Stories as Knowledge: Bringing the Lived Experience of First-Generation College Students Into the Academy

Abstract

This longitudinal study of first-generation, low-income students examines the impact of their participation in a multicultural learning community (MLC) designed to challenge the isolation and marginalization they experience at a large, predominantly White research university. The MLC employed multicultural curriculum and critical pedagogy to bring students' lived experience and narrative to the center of their learning experience. Qualitative data in the form of reflective writings and retrospective interviews showcase how firstgeneration students are validated as knowers and can cultivate a sense of belonging at the academy when their cultural wealth is incorporated into the classroom space.

Persuading others: Young Roma women negotiating access to university

“…Following Bourdieu and Passeron's thesis on formal education acting as cultural imposition (Bourdieu & Passeron 1977), minorities' manifestations of cultural resistance received greater interest (Willis 1977;Giroux 1983;Okley 1997;Archer 2003;Claveria & Gomez 2003;Furlong 2005). More recently, minority women's experiences in higher education were analysed through the lens of dissonances in habitus (Lawler 1999;Jehangir 2010). Critical sociology argued that they experience a sense of being in between 'two worlds' (Segura 2003) or of straddling at the 'borderland between home and school' (Jehangir 2010) with tensions arising from socialisation into the academic culture and their subjectivity drawn from working class identity (Reay 1997;Collatos et al 2004).…”

“…More recently, minority women's experiences in higher education were analysed through the lens of dissonances in habitus (Lawler 1999;Jehangir 2010). Critical sociology argued that they experience a sense of being in between 'two worlds' (Segura 2003) or of straddling at the 'borderland between home and school' (Jehangir 2010) with tensions arising from socialisation into the academic culture and their subjectivity drawn from working class identity (Reay 1997;Collatos et al 2004).…”

A Medical Archaeopedagogy of the Human Body as a Trauma-Informed Teaching Strategy for Indigenous Mexican-American Students

“…During the summers of 2014 and 2015, I, the primary author, asked students of the Humanities 125: Introduction to Mexican Culture class to materialize their views of the body and self through clay-work (Sholt & Gavron, 2006) and reflective writing assignments (Jehangir, 2010). …”

I had to learn that on my own : successful first-generation, low-income college students from rural areas at an urban institution.

“…One of the primary goals for this study is to obtain the richness and thickness in detail that could only be acquired through a qualitative study. In fact, one way we can both enrich the student's experience as well as the institutional setting, is to draw upon these students' cultural capital, instead of viewing them as deficient in some way, by bringing their stories and lived experiences into the discussion (Jehangir, 2010). Furthermore, Oldfield (2007) stated that: "personal narratives can also help faculty and administrators see why it is necessary to change the campus environment so that first-generation college students with humble economic backgrounds feel more at home there" (p. 3).…”