My Experience With Advising Diverse Students And Facilitatin ✓ Solved

MY EXPERIENCE WITH ADVISING DIVERSE STUDENTS AND FACILITATING

In my current position as a diverse student and retention coach at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, I provide advisement to diverse and minoritized students to increase their retention on campus. In discharging these duties, I saw that my students encountered impediments such as a negative racial/ethnic campus climate, a lack of academic preparedness, and difficulty integrating socially and engaging academically. And because these impediments often lead to students’ disengagement and diminished college success, I initiated small group advisement sessions to engage the students.

In this group, students of color are encouraged to attend the first-year seminar class and meet with me every week. I encountered setbacks in my attempt to implement the small group advisement initiative at the initial stage because, the students were slow in responding to the engagement prompts that I gave to them, and also they would not want to interact. To enquire what the problem was, I decided to create a space for one-on-one meeting with each student outside the advising group. Following the meeting, I found that the setback I encountered was because my pattern of engagement was not inclusive and I had engaged in cultural minimization; a situation whereby leaders are unaware that they are projecting their own cultural values (Bennett, 2006).

As such, I recognized that for students of color to feel supported, I turned to Lum (2011) who advises that educators have the ethical responsibility to construct a learning environment that emphasizes cultural immersion that is relational, and encourages dialogue between cultures, people and context. As a result, I adopted an inclusive and cultural immersion initiative in my advisement sessions, and my students became motivated to participate actively in group sessions. Thus, I learned from the experience that students are actively engaged when they perceive the group advisement sessions to be inclusive, affirming, and performance expectations are clearly stated (Kuh, Kinzie, & Schuh, 2005). I have also had previous experiences leading other undergraduate students in my senior year as president of the National Association of Philosophy Students (NAPS), Ekpoma chapter, Nigeria.

In this capacity, I attended to the association’s basic needs by organizing monthly meetings and bi-monthly symposia and I also related the students’ academic needs to the department of philosophy. During this time, I witnessed how issues of philosophy were discussed at symposia and for the most part, they did not fully address complex social issues. As a result, I consulted with the department’s chair and proposed the initiative to organize a symposium that addresses issues of disparity in educational opportunities, economic inequality and stigma of marginalized ethnic minorities in the Nigerian society. I recognized that to facilitate the change that I wanted to see, programs as Mertens (2010) advises, need to be intertwined with policies and a political change agenda to confront social oppression at whatever level.

Hence, together with the department’s chair, we organized a symposium on “bridging the social gap” in April 2007, in which undergraduate philosophy students were able to discuss the role of philosophy in engaging the society. The outcome of the symposium is instructive as to how I engage students as a leader, and as such, the initiative demonstrated to the community the values of discussing issues of philosophy in contexts. Based on the leadership experiences that I have had, I share the view that leadership engagement is about influence, coordination and supervision. That being the case, small group advisement led by a student of color can help facilitate change in the students’ learning engagement.

Effective engagement is also context-related and as such, I recognize the importance of a cultural plunge in helping to motivate unmotivated students. In the small advisement group that I led, I was the cultural plunger and the students have felt empowered to actively engage in cross-cultural interactions, and they have experienced an increased sense of campus involvement. Consequently, I agree with Nieto (2006) that cultural plunge represents a type of education that is experiential, meaningful, interesting, challenging, confidence-building, growth-inducing and rewarding for most students.

Overcoming Social, Economic and Educational Barriers

My personal background and study made me to appreciate the fact that as student affairs professional, my work ethics should speak to the question of oppression, privilege and discrimination. Being among the minority ethnic group in Nigeria, I witnessed first-hand the issues of systemic injustice, ethnic discrimination and inequality expressed in oppressive policies and practices in my community. My family felt this too, my father passed away when I was nine years old without ever having attended college and my siblings ended their education after high school, unwilling to study at the city university because of the fear of ethnic/racial victimization and the stigma of the most marginalized minorities.

I am from Delta State in Southern Nigeria and even though my community produces the petroleum that accounts for 86 percent of Nigeria’s total exports revenue (OPEC, 2020), acquiring a college degree was considered a privilege for a few. As a result, the community college I attended did not fully serve my ethnic group and in fact, with scholarship from my local church, I broke the barriers of ethnic/racial seclusion, economic and educational inequalities by studying philosophy in my undergraduate. I researched the African communitarian ethic in my thesis in which I argued for the role of community consciousness in ensuring justice and equitable distribution of resources. This motivated me to become a driving force for change, to be instrumental in ensuring equality and making the changes I wanted to see.

Although the college met my religious expectations, I was unable to keep up with the hostile racial environment. I struggled with unhealthy peer rivalry, abusive hall mates and group stereotypes. These experiences, nonetheless, were milestones in my identity development since as the Bronfenbrenner’s theory of development acknowledges, an individual development is inseparable from the environment where social interactions occur (Kraus, 2008). As a result, I became self-withdrawn and I turned to Sanford (1966) who advises that if the environment presents too much challenge, students may regress to either less adaptive modes of behavior; solidify current modes of behavior; escape the challenge; or ignore the challenge if escape is impossible.

Therefore, following graduation, I secured a role as a teacher and student liaison officer within my community college. Here, I became an agent of change; I influenced programs and policies that are inclusive, diverse and raised awareness of the negative effect of racial/ethnic profiling on students’ engagement. As a result, I turned to Kul (2005) who advises that students are actively engaged when they perceive the institution to be inclusive, affirming, and performance expectations are clearly stated.

My experiences in this role and in my previous education inspired me to write my first book, “Seduced by justice: Response to structural imbalance in Nigeria” (Ograh, 2014) in which I drew attention of both the government and the church, to make them appreciate how structural injustice, racial/ethnic seclusion and educational inequalities can affect a person’s development and a sense of belonging. It is this drive for diversity and equality that now motivates me to complete a Ph.D. program in student affairs so that I am better equipped with research skills and professional practice to help my community and students with minoritized identities to feel included and supported.

References

• Bennett, M. (2015). Cultural Sensitivity: Respect for People’s strength, culture and knowledge. NYC Human Resources administration department of social sciences.
• Edwards, B., H. (2007). Introduction: The souls of black folk. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Kuh, G. D., Kinzie, J., & Schuh, J. H. (2005). Never let it rest: Lessons about student success from high-performing colleges and universities. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 37(4), 44-51.
• Lum, D. (2011). Culturally competent practice: A framework for understanding diverse groups and justice issues (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.
• Mertens, D. M. (2010). Transformation mixed methods research. Qualitative Inquiry.
• Nieto, J. (2006). The Cultural Plunge: Cultural Immersion as a means of promoting self-awareness and cultural sensitivity among student teachers. Teacher Education Quarterly, Winter 2006, pp. 75-84.
• Kraus, R. (2008). The Bronfenbrenner Perspective: An overview of ecological systems theory. Educational Psychology Review.
• Sanford, N. (1966). The American College: A Psychological and Social Interpretation. New York: Wiley.
• Kul, A. (2005). Engagement through Inclusivity: A study on student participation in higher education. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management.
• Ograh, J. (2014). Seduced by justice: Response to structural imbalance in Nigeria. [Publisher information not provided].