Retaining First-Generation Minority Students at the University Level San Juan College By Larry Torres

1. Retaining First-Generation Minority Students at the University LevelSan Juan CollegeBy Larry Torres

2. Do minority students think differently from mainstream students?

3. Stretch Your Perspective!

4. Impediments

5. Two conflicting signals

6. Sometimes it’s a matter of reading between the lines…

7. Slight Variations: Rocks That Pray

8. From Amphibian…

9. To Mammal

10. Slight Variations: The Frog

11. Misperceptions of subject matter are often a product of cultural differencesin interpretation.To illustrate this point your will now be shown series of words. As fast as you can, say the colorof the wordinstead of the word itself…

12. Read THE COLOR as fast as you can • YELLOWBLUEORANGE • BLACKRED GREEN • PURPLEYELLOW RED • ORANGE GREEN BLACK • BLUERED PURPLE • GREENBLUEORANGE

13. Reasons for the difficulty: The right side of your brain tries to say the COLOR but The left side of your brain insists on saying the WORD itself

14. Students whose first language is NOT English are often caught in this same situation.

15. What defines the “Chicano?” • 1.) Chico/chiquito=little ones or minority? • 2.) Méjico-Americanos=Mexican Americans? • 3.) Chinese + Mexicans = Chicanos? • 4.) from the word “Chicanery” means swindlers and thieves?

16. Actually… • It comes from the word “Meshica=Aztecs. • Meshicano by extension=sons of the Meshica/Aztecs

17. Can You Hear What I’m Seeing? • Ran Dumb Max Suck Highness • Lease Hummer Reap Wrest Lee • Thud How Less Cow Poise • Bills Spare Reed Oh Boy! • Law Sand Jealous

18. Can You STILL Hear What I Am Seeing? • Haste Rubber Reap Eye • Pose Dulls Her Fizz • Knead Tomb Oath Hug Harass • Ale Of Huff Air • We Knit Train Zip Oars • Ape Arrow Uncle As His

19. You CAN Hear what I am Seeing! • Chew Rule Solemn • Some Arrow Limp Hicks • Koala Deep Rod Ducks • Kit Tread He Fort Hey Cough • Dawn Dude Rugs • Ape Hack Awful Eyes

20. Heaven is a place with… • An American house, • Chinese food, • British police, • German car, • French art

21. Hell is a place with… • A Japanese house, • Chinese police, • British food, • German art, • French car.

22. EticEmic

23. Another element that can color perception includes religious upbringing.

24. The Etic tends to see the immediate. The Emic tends to read the deeper significance.

25. Is this Guadalupe or Juan Diego dropping roses?

26. Historical Trauma: • A communal or tribal consciousness of its past • An on-going awareness of “cultural difference” • A sense of unworthiness or of inequality • A personal sense of not belonging • A perceived memory of better times and places

27. The Native Experience

28. The Black Experience

29. The Jewish Experience

30. The Irish Experience

31. The Hispano Experience

32. The Anglo American Experience

33. Institutional Knowledge

34. Tribal Knowledge

35. Textbook culture • Government approved • Government sponsored • Organized by levels • Outlined on syllabi • Usually instructor centered or led • Encourages students to be passive

36. Home Culture • A wider agenda far beyond the classroom walls • Active participation • The student sees himself as teacher • Based on experience and tribal memory

37. Institutional Attitude: We don’t know who discovered water but we’re pretty sure it wasn’t a fish.

38. Institutional Attitude: Shakespeare can’t teach a course on Shakespeare because he doesn’t have a degree in Shakespeare.

39. Small Agenda, Large Agenda

40. What is “The Southwest?” The term “Southwest” is an ethnocentric one; what is south and west to the Anglo-American was for a long time, the north of the Hispano-American and center to the natives. On the south now, the international boundary severs some of the Indians and Hispanos from their cultural kin and older connection farther south. -D.W. Meinig The Multicultural Southwest

41. English written in Spanish pronunciation • Uans apan a taim der uas a litl boi ju laikt to si pipl panic. • Juenever ji cud, he ud crai: “Jelp! Jelp! Ulf! Ulf! • Da pipl ud cam raning tu juer da boi uas and ji ud fal on da flor and laf jimself sili. • Uan dei jauever, a ril ulf did cam over tu juer da boi was…

42. Institutional VS Tribal Knowledge has been parodied in the media

43. Look for Commonalities

44. Ownership • By giving ownership you also endow the recipient with responsibility, conscious awareness and participation. • This can only be achieved through regular class attendance or field study. • There is now a classroom full of teachers led by one facilitator.

45. Palindromes: words or sentences that can be read the same forwards or backwards. • Snub Sununu’s Buns! • SnubSununu’sBuns! • Slap nuts, stun pals! • Slapnuts, stunpals! • Eros? Sidney, my end is sore! • Eros? Sidney,my end issore!

46. Do palindromes work in Spanish? • Yo hago yoga hoy. • Yo hago yoga hoy. • Anita lava la tina. • Anita lava la tina. • Échele leche. • Échele leche. • Amad a la dama. • Amada ladama.

47. Metathesis:The transposition of letters or numbers • Spaghetti=pasghetti • Magazine=mazagine • Breakfast=breafkast • Ask=aks • Hamburger=hangerber • Pizza-Hut=Hutta-Piz • Nuclear=nucelar

48. CommonTranspositions in Spanish • Piedra=pierda • Catálogo=catágalo • Estómago=estógamo • Gabriel=Grabiel • Derritir=reditir • Pared=pader • Telaraña=taralaña • Ciudad=cuidad

49. There are experts everywhere but people who can actually teach are few and far between.

50. Ownership • We must look into pairing theory with practice, • We must look into mentorship and internship programs, • We must involve the whole family of the first-generation minority student, • We must make it REAL and PRACTICAL • We must pair English programs with vo-tech classes