Eugene Fujimoto, Ph.D.September 15, 2010

Contextualize efforts to close gaps• Leadership & campus culture

• Structure & systems

• Decision making process

• What are campus-based factors that influence the decisions made in attempting to close racial achievement gaps?

• What does a campus-based process reveal about obstacles that may inhibit colleges and universities from closing achievement gaps?

• What do administrative decisions that support or hinder the closing of racial achievement gaps tell us about creating the necessary conditions?

Critical theory

Critical race theory/ critical management studies

Organizational theory/ organizational change

Multi-site case study (3 campuses) Qualitative focus Interviews (N = 30) Focus groups (3) Document analysis Participant-observers (4)

Watertown College

Middleton University

Delton University

Type of institution

Public 2-year college

Public 4-year comprehensive

Public 4-year comprehensive

Student population (UG) 1,175 11,605 9,730

% students of color 11% 8.2% 10.1%

Degrees/ programs offered

Liberal arts & pre-professionalstudies; associate degree programs; cont. education/ community service programs

55 undergraduate majors; master’s deg 15 disciplines, 16 certificate programs

46 undergraduate majors; master’s deg in 13 disciplines; 4 post-baccalaureateCertificate Programs

System 1 of 13 colleges in 2-yr college system

1 of 13 universities in 4-yr university system

1 of 13 universities in 4-yr university system

Presidents Provosts/Vice Presidents of Academic Affairs Vice Presidents of Student Affairs Academic Deans Faculty leadership (faculty senate chairs,

present and past) Equity team members (focus group)

Institutional Culture & Context

Cul of evidence

Education & Whiteness as property

rights

Decision

makingEQUITY

Faculty involvement

Leadership & making of meaning

Administrative leadership influence Color blind approach: Denying difference; other

priorities take precedence; dominant narrative

Administrative commitment without multidimensional strategy: Stagnation, confusion, discouragement.

Explicit, clear commitment to diversity and equity: Administrators and limited faculty engagement; extensive remediation efforts.

Stage

Context Noticing (subjective)

Interpretation (subjective)

Action (objective)

Ecologicalcontext

Achievement gap (prior to intentional equity

effort)

Racial/Cultural deficit Access denied

InstitutionalContext

Question individual racism; “color blind”

(intentional equity effort)

K-12/SES deficit passed to students

(African American & Latino/a)

Access with

remediation

Social-relationalContext

Question “color blindness”;

e.g. assessment of student learning

(authentic interaction with students of color;

contextualizing student exp.)

Question core values that shape

institutional culture

(identifying institutionally racist polices & practices)

Change

institutional culture

(develop inclusive values, policies &

practices)

CRT and sensemaking analysis “Society is based on property rights and not

human rights” (Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995; p. 58) Race as a ‘floating signifier’; Whiteness as

‘signifier’ of privilege through property ownership

Property ownership value laden, conflictual and political

“Expectation” of a right to higher education. Policies/practices:

Who is admitted, Who succeeds, Who is hired, What knowledge, skills and abilities

determine success, All remain largely exclusionary .

Policies & practices codify White, middle class values to maintain higher education as property that is raced and classed

Normative

(race)(class)

Academically prepared

(White students; middle & upper

class)

Academically unprepared

(Students of color; working class; poor)

Exceptions: Whites; middle &

upper class

Honorary status: Students of

color; working class; poor;

Non-normative

Faculty involvement at very low level

Faculty seen as most important & most difficult group

Administrative leadership can be highly influential

How leadership makes meaning of achievement gaps has large effect on

campus efforts

Deconstruct the binary of student preparedness - underpreparedness

Leaders need authentic interaction with students of color and low income students

Multidimensional strategy is crucial

Develop strategic and structural ways for faculty collaboration on achievement gaps

Transformative leadership rooted in democratic principles & emancipatory

theory is a necessity

To close the achievement gap we must make transformative change to avoid “the tranquilizing drug of gradualism”

(Martin Luther King Jr., 1963)

Questions/Comments