Rural-Serving Community Colleges and the Democratic Mission in California’s San Joaquin Valley

• In Event: We Demand More: Expanding our Frames and Approaches to Serve the Needs of OUR Community

Abstract

This study explores how 14 rural-serving community colleges (RSCCs) in California’s San Joaquin Valley publicly construct their missions, values, and equity commitments. Drawing on critical place inquiry and the multidimensional servingness framework, we use critical discourse analysis to examine how RSCCs narrate their roles in expanding access, supporting community, and addressing structural inequities in an agricultural region shaped by racialized labor and educational exclusion. While access and workforce development are common themes, institutions vary in how directly they address race and systemic barriers to education and career opportunities. These public narratives shape not only how students perceive belonging and opportunity but also how RSCCs define and enact their democratic mission in a complex social and geographic context.

Authors

• Mayra Nuñez Martinez, University of California - Davis

• Arlyn Y. Moreno Luna, University of California - Los Angeles

• Mayra Puente, University of California - Santa Barbara

• Daniel Rios Arroyo, Appalachian State University

• Marlene Lopez Torres, University of California - Santa Barbara