Barriers to Success

It is often easiest to notice barriers that affect us directly, but we can learn to notice barriers encountered by others. Understanding the history can help us understand the present situation.

Uteruses, Skulls, and IQs

While we don't have room in this course to explore all ways that people have justified the exclusion or oppression of other people using what sounded like science, here are a few highlights from US history:

• Women were supposedly incapable of learning at the same level as men because their uteruses diverted too much blood flow from their brains

• A person's intelligence could supposedly be judged by the volume of their skull, and White people apparently had the smartest skulls of all

• After skull measurements fell out of favor, IQ tests were popularized to supposedly prove that certain groups (such as Blacks and Jews) were genetically destined to have lower intelligence

If you're interested in learning more about science as a tool of oppression, just try doing an internet search for "history of eugenics"...

Even if we can now see the biases embedded in the hypotheses, methods, and conclusions of these "discoveries", these were often the reasons given for excluding people from higher education. This is part of why, even now, the default assumption that not all students will succeed creates a self-fulfilling prophecy which can do real harm.

We've now revisited many times the idea that a student's belief in their ability to succeed can have a substantial influence on their actual success. So if we operate under the premise that a certain percentage of students will fail, and students with certain identities feel out of place in academic spaces because of this historical exclusion, which students do you think are more likely to assume that they are the ones destined to fail?

The Hidden Curriculum

Generations of intentional exclusion from higher education had shaped assumptions about who "belongs" in college and university classrooms. That feeling of belonging is even further influenced by inter-generational knowledge of how to navigate academic spaces.

The term Hidden Curriculum refers to all the things we are expected to learn in school, even though they are not written in any syllabus or curriculum plan. These are often things having to do with behaviors, procedures, and cultural norms. Unfortunately, there are many items on the Hidden Curriculum which students are simply expected to know by the time they get to college, even though they are not taught in most secondary schools. First Generation students (students who are the first in their family to attend college) are often at a particular disadvantage here because they would not have been likely to learn any of this at home either.

Here are just a few items on the Hidden Curriculum which can be important to successfully navigate college life:

• What's a syllabus?

• What are Office Hours and how do you use them?

• When and how is it appropriate to email your professor?

• Can financial aid packages be renegotiated?

• How do you get good letters of recommendation?

None of these have particularly intuitive answers, some even vary depending on the circumstances. And most schools don't teach them to all incoming students. And yet, students are expected to know them.

The Other Things We Carry

Even if every student came in with the same academic preparation for college-level coursework and the same understanding of how to navigate college life, not all students carry the same emotional loads during their time in college. Students from lower income families will often work multiple jobs, some students are expected to care for other family members when they are not in class, some students struggle with depression, anxiety, and/or trauma, many students now carry the weight of the COVID-19 pandemic with them, and many students carry the weight of daily microaggressions.

The next time a student doesn't seem to be living up to their potential, ask yourself what invisible burdens they might be carrying.