Going above and Beyond

In Othermothering as a Framework for Understanding African American Students’ Definititons of Student-centered Faculty, Douglas Guiffrida examines the quality of interaction between African American students and their faculty at Predominantly White Institutions with the aim of finding those characteristics that facilitate better interaction and meaningful relationships between them. I feel that by choosing a framework before he began the study, Guiffrida limited the scope of in investigation and rendered it less valuable than it could have been. By establishing the overarching framework of Othermothering he already had a conclusion in mind when asking his questions and analyzing his data. He describes othermothering as a long-held tradition within the African American population harking back to times of slavery when a slave woman would take up the responsibility for caring for children that were not her own as families were torn apart. The basis of Othermothering is that idea that the African American population as a community is under-privileged and lagging behind their white counterparts due to many social reason and there has been a tendency to care for each-other (especially children) to counter the social limitations that comes with being African American. The salient feature of this relationship is that it goes beyond simple friendship and becomes a familial bond. The point here is that race does matter. Even if each person is born an individual he/she is born into a history that defines to a large part how his/her life will be played out (Vygotsky). He/she even wears a uniform (the color of skin) that conveys his/her place on the social map(Ines).

Guiffrida discovered that the most significant feature that presented itself in his study was that what the students found most important to a student-centered faculty was their ability to “go above and beyond” their minimum required duties to serve the student. The students expected to receive such attention from African American professors because “they felt that they would understand them and their struggles” (718). These professors do tend to be responsive to these students and go above an beyond for them because in their past they have had the same experience of an other mother in the school environment; it is a culturally inherited trait. But does this cultural coping mechanism sustain itself through the expectations that it has created? The shared history of members of this group allow them to communicate and understand each-other more easily. The residue of their cultural history may be limiting, but it also pushes them to create a community with bonds much stronger than they may otherwise be. I feel that ultimately, the biggest discovery of this study is the basic desire of the students to be given personal attention and care as individuals which is something any professor, white or black or any other color, can do, thereby changing the direction of our future shared identities and communities from what has been left to us.

Although Guiffrida makes some good points and findings, he is still very limited. I appreciate Greg Wiggan for broadening the scope and context of the topic in his stude From Opposition to Engagement: Lessons from High Achieving African American Students. In contrast to Guiffrida, Wiggan’s approach does not confine the study under a pre-established framework. Wiggan looks at his study from phenomelogical standpoint where all theories are ignored so that the phenomenon can be observed in full and also Grounded theory in which theory discovery is derived from the data collected in the study. He also includes cognitive sociological theory which implies that people’s perceptions of their experiences are affected by the context of larger social conditions and phenomenon. He considers the audience’s assumptions as well when he discounts the Student Oppositional identity perspective which blames much of African American lack of success on an anti-achievement mentality born out of their culture. His goal is also different, to discover what it is that African American students feel is necessary for their academic success in college. With this goal, he is not only able to break the cultural assumptions but also discover the structural causes through the experiences of the interviewees and is able to make suggestions that are complementary to Guiffrida’s focused but limited remedies.