Multicultural Learning Communities: Vehicles for Developing Self-Authorship in First-Generation College Students

This longitudinal study of first-generation (FG), low-income students considers the impact of their participation in a Multicultural Learning Community (MLC) designed to challenge the isolation and marginalization such students experience at a large Midwestern research university. The study explores the extent to which learning community design, coupled with multicultural curriculum and critical pedagogy, creates avenues for self-authorship for historically marginalized students in a TRIO program. Twenty-four FG students were interviewed 3 to 4 years after participation in the MLC, and results were analyzed through the framework of self-authorship. Findings focus on the dimensions of interpersonal and cognitive development, demonstrating that curricular spaces can facilitate the interplay of these two dimensions to build social and academic integration for FG students.