I see so many authors writing about first generation students drawing on (parts of) Tara Yosso's article about Community Cultural Wealth developed within communities of color. These articles and books posit that many first-generation students, whether from communities color or not, bring these forms of community wealth (or "assets") to their role as college students and these strengths help to explain their individual successes.
Yet as discussed in these books and articles, these "assets" are not typically leveraged in resistance to the institutional racism and oppression that Yosso writes about (I'll have another post on this soon) but are instead described more like personal soft skills that can even be highlighted when applying for jobs or internships.
Acknowledging that first-gen students have to be resourceful to succeed is great.
And I still think that a lot of this literature underestimates first-generation students.
This spot-on TikTok (below) came across my feed this week and it makes me think more about what counts as student "assets" in this literature:
@thezolyspirit Meanwhile their tuition was $0.35 and a Werther’s Original. #studentloans #boomers #millenials #genz
♬ original sound - Zoë Tyler - Zoë Tyler
What if first-gen support programming trusted students to be experts on their own circumstances of being broke (yes, I know, not all first-gen students are low-income but by far most are), about stingy social safety nets, about all the extra unnecessary time and work they have to put in just to access information and resources, about unequal public schooling? What if they were entrusted – and encouraged – to break campus silences about social class inequalities?
What if they were trusted to speak to power about these things (and maybe even be mentored on creating compelling media)? What if, instead of mostly being mentored about how to seek help on campus and to network with more powerful actors, they were also mentored in collective self-advocacy to challenge what's working against them on campus and beyond? What if there were a few fewer student-to-student panels with "tips" for succeeding and more student-to-administrator/faculty panels on "things here that make it harder for us to succeed"?
Why does so little of this first-generation literature describe students as empowered to be part of transforming higher education in substantive ways?
...especially given that Yosso talks specifically in that article that her goal in writing it is the transformation of racist educational institutions?
I'll write more on Yosso in this literature soon. For now, enjoy this gifted young woman's TikTok and imagine what first-gen students on every campus have to teach more powerful others about.
