1. PLA and Women of Color: Sharing Learning, Sharing
Strength
Frances Boyce and Cathy Leaker
Vfac, ESC, October 25, 2012
2. PLA and Women of Color: A Peer Support Model for
Open Approaches to PLA
• What is it?
• What’s “open” about it?
• What makes us think it will “work”?
• Next Steps
Source:
2
3. The Project: Targeted PLA Workshop Series for Women
of Color
• Support the successful participation of women
of color in the college’s PLA process
• Create a culturally sensitive, strength-based peer
community in which women of color can
develop “scholar” selves
• Bring the learning experiences of women of
color to bear more forcefully and effectively
within the academy
Source:
4. What’s Open About It?
“Open-ness and Open education…have
strengthened as a result of enduring democratic
aspirations ..and ideals of social justice”
Benke, Davis and Travers (2012), “SUNY Empire State College: A Game Changer in Open
Learning” Game Changers: Education and Information Technologies
Open isn’t necessarily equivalent with opportunity…..
…….but it can be
Source:
5. Open = Opportunity?: Gaps in access lead to degree
attainment gaps
Bachelor’s degree attainment of young adults (25-29 year olds)
39%
24%
19% 1975
14% 2010
11%
9%
White Black Hispanic
Source: NCES, Condition of Education (2010) and U.S. Census Bureau, Educational Attainment in the United States: 2010.
5
6. Associates
Bachelors Degree
100
No Degree
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Black/NonBlack NonNon PLA PLA student Student Student White Non Student PLA
Hispanic Hispanic
Hispanic Non Hispanic PLA Hispanic non PLA Hispanic
Pla White Non
• Source: CAEL, Underserved students who earn credit through PLA have higher degree
completion rate and shorter time to degree. April 2011
7. Why will it work?: theoretical and
practitioner research strands
• Egalitarian PLA
• Critical Race Theory (CRT)
• Composition and New Approaches to
“Remediation”
Source:
8. Next Steps
• Spring 2013 implementation of 3
interconnected workshops at LIC and the
Metropolitan Center
• Assessment based on participant survey and
progress of participant PLA
• Expanded implementation in Fall 2013
• Replicable, Reusable Model?
8
9. I have come to believe over
and over again that what is
most important to me must be
spoken, made verbal and
shared
Audre Lorde
9
Editor's Notes
OECD Education at a Glance (2008), Table A1.3a: Population with tertiary education, accessed athttp://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/45/39/45926093.pdfCarnevale, Smith, and Strohl, Help Wanted: Projections of Jobs and Education Requirements Through 2018, http://www9.georgetown.edu/grad/gppi/hpi/cew/pdfs/FullReport.pdf
For African American students the increase is about half that of white studentsFor Hispanic students the increase is a third of that of white students.
BlackAssocincreseas 7% with PlaHispan AS inc 11% w/PLA White AS inc 4% w/PLABlack Bach inc 23% with PLA HIS BA inc 41% w/PLA White BS inc 25% w/PLANo degree dec 26% No degdec 50% no degdec 25%1-6 Credits PLA for a woman decreases time to graduation more than a man who gets the same amount of credit.Graduation Rates
CRT challenges Notions of neutral research [and knowledge] and exposes deific informed research that silences, ignores and distorts epistemologies of people of color Yasso, 2005 I define CRT as a theoretical and analytical framework that challenges the ways race and racism impact educational structures practices and discourses In contrast CRT shifts the research lens away form a deficit view of communities of color as places full of cultural poverty or disadvantages and instead focuses on and learns form these communities cultural assets and wealth. “Our capacity to generate excitement is deeply affected by our interest in one another, in hearing one another’s voices, in recognizing one another’s presence” bell hooks
Each workshop will invite all participants to engage in a risk free dialogue about race, gender, experiential learning and college credit. Students in the workshops will also be provided with support for expressing their learning in different media forms. The workshops are designed sequentially, and while each workshop is open to anyone who wants to attend, students will benefit the most if they can attend all of them. 3 workshopsValuing Our Voices [dates] This workshop will explore how we can create knowledge by critically reflecting on our daily life activities. We will emphasize the importance of valuing all learning and ways of knowing. Finally, we will consider what we can learn from the historical struggles of minority women to have their voices to be heard.Identifying Learning [dates] Building on the exploration of knowledge, participants will reflect on her learning/experience and share them with the group. We’ll work better together to find common patterns and shared resources that will help us more effectively support each other.Recording and Documenting Learning Stories[dates] This culminating workshop will build on the previous two as they develop and demonstrate their learning in PLA requests. Strategize together how to make these requests both affirming and persuasive. Participants will have the opportunity to have her story of learning/experience videotaped. This offers the student the opportunity to articulate her learning and experiences in a new medium. Participants will be introduced to the different ways in which PLA can be expressed. It will provide students with options in demonstrating her learning.
