Critical Moments: An Approach for Easing the Cultural Isolation of Under represented College Students through Multicultural Case Study Discussions

"Critical Moments" is a cultural diversity case study project undertaken by a multicultural faculty team in The Goodrich Scholarship Program at The University of Nebraska at Omaha. A twenty-five-year old program for students who demonstrate significant financial need, the Goodrich Program has won local and national recognition for its retention of Under represented students and its multicultural curriculum in the humanities and social sciences. In 1994, a culturally diverse subgroup of the faculty formed a research team and developed and tested what we now call "Critical Moments," a cultural diversity case study project designed to ease the isolation of the culturally diverse students. We interviewed culturally diverse students about their "critical moments": times when their difference(s) by race/ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, disability, and/or gender, set them apart from the culture of our university in ways that silenced them. In in-depth interviews, students describe troubling experiences that almost led them to drop out of school.

In analyzing the interview transcripts, we realized that how the students interpreted their experiences at the university was more important, often, than having any given experience, whether negative or positive. Moreover, these students had no place to go to discuss what was happening to them. We turned to case studies to afford students the opportunity to discuss critical moments that they might otherwise negotiate alone. During case discussions, students often become aware of the ways that they interpret their experiences; they can open up their thinking to entertain alternative ways of interpreting experience and create new possibilities for action, including changing institutional practices. In discussions, we especially encourage comparison and contrast of different methods of problem solving and decision making in the context of collaboration with other students.

During the 1995 Fall semester, two members of the team taught 11 cases to two groups of first-year, first-semester, culturally diverse students. (The students met each Friday throughout the semester as part of a three-hour course.) With support from the Spencer Foundation, we audio taped and transcribed all discussions and video taped three discussions and are currently analyzing this data for patterns of social, cognitive, and cultural development. The evaluations of these groups was so positive that the program decided to have all 70 of its first-year students participate during Fall of 1996 (with research currently continuing on these groups). With funds from The Ford Foundation, we are currently implementing the model at Metropolitan Community College and have drafted a manual to guide others in writing and teaching cases.

The Critical Moments model includes: 1) forming a multicultural team; 2) interviewing Under represented students for descriptions of critical moments that in some way relate to race/ethnicity, gender, class, ability/disability, and/or age; 3) analyzing the interview for generative themes; 4) writing a case study from the interview section; 4) testing the case; and 5) teaching the case. Two of the cases have been published in the National Teaching and Learning Forum (Vol. 5, Number 5; Vol. 6, Number 1) with commentaries. They can be ordered from The Oryx Press, 4041 North Central #700, Phoenix, Arizona 85012. Or contact Diane Gillespie at The Goodrich Scholarship Program, Annex 39, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha, NE 68182-0208 phone: 402-554-3466.

Gillespie, Diane. Critical Moments: An Approach for Easing the Cultural Isolation of Under represented College Students through Multicultural Case Study Discussions. The Oryx Press: Phoenix, Arizona. 1996.