Stereotype Threat Theory and First-Generation Students: Strategies for Faculty Created by / Anna Plemons and Jordan Engelke Critical Literacies Achievement and Success Program How might you help a First Generation Student become more confident in their academic abilities? What are some practices that have been used in the past that have helped students focus on their academics? Washington State University

Let’s Play “Green Glass Door” The object of the game is to determine what can be brought through the Green Glass Door. Go first and say the following: “I can bring a kitten through the Green Glass Door, but I cannot bring a cat. What else are you bringing with you through the Green Glass Door?” (The key is that the name of the object must have double letters, either consonants or vowels, but do not tell the audience this.) More examples: grass, but not flowers; a happy person, but not a sad person mushrooms, but not a fungus; feet, but not toes overalls, but not blue jeans; apples, but not bananas a rabbit, but not a hare ; the moon, but not the sun screen, but not a window; a hammer, but not a nail pepper, but not salt a pineapple, but not an orange a puppy, but not a dog A Boot but not, a shoe The floor but, not the house. Teeth but not smiles An earring, but not a necklace. Google, but not Bing Wheels, but not a tire Beer, but not wine Book, but not a magazine

GREEN GLASS DOOR Puppy, not dog Kitten, not cat Boots, not shoes Beer, not wine Wheels, not a tire More hints… After several minutes, reveal the object of the game and move on to these questions. The game may make no sense at first. You might pick up clues on how to play, here and there. If you get the correct answer, you’re more puzzled than proud. You may not know how you did or if you deserve the praise. Once the rules are realized, you are excited to learn that it’s not that complicated—You can do this!

If you want to play the game, it helps to know the rules. Were there times you thought you understood the rules of the game? Did you want to participate, but felt you couldn’t? Could you pick up on clues, here and there, on how to play the game? Were you relieved to guess a correct answer but had no idea why it was right? Was it frustrating seeing other people understand the game? So, how might this relate to the experiences of First Generation Students? If you want to play the game, it helps to know the rules.

Two Dangers in Facilitating a Conversation about First-Generation Students: Use stereotypes that hyper-define and/or over-determine differences between First-Generation Students (FGS) and their peers Sanitize differences so that real and concrete challenges are muted and/or made invisible There is no monolithic First-Generation Student, but many FGS share some common characteristics.

Stereotype Threat Stereotype Threat Video (5 min video that introduces the concept of stereotype threat)

Stereotype Threat The threat of being viewed through the lens of a negative stereotype Fear of doing something that will inadvertently confirm a stereotype Linked to diminished performance based on the associative psychological stress -What examples does Steele use? Talk about those briefly. From Steele, C. (1999). Thin Ice. Atlantic Monthly. 282(2).

Stereotype Threat Reduction in stereotype threat supports an open, relaxed posture for learning and improves academic performance. What did Steele illustrate? All he did was add a comment that women do well in this test and then, women did well. As a teacher, this is exciting because it’s a matter of disciplining yourself to cue the environment, and costs almost no time or money because what we really want is for everyone to be in that “open, relaxed posture for learning” in our classrooms. From Steele, C. (1999). Thin Ice. Atlantic Monthly. 282(2).

Defining the Politicized Climate “[P]olitical antagonisms are being formulated in terms of moral categories. We are still faced with political friend/enemy discriminations but they are now expressed using the vocabulary of morality. . . . When opponents are defined not in political terms but in moral terms, they cannot be envisaged as an ‘adversary’ but only as an enemy.” (75-76) “[A]gonism is a we/they relation where the conflicting parties, although acknowledging that there is no rational solution to their conflict, nevertheless recognize the legitimacy of their opponents. They are ‘adversaries’ not enemies. This means that, while in conflict, they see themselves as belonging to the same political association, as sharing a common symbolic space within which the conflict takes place. We could say that the task of democracy is to transform antagonism into agonism.” (20) -Chantal Mouffe, On the Political (2005)

Invention Activity for Teacher Response Imagine you have assigned an Op-Ed project in which students are charged with the task of responding to a significant contemporary political issue. Discuss how you would respond to the two Op-Ed examples provided. Questions to consider: How can I help the composer be a stronger and more rhetorically-aware communicator? What is the composer attempting to communicate or accomplish? To whom is the composer attempting to communicate? What is at stake for the composer? How can I help myself be a stronger and more rhetorically-aware communicator? How am I situating myself as a reader/reviewer/evaluator of the composer’s work? Where am I deriving my ethos and/or authority to respond to the composer’s work? What is at stake for me in reading/reviewing/evaluating the composer’s work?

Article link: https://www. nytimes This slide helps because we hear stereotypes that parents of FGS are uninvolved or unsupportive but this story shows that parents DO care, which complicates stereotypes of FGS Discuss the main ideas in the article and how stereotype threat or the experiences of FGS might be complicated “We thought we all needed to be there for freshman orientation — the whole family, for the entirety of it...They’d used all their vacation days from work and had been saving for months to get me to school and go through our orientation.”

Stereotype Threat What stereotype threats might there be in your classroom or specific discipline?

Cues and Clues 1. Make the rules explicit whenever and wherever possible “Parents usually participate in the first day of orientation, then leave campus.” 2. Diffuse stereotype threat with environmental cues “This is a difficult assignment. Most students really struggle with it the first time through.” 3. Encourage a malleable view of intelligence “Academic reading is really challenging, but the more you do it the easier it gets. Its like a muscle. When I was first in grad school…” Let’s get into small groups and take a few minutes to provide real-life examples of changes we can make to cue and clue FGS. Ask the groups to share.

So What? / Takeaways “[T]exts can be presented to students in such a way that theory finds articulation in practice, that though there is anger and frustration, that is how the dialectic works. Race and class and gender struggles and coming to grips with those struggles means that there must be combat in the contact zone. And that persuasion in the sense of conversion is not likely in the few short weeks that we see students, but the process of change and reconsideration can surely be achieved, the dialectic entered into.” (50) -Victor Villanueva, Jr., “Shoot-Out at the I’m OK, You’re OK Corral” (1997) Central policy implication of the research: “Unless [we] make people feel safe from the risk of these identity predicaments in identity-integrated settings, [we] won’t succeed in reducing group achievement gaps or in enabling people from different backgrounds to work comfortably and well together.” (215)

In the Next CLASP Module: Power and Privilege in the Curriculum: Working with your institution’s Student Learning Outcomes

References Chantal Mouffe, On the Political (2005) Claude Steele, “Thin Ice.” Atlantic Monthly, vol. 282, iss. 2. 1999. Victor Villanueva, “Shoot-Out at the I’m OK, You’re OK Corral.” 1997.