Power to the Transfer: Critical Race Theory and a Transfer Receptive Culture

by Dimpal Jain, Santiago N. Bernal Melendez, Alfred R. Herrera

Overview

Currently, U.S. community colleges serve nearly half of all students of color in higher education who, for a multitude of reasons, do not continue their education by transferring to a university. For those students who do transfer, often the responsibility for the application process, retention, graduation, and overall success is placed on them rather than their respective institutions. This book aims to provide direction toward the development and maintenance of a transfer receptive culture, which is defined as an institutional commitment by a university to support transfer students of color. A transfer receptive culture explicitly acknowledges the roles of race and racism in the vertical transfer process from a community college to a university and unapologetically centers transfer as a form of equity in the higher education pipeline. The framework is guided by critical race theory in education, which acknowledges the role of white supremacy and its contemporary and historical role in shaping institutions of higher learning.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781611863437
Publisher:	Michigan State University Press
Publication date:	02/01/2020
Series:	Perspectives on Access, Equity, and Diversifying Pathways in P-20 Education
Edition description:	1
Pages:	162
Product dimensions:	6.80(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

DIMPAL JAIN is an Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at California State University, Northridge.


SANTIAGO N. BERNAL MELENDEZ is the Assistant Director for UCLA’s Center for Community College Partnerships.


ALFRED R. HERRERA is the Assistant Vice Provost for Academic Partnerships and Director for UCLA’s Center for Community College Partnerships.

Table of Contents

Figures and Tables vii

Foreword Daniel Solórzano ix

Acknowledgments xiii

Preface xv

Chapter 1 Assessing the Transfer Landscape and Broadening Diverse Student Participation 1

Chapter 2 Transfer Receptivity 27

Chapter 3 Prioritizing the Transfer Student of Color Experience in the Pretransfer Process 47

Chapter 4 Creating and Providing Intersectional Support in the Posttransfer Process 69

Chapter 5 Lessons Learned from a Transfer Receptive Culture 91

References 115

Index 139

Editorial Reviews

The folklore of community colleges is that students can transfer to their local state college, a highly selective college, or a top-tier research university. The reality is that for the Black, Latinx, and Native American students, for whom community colleges are their first and only choice, few successfully transfer despite high aspirations. This book can help university leaders build transfer cultures that are racially conscious, and it can help students, staff, and faculty learn to become builders of racially conscious
transfer receptive cultures.”
—ESTELA MARA BENSIMON, Dean’s Professor in Educational Equity, University of Southern California

From the Publisher

The authors of Power to the Transfer are well-known and tenacious warriors of the community college transfer movement. Their book addresses a serious gap in the scholarship of the transfer function: color-blindness. Community colleges have always been represented as an exemplar of the flexibility and accessibility that is attributed to American higher education. The folklore of community colleges is that students can transfer to their local state college, a highly selective college, or a top-tier research university. The reality is that for the Black, Latinx, and Native American students, for whom community colleges are their first and only choice, few successfully transfer despite high aspirations. This book can help university leaders build transfer cultures that are racially conscious, and it can help students, staff, and faculty learn to become builders of racially conscious transfer receptive cultures.

Estela Mara Bensimon