In order for Black students, who are traditionally marginalized and excluded, to enter higher education and succeed, they need to learn how to participate fully in the academic environment. Oftentimes these students start college, but leave during the first semester because they feel as if they cannot make it in the White-dominated college environment.
They enter the environment mostly under prepared, and their dreams of earning a degree quickly fade as the realization of higher education’s expectations upon them are difficult, if impossible to meet and they end up becoming part of the some 30% of minority college students who enter college but do not earn their degrees.
Burke and Johnston suggest that in order to tame the violent flames of inequity in educational accessibility, we first need to begin to prepare students early for a postsecondary academic environment. This does suggest that teachers in elementary, middle and high school need to expect that all of their students will enter postsecondary education and teach accordingly. Next, they suggest that college faculty need to transform their experiences and expectations by including the Black students and engaging them during instruction.
Programs and policies to promote black student success
If a campus wishes to enrich the learning environment of its students and faculty, special care needs to be taken in creating developmental programs and increasing minority retention.
One way is by making sure that the program is diverse itself, meaning that administrators and educators need to look at the school’s mission, vision, values, structures, policies and resources to make sure diversity is emphasized, and if not, then efforts need to be made to change. Ultimately, the focus of the curriculum should be firmly committed to social justice and equal educational opportunity for every student. Part of this is employing and recruiting minority instructors who are of high quality and possess the desire to educate in a diverse population.
While it is important for minority students to feel part of a community, if their instructors are not prepared and/or willing to teach them, then the students may fail anyway. Many teachers lack any training in multicultural learning. Smith, Echols and Thomas found that just about one-half of the higher educational institutions in the United States offer any training in multiculturalism (cited in Blunt, 2006). Thus, teachers who are untrained usually do not talk about ethnicity or any issues affecting world diversity because their experiences are limited and often a result of stereotypical textbooks and predominantly White, mainstream educational experiences.
