leadership engagement

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MY EXPERIENCE WITH ADVISING DIVERSE STUDENTS AND FACILITATING THEIR LEARNING ENGAGEMENT BY JOHN OGRAH, Ph.D. STUDENT AFFAIRS CONCENTRATION APPLICANT.

In my current position as a diverse student and retention coach at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, I provide counseling advisement to diverse and minoritized students to increase their retention on campus. In discharging these duties, I saw that my students encountered impediments such as a negative racial/ethnic campus climate, a lack of academic preparedness, and difficulty integrating socially and engaging academically. And because these impediments often lead to students’ disengagement and diminished college success, I initiated small group advisement sessions to engage the students. In this group, students of color are encouraged to attend the first-year seminar class and meet with me every week. I encountered setbacks in my attempt to implement the small group advisement initiative at the initial stage because, the students were slow in responding to the engagement prompts that I gave to them, and also they would not want to interact. To enquire what the problem was, I decided to create a space for one-on-one meeting with each student outside the advising group.

Following the meeting, I found that the setback I encountered was because my pattern of engagement was not inclusive and I had engaged in cultural minimization; a situation whereby leaders are unaware that they are projecting their own cultural values (Bennett, 2006). As such, I recognized that for students of color to feel supported, I turned to Lum (2011) who advises that educators have the ethical responsibility to construct a learning environment that emphasizes cultural immersion that is relational, and encourages dialogue between cultures, people and context. As a result, I adopted an inclusive and cultural immersion initiative in my advisement sessions, and my students became motivated to participate actively in group sessions. Thus, I learned from the experience that students are actively engaged when they perceive the group advisement sessions to be inclusive, affirming, and performance expectations are clearly stated (Kuh, Kinzie, & Schuh, 2005).

I have also had previous experiences leading other undergraduate students in my senior year as president of the National Association of Philosophy Students (NAPS), Ekpoma chapter, Nigeria. In this capacity, I attended to the association’s basic needs by organizing monthly meetings and bi-monthly symposia and I also related the students’ academic needs to the department of philosophy. During this time, I witnessed how issues of philosophy were discussed at symposia and for the most part, they did not fully address complex social issues. As a result, I consulted with the department’s chair and proposed the initiative to organize a symposium that addresses issues of disparity in educational opportunities, economic inequality and stigma of marginalized ethnic minorities in the Nigerian society. I recognized that to facilitate the change that I wanted to see, programs as Mertens (2010) advises, need to be intertwined with policies and a political change agenda to confront social oppression at whatever level. Hence, together with the department’s chair, we organized a symposium on “bridging the social gap” in April 2007, in which undergraduate philosophy students were able to discuss the role of philosophy in engaging the society. The outcome of the symposium is instructive as to how I engage students as a leader, and as such, the initiative demonstrated to the community the values of discussing issues of philosophy in contexts.

Based on the leadership experiences that I have had, I share the view that leadership engagement is about influence, coordination and supervision. That being the case, small group advisement led by a student of color can help facilitate change in the students’ learning engagement. Effective engagement is also context-related and as such, I recognise the importance of a cultural plunge in helping to motivate unmotivated students. In the small advisement group that I led, I was the cultural plunger and the students have felt empowered to actively engage in cross-cultural interactions, and they have experienced an increased sense of campus involvement. Consequently, I agree with Nieto (2006) that cultural plunge represents a type of education that is experiential, meaningful, interesting, challenging, confidence-building, growth-inducing and rewarding for most students.

References

Bennett, M. (2015). Cultural Sensitivity: Respect for People’s strength, culture and knowledge.

NYC Human Resources administration department of social sciences. www.1.nyc.gov

Edwards, B., H. (2007). Introduction: The souls of black folk. Oxford: Oxford University

Press.

Kuh, G. D., Kinzie, J., & Schuh, J. H. (2005). Never let it rest: Lessons about student success

from high-performing colleges and universities. Change: The Magazine of Higher

Learning, 37(4), 44-51

Lum, Doman (2011). Culturally competent practice: A framework for understanding diverse

groups and justice issues (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole

Mertens, D. M. (2010). Transformation mixed methods research. Qualitative Inquiry, 16

(6), 469 - 474.

Nieto, J (2006). “The Cultural Plunge: Cultural Immersion as a means of promoting self-

awareness and cultural sensitivity among student teachers.” Teacher Education Quarterly,

winter 2006, pp.75-84