How Studying Community Colleges Impacts Learners: Reducing Community College Stigma and Improving Community College Advocacy

Abstract

Objective: I implemented and evaluated a series of community college studies presentations. The seven monthly presentations were led by professors and an institutional researcher who conduct research on community colleges. Example presentation topics included the history of community colleges, developmental education, and transfer receptive culture. The presentations’ primary audience was community college students. Methods: I interviewed community college student attendees. I analyzed interview transcripts using structural coding and thematic analysis. Results: I identified two themes. The first theme was that the presentations improved most students’ perceptions of community colleges. The presentations dispelled negative stereotypes and dismantled a deficit thinking paradigm. In general, attendees felt empowered and recognized the strengths of community college students. The second theme was that the presentations improved most students’ community college advocacy. For example, several attendees informally shared the knowledge they gained from the presentations to empower their community college peers and combat family members’ community college stigma. Furthermore, several attendees became more effective advocates within institutional roles such as student advisory group member, office assistant, or peer advisor. Conclusions: My findings align with past research that suggests that community college studies, ethnic studies, and gender studies curriculum can improve learners’ perceptions and advocacy around community colleges, race/ethnicity, and gender, respectively.

Community College to PhD Scholars Program: Short-Term Outcome Evaluation of an Undergraduate Research and PhD Preparation Program

“…The Community College to PhD (CC2PhD) Scholars Program at University of California, Los Angeles was a 7-month undergraduate research and PhD preparation program for community college social science students (Nguyen, 2023a;Nguyen et al, 2023, in press). We ran this program for 2 academic years.…”

“…Furthermore, the community college alumni status itself is a valuable demographic trait for professors to have. University professors who are community college alumni might be more likely to become transfer champions who advocate for policies that promote transfer access and transfer student success (Dowd et al, 2006;Nguyen, 2023a). Whereas professors who are not community college alumni often have biases against transfer students (Bowker, 2021;Castellino, 2013;Hyatt & Smith, 2020).…”