Expanding Notions of Student Activism and Advocacy in the Community College

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to explore student activism within community colleges, including opportunities for and barriers to activism. The authors argue that community colleges can and should leverage curricular and co-curricular venues to teach about and promote activism, thus encouraging socio-academic integrative moments that combine both academic and social integration. While four-year institutions might engage students in learning about and practicing activism via opportunities primarily outside of the classroom such as student affairs offices and student leadership opportunities, community colleges can encourage greater student activism primarily in curricular contexts. Indeed, given the demographic diversity present in community colleges—where students often work part- or full-time off campus, spend little time on campus outside of coursework, and have significant personal and family responsibilities—the classroom may be the optimal venue to engage students.

Para mi gente: Community responsive civic practices at Hispanic Serving Community Colleges

“…Therefore, educators in community colleges are one of the most crucial contributors that can enhance the civic development of Latinx college students. Moreover, since community college students tend to engage with campuses less often as a result of their commuter and part‐time status, and commitments outside of school, the role of educators is more vital given the short window of opportunity to engage students (Miller et al., 2021). For instance, scholars have found that educators at community colleges are instrumental in raising racially/ethnically minoritized and low‐income students’ college aspirations (Dowd et al., 2013) and transfer success (Carrasco‐Nungaray & Pena, 2012).…”