When it comes to examining best practices within higher education, majority institutions should take a look at work being done at many of the nation’s minority-serving institutions.
That’s the recommendation of the authors of a new book, Educating a Diverse Nation (Harvard University Press), published by Drs. Marybeth Gasman and Clifton Conrad.
The authors studied 12 MSIs around the country and found new approaches to culturally relevant learning and real-world problem solving as they documented how faculty, staff and students often operate like a close-knit family.
The book also documents the personal stories of MSI students about their preparation for college, the relevance of higher education in their lives and the challenge of financing a college education—often as a first-generation student.
“We too often in higher education embrace the one size fits all view,” says Conrad, the Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Higher Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “The challenges that many students at Minority Serving Institutions face are very diverse. It isn’t just about money or being non-native speakers. But it’s some of the more invisible challenges and the intersection of these challenges that are not often discussed.”
The book, which was published in April, has already received widespread attention in the world of higher education.
“This book gives us a compelling narrative, filled with robust research, facts and recommendations to help colleges and universities better educate the growing population of Americans who will comprise the majority of college students in the decades ahead,” says Dr. Martha Kanter, the former U.S. Under Secretary of Education who now teaches at New York University.
