Questions for Jeffrey Selingo and Others: What About Life After College for First Gen Students?
Note: The views expressed herein are my own and do not represent the views of any other individual or any organization.
I had an opportunity to listen to Jeff Selingo present aspects of his new book, There Is Life After College. Selingo addressed what he sees as a false dichotomy between the liberal arts and career readiness (a point on which I strongly agree). He posited that colleges need curricular reform to insure that the "soft" skills that students will need in the workplace are learned through an assortment of engagement activities and internships and programs. He supported an invigorated "gap" year for educational advancement and personal growth (the funding issue is another story); he supported extending not shortening college, given the amount that needs to be learned. He referenced that while he was "lecturing to us," academics needed to move away from being sages on stages to becoming guides on the sides (forgetting for a moment that most faculty development workshops talk the talk but do not walk the walk so we are not role modeling). He talked about technological advances and their impact on education. He spoke about the many students who were in their 20's and had stopped out and dropped out (particularly young men) and the need to provide better ways for them to succeed in higher education. He talked about debt loads students carry into their future and how that impacts career choices. He pointed out that students needed time management and navigational skills as they had been so directed by parents and schools up to and through college, and employers had noted these deficits.
I agree with much of what Selingo says at the level of generality but he and I part company in several respects and on some specifics. Let me identify some of the ways in which he and I may differ.
We certainly diverge on this point: his remarks (and his book based on my quick reading of it) speak largely to middle and upper class kids and to elite and slightly less elite private and public colleges and universities. The index to his book does not mention HBCUs or Pell grants or first generation students. The index mostly (not totally but mostly) references colleges like Harvard, Arizona State, Clark, Dartmouth, and Grinnell. Moreover, his remarks did not fit particularly well with what I know about first generation, low income students and undocumented students and their primary concerns, hurdles and issues. In addition, his suggestions did not focus on and in some measure did not apply to small non-elite colleges including HBCUs that are under-resourced but serve a high percentage of our vulnerable students.
These omissions matter because the students of the 21st century will not look like the students of today. And, the elites and semi-elites, while they get most of the media attention, do not serve the vast majority of college students in America.
Let me provide some concrete areas of our divergence. Selingo talks a lot about the lack of risk-taking capacity of kids today. He notes that today's students have been sheltered in many respects (just think about course catalogues that set out a plan before you). I could not disagree more when thinking about the students I have served and continue to serve -- those for whom college was not something to which they were accustomed and on which they had a myriad of family conversations as to options and opportunities.
For many low income students, just applying to college is taking a risk. Completing a FAFSA is risky, involving disclosure of key financial data (which for some people raises hackles given their concerns about privacy and their sense of embarrassment in terms of their lack of income and amount of debt). Heading to college, moving to a new place, meeting new friends, leaving a life and friends who were taking a vastly different path are all steps filled with risk-taking. Reading a course catalogue does not provide clarity; it provides difficulty with evaluating options. Decision-fatigue is more likely than easy pathways.
Enormous risk-taking -- truly putting oneself in the most uncomfortable of spots -- is what many low income, first generation students experience. It is not a matter of race (although that matters); it is a matter of social class and experience and social customs and norms. If you want to read more on this, just peruse Jeff Hobbs' excellent book, The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace. I have written about this a great deal myself in the interest of full disclosure and have a forthcoming book on vulnerable student success called Shoulders to Learn On from Columbia Teachers College Press (early 2017).
For a short preview (from back when the book had a different title), see: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/who-can-help-first-gen-students-just-administrators-karen-gross?trk=mp-reader-card.
Let me share an experience (Selingo shared several in his remarks). Many years ago, when I was a law professor, I spoke to a group of legal aid attorneys about bankruptcy and financial empowerment education. When I started to mention that many individual debtors kept their bills in a bag and had no sense of how to budget, one of them stopped me and said and I quote (more or less), "These folks know way more about their budgets than you do. They budget every minute of every day, down to the cost of macaroni to feed the family and a cup of coffee." They were absolutely right. I had missed the true lived experience of these individuals and, by the by, that led me to take a sabbatical and work at Legal Aid for 6 months and then start a program where law students joined me there.
Having learned from that, I think I can fairly say that many of those students who are low income or first generation or otherwise have experienced or witnessed trauma (homelessness, lack of food, frequent moves, loss of employment, familial abuse or alcohol and drug use) understand risk taking and they have often have quality navigational skills. And, many have learned to cope in a "wealthy" environment so they are expert at reading cues and "playing" white. In short, the students I care most about do not suffer from the deficits that Selingo highlights. To be sure, they may not know they have these skills but that is another issue with yet another solution.
Let me be clear, however, low income and first generation students have a myriad of other issues and concerns with respect to education, college readiness, college progression and graduation. Of that I am sure. But, they are not the issues that have occupied Selingo. (I could digress and share the issues of male versus female students, a topic on which Selingo focuses, but I leave that for another day and another blog.)
Like Selingo, I together with a co-author and former colleague Ivan Figueroa (an extraordinary educator) have written about the need for colleges to extend their focus beyond graduation, particularly with respect to first gen and low-income students. Where Selingo and I differ is the rationale for this approach. Here's a link to that piece:
Bottom line: Selingo and I are addressing the gaps in higher education (and even pre-collegiate education). We are both addressing post-graduation issues and the problems of students who have stopped out or dropped out. We both speak to issues of debt. Where we differ is the population to which our solutions are focused and the colleges and universities implicated through our observations. Selingo, whether or not intentionally or by default, focuses on the middle/upper class and elite or quasi elite institutions. I focus on low income, first generation students and non-elite colleges and universities. We are coming at problems through a different lens.
But, make no mistake about this: his book and his talk, for all of their many strengths and astute observation, omit sufficient attention to the students who will populate America in the decades to come. These students merit our attention. They need our help. We can improve their lives and the lives of their families -- but they need to be on our radar for sure and for real.
One last point: I have no problem with authors focusing a particular population or a particular set of institutions. I may not have the same interests or priorities. But, what one cannot do is claim to have an approach that speaks to all students and all institutions when a whole subpopulation (sizable and growing in number) are not covered in detail or with sufficient attention to their issues/problems/concerns. That's what bothers me most: speaking and writing about issues as if the concerns and remedies had universality. Would that it were that simple.
Somewhere in the middle of a creative storm
8 年Career Services needs to take on a larger role at the college and university levels. There is a need to have businesses and corporations working with students as they progress, and begin to specialize in their degree programs. Obtaining hands on experience augmented by traditional learning at the campus level; you empower your employees, and build a better foundation for your organization. Vocational education does disrupt higher education. Many in academia do not hold the views expressed by those at the community college/CTE levels. The university setting has always had a more elitist persona. Liberal or not, you still need those higher-level degree programs to be competitive in a world economy. Vocational education and CTE have their place, as does higher education. Finding the balance between the skills sets, and the job market is the real work. That is the larger role of career services. As a first generation student I have seen and felt all of the above. But, I know one thing is certain. It is through that risk-taking that innovators and leaders are born. I have advised many low income students at the university level – there are doors that can be opened if one is willing and motivated enough to knock on them. Really good article, it provides food for thought in dealing with low income, single parent, and rural area students.
LinkedIn Top Voices in Education | Social Justice Educator | Author
8 年And this is why I choose to follow you. In Selingo's defense, in his world those students you care about do not exists. As a first generation college student we often get over looked and become unaccounted for in research and studies. I have the pleasure of working in Alumni Relations now after many many years in admissions and am seeing the same issues when we speak about donors and alumni supporters. Why aren't we talking about the change in America's college students and how that is going to change what our donors look like because their reasons for giving, trends in giving and relationships with their alma maters are going to be totally different than the 99 other millions studies that have been conducted about your typical donor. So I decided my skills and passions would be better suited in alumni career services where I can just continue to help those students who were once like me, a first generation college student transitioning to working professional.