Cia Verschelden - Bandwidth Recovery: Helping Students Reclaim Cognitive Resources Lost to Poverty, Racism, and Social Marginalization

Praise for Bandwidth Recovery

Although other researchers have explored the debilitating effects of racism and poverty on college students ability to succeed, Cia Verscheldens novel perspective invigorates this discussion by uniquely employing the technological analogy of bandwidth, to make the multiple consequences of cognitive deprivation more vividly understandable than other analyses of these issues. She then infuses her book with numerous practical interventionsfrom neurobics mental exercises to using Pecha Kucha in the classroomthat readers can use to enhance cognitive ability and academic aptitude of their own students. Michael J. Cuyjet , EdD, Professor Emeritus, University of Louisville

Verschelden effectively immerses readers in and thereby sensitizes them to the array of economic; social; and physical, mental, and emotional realities that persistently drain nonmajority and socially marginalized students cognitive capacities to learn. Most important, she teaches us how to recover their capacities to become successful students.... Bandwidth Recovery is a timely, essential, and uplifting read for faculty and other contributors to student learning, assisting them in drawing out those students potential for success. Peggy L. Maki , education consultant specializing in assessing student learning

Verschelden convincingly makes the case that many lower income and minority students struggle in college not because of lower ability or poor preparation, but because they deal with life situations that deplete cognitive resources that are needed for learning. Offering us a distinctly different lens through which to view these students, she describes concrete strategies we can implement to replenish their cognitive resources so that they dont only survive, but thrive in the college environment with recovered bandwidth. Saundra McGuire , (ret.) Assistant Vice Chancellor and Professor of Chemistry; Director Emerita, Center for Academic Success, Louisiana State University; Author of Teach Students How to Learn

Bandwidth Recovery provides a roadmap for reversing the current trend, whereby only one in two high school students from low-income families enrolls in college in the first place, and the completion rate for those at the lowest socioeconomic rungs continues to lag far behind that of their wealthier peers. By drawing attention to the persistent economic and cultural barriers that continue to thwart the equity imperative upon which the American dream is built, Verschelden brings us closer to being able to fulfill the true promise of American higher educationthat of educating for democracy. Lynn Pasquerella , President of the Association of American Colleges & Universities

Bandwidth Recovery is a well-written, insightful, must-read book that offers educators and counselors who work with socially marginalized youth functional strategies for promoting a growth mind-set and self-efficacy to increase learning capacity in and out of the classroom. Joseph L. White , PhD, Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Psychiatry, School of Social Sciences, University of California, Irvine

BANDWIDTH RECOVERY

BANDWIDTH RECOVERY

Helping Students Reclaim Cognitive
Resources Lost to Poverty, Racism, and
Social Marginalization

Cia Verschelden

Foreword by

Lynn Pasquerella

COPYRIGHT 2017 BY
STYLUS PUBLISHING, LLC.

Published by Stylus Publishing, LLC.
22883 Quicksilver Drive
Sterling, Virginia 20166-2102

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying, recording, and information storage and retrieval, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Verschelden, Cia, 1955- author.
Title: Bandwidth recovery : helping students reclaim cognitive
resources lost to poverty, racism, and social marginalization /
Cia Verschelden ; foreword by Lynn Pasquerella.
Description: First edition. | Sterling, Virginia : Stylus Publishing,
2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017007920 (print) |
LCCN 2017033905 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781620366066 (Library networkable e-edition) |
ISBN 9781620366073 (Consumer e-edition) |
ISBN 9781620366042 (cloth : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9781620366059 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Children with social disabilities--Education-
United States. | Students with social disabilities--United States. |
Cognition in children--Social aspects--United States. |
Education--Social aspects--United States.
Classification: LCC LC4091 (ebook) |
LCC LC4091 .V47 2017 (print) |
DDC 371.826/94--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017007920

13-digit ISBN: 978-1-62036-604-2 (cloth)
13-digit ISBN: 978-1-62036-605-9 (paperback)
13-digit ISBN: 978-1-62036-606-6 (library networkable e-edition)
13-digit ISBN: 978-1-62036-607-3 (consumer e-edition)

Printed in the United States of America

All first editions printed on acid-free paper
that meets the American National Standards Institute
Z39-48 Standard.

Bulk Purchases

Quantity discounts are available for use in workshops and for staff development.
Call 1-800-232-0223

First Edition, 2017

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For Patty, Emma, Abe, and John, my first children, who inspire me in
this work, hoping it will contribute to the realization of a more
equitable and peaceful world.

CONTENTS

Lynn Pasquerella

Scarcity

Georgia State University

FOREWORD

W hen J. D. Vances (2016) best-selling memoir Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis took the literary world by storm just prior to the 2016 presidential election, it served as a stark reminder to leaders in higher education of the extent to which increasing access to educational opportunities alone is not sufficient to destabilize the reproduction of social inequality in the academy. Vance exemplified Chicago School sociologist Robert Ezra Parks concept of the marginal man, which he defined as one whom fate has condemned to live in two societies and in two, not merely different but antagonistic cultures (Park, 1928, p. 892). Parks description of the marginal mans conflict of the divided self as resulting from the life and traditions of two distinct peoples; never quite willing to break, even if he were permitted to do so, with his past and his traditions, and not quite accepted... in the new society in which he now sought to find a place (Park, 1928, p. 892) is developed and enhanced by Cia Verschelden. In her compelling and groundbreaking analysis of how factors such as poverty, racism, and social marginalization contribute to diminished cognitive resources, she unveils how the human tendency to arrive at group identities around race, class, gender, and culture serves to perpetuate a growing economic segregation in higher education.