Shannon Calderone

The Meaning of Money Perceptual Differences Between College Counselors and Low-Income Families About College Costs and Financial Aid

A sociocultural understanding of affordability is essential to understanding the college cost deliberations of low-income African American and Latino students and their families. Habitus shapes and informs college affordability decisions for students and their families. Using interviews with 63 college counselors in urban secondary schools, low-income underrepresented students’ assessments of affordability were framed by a highly individualized assessment of need, an internalized calculation of costs versus benefits, and an acute awareness of the competing demands resulting from financial scarcity. The perceptual differences concerning college affordability are an unintended consequence of differential tastes between middle-income counselors and low-income families.

Developing cultural competency in higher education: an agenda for practice

ABSTRACT As a result of changing national values and unrest, demographic and population shifts, and ever-changing admissions practices and policies, implementing a diversity and cultural-competency agenda within university settings has become a priority across the UK, Europe, and US. Furthermore, public institutions across the UK, EU, and US are now more racially and ethnically diverse than ever [Snyder, T. D., C. Debray, and S. A. Dillow. 2016. ‘Digest of Education Statistics 2016.’ NCES 2016-006. National Centre for Education Statistics; Sursock, Andree. 2015. Trends 2015: Learning and Teaching in European Universities. European University Association. Accessed October 28 2017. www.eua.be/Libraries/publicationshomepage-list/EUA_Trends_2015_web.]. Yet, cultural competency efforts on campuses remain largely under theorized [Bezrukova, K., K. A. Jehn, and C. S. Spell. 2012. “Reviewing Diversity Training: Where We Have Been and Where We Should Go.” Academy of Management Learning and Education 11 (2): 207–227] and diffuse [Sue, S., D. C. Fujino, L. T. Hu, D. T. Takeuchi, and N. W. Zane. 1991. ‘Community Mental Health Services for Ethnic Minority Groups: A Test of the Cultural Responsiveness Hypothesis.’ Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 59 (4): 533–540]. This article seeks to outline an agenda for this work, highlighting outcomes of cultural competency learning and underscoring the role of campus leadership in the development of supportive characteristics. These characteristics include attention to shared knowledge, professional learning at all levels of the organization, inclusive instructional methods, integration with other campus initiatives, and inclusivity of diversity foci. Posited are six supportive conditions for successful implementation.

The Role of Social Trust in Low-Income Latino College Financing Decisions

We consider the role of social trust in mediating student loan decision-making among Latino students and their parents. Using interview and focus group data from 112 Latino students and 48 parents, we examined how the historical interactions of Latino families with bureaucratic entities shaped perceptions around student loans.

Neoliberalism, the New Imperialism, and the “Disappearing” Nation-State: A Case Study

The logic of modern economic development has redirected critical discourse on globalisation from a critique of the self-regulating nation-state to a more intensified focus on the role of transnational and multinational entities (MNEs) in promoting global economic disequilibrium (Rhoads and Torres 2005b). International economic integration through regionally based trading blocks, migratory patterns of a new mobile labor force, expansion of technological capabilities that place international transactions in real time, and elevated levels of foreign investment all serve as prima facie evidence of a new economic world order that positions multinational corporate interests above those of the nation-state (Castells 1997; Chomsky 1998; Stiglitz 2002). Similarly, the rise in prominence of influential regional economic centers, such as Hong Kong, Singapore, and the Pacific Northwest in the USA, offer powerful evidence of the declining role and importance of the nation-state. These regional centers are often characterized as high-density urban areas comprising interdependent, autonomous networks of private enterprise, operating as regional hubs for the importation and exportation of capital and information-based expertise (Sassen 2001; Scott 2001). According to Ohmae (1995), the regulative impotence of the nation-state serves to reorganize existing power arrangements so that sovereignty over economic activity is localized within regional economic centers, thus resulting in a new and evolving sense of “borderlessness.” This, combined with the nation-state’s diminishing capacity to regulate exchange rate and currency protections, has led to what Ohmae and others view the “real economic activity” as the state’s wholesale forfeiture.