Culture, Community, and Educational Success

Crystal P. Glover is assistant professor of early childhood education at Winthrop University.Toby S. Jenkins is Associate professor in the curriculum studies program at the University of South Carolina.Stephanie Troutman is the assistant professor of Emerging Literacies at The University of Arizona.

Many Black, Latinx, multiracial and ethnically diverse, first-generation college students turned PhDs-tie their academic success, achievements, and ability to navigate the difficult terrain of higher education back to the critical experiences and lessons learned in their home lives and through their cultural backgrounds. For them, culture matters. This book offers an opportunity for an anti-deficit and positive examination of (Black, Latinx, and multiracial) culture and its role in creating educational efficacy among academics of color. Through personal narrative, educational and learning theory, creative writing/poetry, this hybrid text examines the cultural path to the doctorate.Transformative practice should be guided by an understanding of how an appreciation of a faculty member's cultural, life, and social experiences can be used to establish a healthy environment that will better appreciate, engage, and retain faculty of color. Along these lines, this text also considers how cultural, life and social experiences translate into pedagogy, mentorship and value as faculty of color.

Prologue: Coming Back to the Park: Community Cultural Wealth as a Source of Strength, Knowledge, and Sustenance, Toni M. WilliamsIntroduction: The Cultural Road to the Doctorate, Drs. Toby S. Jenkins, Stephanie Troutman, and Crystal Polite GloverPreface: Untitled Poem, Crystal L. EndsleySection I. Redefining Wealth: Family, Community, and Education Beyond SchoolChapter 1: Dirt Roads & Shotgun Houses: Where does genius call home? Toby S. JenkinsPersonal NarrativesSection II. Intersecting Identities: Personal Geography/ies, Social Class, and RaceChapter 2: Incidents in the Life of a Black/Bi-Racial Jersey Girl, Stephanie TroutmanPersonal NarrativesSection III: Navigating Tough Terrain: Cultural Resistance, Schooling Culture, and Liberatory EducationChapter 3: The Only One: A Black Girl's Experiences in Gifted and Talented Education, Crystal P. GloverPersonal NarrativesChapter 4: Conclusion: Contesting Privilege, Toby S. Jenkins, Stephanie Troutman, and Crystal Polite-GloverAbout the authors