Students as Theorists: Revisiting Seminal Debates on the Stratifying Nature of Community Colleges by Centering Students’ Narratives and Beliefs About Upward Mobility

• In Event: Kicking Deficit-Thinking in The (Ass)ets: Advancing Asset- and Strengths-Based Approaches for Research on Community College Student Success

Abstract

The democratizing role of the community college has long been the subject of a classic, interdisciplinary debate in education. Brint and Karabel (1989) put forth the seminal argument that the primary role of the community college was to perform a sorting function whereby disadvantaged groups are channeled toward vocational pathways as a means of protecting the elite four-year colleges and universities. Yet, traditional debates regarding the stratifying nature of community colleges often ignore the perspectives and lived experiences of individuals as they are replete with underlying narratives, ideas, and beliefs about the nature of opportunity. With much emphasis on structural inequity, we forget that individuals drive structures. As Girioux (1983) states “The idea that people do make history, including its constraints, has been neglected. Indeed, human subjects generally "disappear" amidst a theory that leaves no room for moments of self-creation, mediation, and resistance” (p. 259). In this paper, I examine the beliefs, ideologies, narratives, and ideas students hold about the educational opportunity and social stratification among community college students. In doing so, I center a more agentic perspective of community college students that casts them as organic intellectuals, rather than non-agentic beings set up to fail (Rhoades, Kiyama, McDormick, & Quiroz, 2008).

Author

• Elvira J. Abrica, University of Nebraska-Lincoln