Importance of a Critical Mass

This chapter turns to the role of racial-ethnic identity-based campus organizations in helping or hindering students to manage feelings of being othered. Upon arrival on campus, racial-ethnic minority students find themselves dramatically outnumbered by White students, taught by largely White professors, and learning about White historical figures and artifacts. Because of the segregated nature of American K–12 schooling, this shift into suddenly being racially-ethnically outnumbered can be a significant challenge to campus integration. Mounting feelings of social isolation add an additional layer of stress atop an already difficult transition. Away from home for the first time, many minority students feel culturally lost as they begin their new life as college students. Students' perspectives on being othered ranged from feeling that their peers appreciated their differences to feeling stereotyped as the sole representative of their group. The extent to which they had counterspaces helped them process those feelings and celebrate their differences as diversity.

Understanding the motivation and transformation of White culturally responsive professors

The purpose of this study was to examine the motivation for White professors in higher education to become culturally inclusive in their teaching practices and the transformational experiences that created this motivation and shaped their development. The findings revealed personal convictions that centred on moral obligations towards teaching was the primary motivation for the participants, that culturally responsive teaching requires complex consideration in its implementation, and there are a variety of challenges that impact culturally responsive professors. Above all, the participants believed in the moral rightness of their work and felt obligated to teach in a culturally responsive manner.