. The study’s respondents identified emotional stress, mental health, inflation, financial issues (pg. 3)…physical health issues, caregiver responsibilities, and inadequate preparation” (pg. 16) as significantly impacting their

college enrollment, persistence, and achievement (pg. 3). Data from the 2022 study revealed that the following percentages of students reported that they have considered stopping their course work in the past six months:
• 41% of all students enrolled in a postsecondary education program
• 36% of students enrolled in a bachelor’s degree program
• 44% of students enrolled in an associate degree program
It is important to note that these rates represent an increase from the percentages reported in the 2020 and 2021 studies (pg. 25).
Findings from the 2022 study further illuminates the disproportionate impact to BIPOC students within the data. While barriers to college enrollment, persistence, and achievement can be observed in some instances among white and Asian student subgroups, the report reveals that Black and Hispanic adults were much more likely to experience enrollment barriers than their white counterparts. The report’s authors conclude, “Black and Hispanic students are more likely than white students to say it was difficult for them to remain enrolled in their programs…More than half of Hispanic students (52%) and 43% of Black students say they considered stopping out in the past six months—up from 44% and 37%, respectively, in 2021” (pg. 5).

The historical legacy of racial injustice through the US impacts the lived experiences of Delta College students who identify as BIPOC and who are also designated as underrepresented minorities (URMs) at our institution. At FETA, our mission is to improve rates of engagement and achievement for Delta College’s historically marginalized and disproportionately-impacted student populations. For this reason, the research conducted by Delta College’s FETA practitioner researchers centers the historically disadvantaged and disproportionately- impacted URM students from the following racial and ethnic backgrounds: students who identify as African American or Black, Hispanic or Latinx, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders, American Indian and Alaskan Natives, and students from some Asian backgrounds (Cambodian, Hmong, Laotian, etc.). According to US Department of Education (2022) data, 41% of students that Delta College serves are socioeconomically disadvantaged students (qualifying them for federal Pell Grants). The racial and ethnic configuration of our student body is as follows:
• 49% of our students identify as Hispanic or Latinx;
• 20 % identify as Asian;
• 17% identify as White or Caucasian;
• 6% identify as Black or African American;
• 5% identify as being biracial or multi-racial;
• 1% identify as being Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander;
• 1% choose not to report;
• and less than 1% identify as American Indian or Alaskan Natives.
According to US News & World Report (2022)
• 15% of the students that we serve are under 18 years of age and full-time high school students who are also enrolled in Delta College part-time;
• 57% are traditional college aged students (between 18 and 24 years old);

• 27% are between 25 and 64 years old;
• less than 1% are over 65 years old;
• 82% of full-time first-time college students received financial aid—81% in the form of grant money and 1% in the form of federal student loans;
• and 62% of all undergraduate students received grant or scholarship aid.
This proposed Presidential Session introduces conference attendees to five California-based community college professors who completed a year-long formal training in practitioner research (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1991). During their engagement in FETA, participating faculty form a Community of Practice cohort (Lave & Wenger, 1991) whose members support one another to understand and employ equity-focused practices in their capacity as community college professors. Participating faculty complete FETA’s Introductory Equity Course during their first semester, as the curriculum guides them through a deep dive of Delta College’s six Equity Guiding Principles of 1) inclusion, 2) inquiry, 3) social justice, 4) student-centeredness, 5) transparency, and 6) flexibility. During their second semester, faculty complete FETA’s Advanced Equity Course which guides them through process of 1) researching, 2) planning, 3) executing, and 4) evaluating an original (class-based) practitioner inquiry projects designed to ameliorate educational outcomes for the historically marginalized and disproportionately impacted students that they serve.
This research extends existing conversations in the literature pertaining to practitioner research designed to ameliorate current disparities in rates of college enrollment, engagement, persistence, and achievement of students who identify as URMs. The papers featured within this session explore the following (4) questions:

1) How can community college professors employ practitioner research to subvert racial injustice and ameliorate educational opportunities within their own classrooms?
2) What are students’ perspectives about ways that equity-minded FETA class-based interventions influenced their college enrollment, engagement, persistence, and/or achievement?

3) What are Delta College faculty’s perspectives about ways that engagement in FETA has influenced their praxis as a practitioner-researcher?
4) What are Delta College faculty’s perspectives about ways that FETA has influenced their ability to improve teaching and learning within their own classrooms?

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Papers