Don't Want to Lose my "Hope"

Although I didn't find these readings as engaging, and I struggled quite a bit in attempting to grasp the overlap into the main points each researcher was pointing to, I think there were several distinguishable patterns that were established in high school and continued at the university level.


To begin, there is an assumption we might make in Guiffrida's reading; the students who are now at PWIs, likely were high achieving African American students during high school, or there is a likelihood that they would not have been accepted to those colleges.


Many of the issues/reasons (such as cultural insensitivity and lack of engagement) why Guiffrida's high achieving black students at PWIs didn't have satisfying relationships with many of the faculty members are pointed out in Wiggan's research.  For example, at the high school level, the teachers would focus almost exclusively on European history and gave little focus to any other part of the world, indicating reinforced patterns of cultural exclusion that are repeated throughout many levels of the education system.

• Students in both research studies had, on average, better relationships with the teachers who were engaging and cared about what the student was feeling and thinking, exhibiting the "student-centered" philosophy.
• The faculty with the greatest ability to act in a more "student-centered" manner, such as being open and laid back usually received the highest satisfaction from the high achieving college students in Guiffrida's study, while in Wiggan's study, many of the students preferred the teachers who were strict enough to "coerce" learning and respect.

This gap between the high school and college level preference in teaching style shows a significant shift in ideology, that is more or less unexplained in either study.  While reading Guiffrida's study, I began to think of SUA and wondered whether the professors I had encountered here really do embody the idea of "student-centered" teaching. Must a teacher embody this philosophy to be a "good" teacher or relay the information clearly? How much is too much support, and where do you draw the line between academic relationship and personal relationship?