(Re)Framing the Narrative: Strengthening Professional Identity Development of Students of Color through Asset-based Institutional Support By Deja Trammell

When thinking about higher education and academic success, there is this huge push to explore preparation gaps, enrollment and retention disparities, and matriculation of diverse students in academia. Some research on diverse students in postsecondary environments takes a deficit-approach focusing on measurable outcomes like standardized testing that situates underrepresented students negatively in the literature (Martin et al., 2017; Shapiro et al.,2017). While there is a need to address differences in academic preparation, there is an even greater need to understand the experiences of underrepresented students within higher education and the sociocultural contexts that influence their academic and professional development. As a student of life and the classroom, my motivation for success and desire to learn came from lived experiences and the continued support I received from my institution. Most of my progress as a scholar was a reflection of the extracurricular opportunities that supplemented my academic development throughout college. The access to resources and experiences that integrate experiential learning into practice improved my collegiate experience. Ensuring that BIPOC students are not only prepared to excel at postsecondary institutions but are supported professionally will help them persist in higher education and give them opportunities to discover their professional identity.

In Closing Higher Education’s Equity and Achievement Gaps, Mintz (2021) made a statement that resonated with me deeply. He stated that, “What we face in this society is a lack of opportunity. The preparation gap is, in reality, an opportunity gap.” While his position references K-12 preparation, it can be applied to the transition from higher education to employment for underserved students as well. Attending three different institutions for each degree level (a public HBCU, private HBCU, and a land-grant PWI), my position on underserved students having access to opportunities and resource rich environments grew stronger with each academic venture. Internships, for example, are significant opportunities to employ active learning skills in real-world settings to connect the contextual information learned in college. According to the 2020 Student Survey results from the National Association of Colleges and Employers, the internship disparity between students of color and their white counterparts is still perpetuated among college students, which significantly affects the job offers they receive and starting salaries. The data revealed that paid interns received nearly 32% more job offers than unpaid interns and nearly 75% more job offers than non-interns. Starting salaries ranged between $10,000 and -$20,000 more for students with internship experience compared to those without, and students of color were mostly a part of the non-interning population. By increasing accessibility and emphasizing the importance of professional development opportunities, practitioners can provide students of color more options to enhance their professional identity and reduce the opportunity gap in higher education.

While colleges and universities present opportunities for students to grow professionally, institutions do not always provide students of color the space to feel included as these opportunities may not reflect their academic and professional interests. For example, an institution creates a panel discussion that provides undergraduate students access to industry professionals who speak about their experiences in the workforce. If all six or seven panelists are white and have similar career experiences, students of color are left with idealized career experiences that may not portray realistic expectations about what their experience could look like in the workforce. Students of color may not be motivated to attend such events if there is no connection to their professional interests. Institutions should make concerted efforts to ensure that students of color feel supported to persist by not only providing supportive services, but by centralizing the experience of the student and integrating that into their professional development needs. As an advocate for experiential learning and professional development, I implemented a 28 Days of Career campaign in the University Career Center at Auburn University that recognized the work of diverse faculty, staff, alumni, and students throughout the institution and provided a welcome space for students of color to strengthen their professional skills, such as interviewing, job/internship searching, networking, etc. While there are concerns that the institution must serve all students and work to provide equitable services, including populations that are typically underrepresented in services and underserved throughout campus make these initiatives and opportunities the most equitable to all students by increasing their sense of belonging and investing in their educational pursuits.

In recognizing the experiences of students, we must reframe how we explore academic and professional goals with our students by infusing their narrative into their professional development. Institutions must adopt asset-based, solution-focused perspectives so students understand that their professional identity is created by their experiences and realities that inspire them to seek higher education. Using guiding frameworks such as Anti-Deficit Achievement Framework (ADAF; Harper, 2008), which is a perspective that focuses on the strengths or assets of students and what contributes to their success, can help professionals better assist students by reframing the questions asked in higher education. Instead of asking why students are struggling to persist in higher education, the question could be why students are succeeding in higher education or what is contributing to students being able to persist in academic environments. Providing a strength-based foundation for research questions and practice, ADAF recognizes students as experts of their experiences and addresses their needs. This framework orients the researcher to investigate the success of prevailing students to identify best practices and integrate efficient supportive services for practitioners.

Asset-based approaches in academia help students find their voice in academia by incorporating their opinions and feedback inside and outside of the classroom. Educators can ask students questions like “What motivates you to grow as a scholar and future professional?” to gain a better understanding of what the students hope to gain throughout college. Providing students the opportunity to actively co-construct learning concepts and activities that reflect their interests and identity will increase their self-efficacy. Once students are encouraged to pursue their interests, they are more determined to complete assignments and put greater effort into their work. Building students’ confidence early in their academic career will help them utilize their agency to persist in their academic environment. Therefore, increasing student agency increases student investment in their academic pursuits, leading to academic salience and achievement.

While academic support promotes academic salience (emphasis on their academic performance and success in the academic environment) and achievement, institutional supports like Career Services, Office of Diversity and Inclusion, Institutional Research, Student Affairs and Student Success can facilitate personal and professional development for students of color. These efforts should not be dichotomous in nature but should rather work in conjunction with each other facilitating the holistic development of the scholar. In the Chronicle of Higher Education, Bessette and Fisher (2021) recommended a narrative shift as we work to not identify the entire student population as monolith but rather as unique, individual agents in the learning process. Recognizing the student as the expert, allows for more intentional inquiry into the factors that influenced their success.

Campus-mediated involvement and auxiliary services support students’ personal development providing experiences that enrich their learning environment. Departments like the institutional resources listed above can support students of color through inclusive programming and opportunities to see their interests reflected in professional initiatives on their campus. High-achieving students contributed some of their academic success to active out-of-class engagement (Harper, 2005, 2008; Hughes, 2010). Harper (2008) expounds on the sense of belonging and increase in personal investment students feel when they are involved on campus outside of their coursework. Extracurricular engagement not only fosters personal development but professional development as well as the student learns how to leverage the resources and support of the university. Support could range from incorporating diversity among a panel of experts for a professional development event or incorporating students of color into the decision-making process on funding transparency and resource allocation. Institutional support for underrepresented students incorporates networking, inclusion, and leadership opportunities for students to feel connected to their university. Helping students create, leverage, and benefit from access to social networks is one of the biggest disparities seen among low-achieving and high-achieving students in higher education (Harper, 2008). Social capital allows students to cultivate hard and soft skills that will be used to attain career satisfaction. Institutions should strive to create opportunities that make students of color feel a sense of unity and connection to the university. Incorporating an anti-deficit perspective, staff should view the students’ ability as limitless and support their academic aspirations in its entirety. Peer mentorship, promoting leadership in professional and social organizations, resources to internships/co-operative learning, and making sure students of color have equitable access to all campus services are opportunities to use anti-deficit informed approaches. (Ball, 2016; Kniess, Buschlen, & Chang, 2020;). This shift in perspective centers the student rather than the problem in the conversation of salience and success. 

But what does it mean to “centralize” the student’s experience? And how would that look for institutions and the supportive services they provide? Faculty, staff, and other academic professionals can center the student by recognizing the significance of their experience prior to attending the university and using that to guide how they develop their academic and professional identity. Let’s say a student is struggling to connect the information they are learning in psychology class to how it applies to them in real life. The professor may recognize their conflict and choose to meet with the student to address it. During discussion, the professor finds out that the student takes interest in video games and expressed an appreciation for video games being an important part of their childhood and bonding with their siblings. The professor could then integrate the students’ interest into the assignment by connecting how video games have psychological effects on the brain and behavior and help the student make the connection to psychology for themselves. Let’s say the student meets with a career counselor for the same reason. The career counselor may then further explore the students’ interest and goals to assist them with finding a career that incorporates video games and psychology into a satisfying occupation. The positions these professionals took recognized the lived realities of the student and helped the student orient themselves in their academic journey and increase their agency within and outside the classroom.

Asset-based approaches provide strengths-based solutions that position the experiences of students of color as central to their academic and professional success. It allows educators and academic stakeholders the opportunity to centralize the needs of BIPOC students and facilitate support that increases their persistence. While educational research should identify vulnerable populations that are struggling to thrive in academia, there should be a counterbalance from institutional services to recognize the abilities and resilience of these students and provide support to overcome academic and professional challenges. Practitioners should focus their attention on creating systems that support students of color using the experiences of those who have successfully persisted in higher education. Incorporating the experiences of students who have successfully navigated their academic environment can provide replicable models that can be utilized by various higher education institutions.

About the Scholar

References

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