When reading through Xueli Wang’s book, “Delivering Promise,” one is struck by the echo-like reverberation of what many educators experienced during the pandemic. She discusses this experience at length in Chapter 1 and 6. Educators had suffered through extreme burnout and turnover accompanied by the exhilaration of great effort and strides in innovation. We also became more aware of the plight of our students. This was especially true for those who engaged in DEI efforts at their colleges. There was a nationwide push for such efforts, but it was often lacking in structural, financial, and informed support. But like all catalyzing crises, this was our opportunity to start to re-envision what fundamental changes were needed at our institutions such as the rebuilding of an institutional culture which was based on human kindness and equity for faculty, staff, and students. By enriching rigorous instruction through a student-centered approach, we could come closer to delivering the promise of accessible education at our community colleges. By enriching professional development for educators, there is a supportive scaffolding to deliver on this promise.
As we entered into this strange new time, we also realized the importance of educational partnerships. Chapter 5 of Xeuli Wang’s book, looks specifically at the partnerships that centered around transfer relationships between the community colleges and the four-year institutions. We went through a learning curve in the understanding of our institutional differences as well as understanding what equitable collaboration is really about. It was vital that these partnerships evolve to adopt new strategies. We needed to learn how to see through the lens and language of the other in order to serve our most vulnerable student populations.
Summary provided by Susan Dentel at Washtenaw Community College