Bandwidth Recovery: Helping Students Reclaim Cognitive Resources Lost to Poverty, Racism, and Social Marginalization

by Cia Verschelden

Overview

Bandwidth Recovery explores how students’ cognitive resources are diminished by persistent economic insecurity, childhood trauma, and marginalization, while offering strategies and interventions to help learners regain the bandwidth they need to succeed in college.

When college students feel like they don’t belong – or are fearful, uncertain, or otherwise prevented from being their authentic selves – much of the mental bandwidth needed for learning is not available. When they are food insecure, financially unstable, or coping with the effects of childhood trauma, cognitive capacity is likewise diminished. Beginning with analysis of the most up-to-date research on the mental and physical impact of poverty, racism, and other forms of social marginalization, Cia Verschelden presents vetted approaches for promoting a growth mindset and self-efficacy in students. Readers will learn to develop supports that build upon students’ values and prior knowledge with the goal of creating a sense of belonging and community both in and out of the classroom. New to this edition are updated terminology and discussions of neurodiversity, childhood trauma, economic inequality, and the ongoing effects of the COVID pandemic.

This book is intended for all higher education faculty, student affairs professionals, administrators, and scholars interested in creating learning environments where every student has the chance to succeed.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781040171790
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	11/13/2024
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	208

About the Author

Cia Verschelden was a Special Projects Advisor at the American Association of Colleges & Universities and former Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs at Malcolm X College – City Colleges of Chicago. Holding an EdD from Harvard University and an MSW from the University of Connecticut, Cia has over 30 years of student affairs, faculty, and administration experience at both two- and four-year public institutions.

Table of Contents

Part 1: The Bandwidth Tax of Marginalization: Poverty, Racism, and Economic Inequality 1. Physical Health 2. Mental Health 3. Economic Inequality and Its Cost in Human Capacity 4. Available Cognitive Capacity – Bandwidth Part 2: Sociopsychological Underminers: Broken Connection 5. Childhood Trauma 6. Belonging Uncertainty 7. Stereotype Threat and Identity Threat 8. Human Connection 9. Focus on LGBTQ Students 10. Neurodiversity 11. Uncertainty: Existential Anxieties Part 3: Supporting Bandwidth Recovery 12. Trauma-informed/Asset-focused Practice 13. Belonging: Building Community/Intentional Connection 14. Decreasing Stereotype Threat and Identity Threat 15. Growth Mindset 16. Minimizing Uncertainty: Institutional Structures and Processes

Editorial Reviews

"Although other researchers have explored the debilitating effects of racism and poverty on college students’ ability to succeed, Cia Verschelden's novel perspective invigorates this discussion first by uniquely employing the technological analogy of bandwidth, to make the multiple consequences of cognitive deprivation more vividly understandable than other analyses of these issues. She then infuses her book with numerous practical interventions – from 'Neurobic' mental exercises to using Pecha Kucha in the classroom – that readers can use to enhance cognitive ability and academic aptitude of their own students."

Michael J. Cuyjet, Ed.D. Professor Emeritus, University of Louisville

"Bandwidth Recovery is a well-written, insightful must-read book that offers educators and counselors who work with socially marginalized youth to develop functional strategies for promoting a growth mindset and self-efficacy to increase learning capacity in and out of the classroom."

Joseph L. White, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Psychiatry, School of Social Sciences, University of California, Irvine

“Verschelden convincingly makes the case that many lower income and minority students struggle in college not because of lower ability or poor preparation, but because they deal with life situations that deplete cognitive resources that are needed for learning. Offering us a distinctly different lens through which to view these students, she describes concrete strategies we can implement to replenish their cognitive resources so that they don’t just survive, but thrive in the college environment with recovered ‘bandwidth’.”

Saundra McGuire, (Ret.) Assistant Vice Chancellor & Professor of Chemistry; Director Emerita, Center for Academic Success, Louisiana State University; Author of Teach Students How to Learn

“Verschelden effectively immerses readers in and thereby sensitizes them to the array of economic; social; and physical, mental, and emotional realities that persistently drain non-majority and socially marginalized students’ cognitive capacities to learn. Most important, she teaches us how to recover their capacities to become successful students. Projections of our national demographics document growth in non-majority and low income populations. Unquestionably, then, Bandwidth Recovery is a timely, essential, and uplifting read for faculty and other contributors to student learning, assisting them to draw out those students’ potential for success.”

Peggy L. Maki, Education Consultant Specializing in Assessing Student Learning

“Bandwidth Recovery provides a roadmap for reversing the current trend, whereby only one in two high school students from low-income families enrolls in college in the first place, and the completion rate for those at the lowest socioeconomic rungs continues to lag far behind their wealthier peers. By drawing attention to the persistent economic and cultural barriers that continue to thwart the equity imperative upon which the American Dream is built, Verschelden brings us closer to being able to fulfill the true promise of American higher education—that of educating for democracy.”

Lynn Pasquerella, President of the Association of American Colleges and Universities

From the Publisher

Verschelden effectively immerses readers in and thereby sensitizes them to the array of economic; social; and physical, mental, and emotional realities that persistently drain non-majority and socially marginalized students’ cognitive capacities to learn. Most important, she teaches us how to recover their capacities to become successful students. Projections of our national demographics document growth in non-majority and low income populations. Unquestionably, then, Bandwidth Recovery is a timely, essential, and uplifting read for faculty and other contributors to student learning, assisting them to draw out those students’ potential for success.

Peggy L. Maki

"Bandwidth Recovery is a well-written, insightful must-read book that offers educators and counselors who work with socially marginalized youth to develop functional strategies for promoting a growth mindset and self-efficacy to increase learning capacity in and out of the classroom."

University of California, Irvine - Joseph L. White

"Although other researchers have explored the debilitating effects of racism and poverty on college students’ ability to succeed, Cia Verschelden's novel perspective invigorates this discussion first by uniquely employing the technological analogy of bandwidth, to make the multiple consequences of cognitive deprivation more vividly understandable than other analyses of these issues. She then infuses her book with numerous practical interventions – from 'Neurobic' mental exercises to using Pecha Kucha in the classroom – that readers can use to enhance cognitive ability and academic aptitude of their own students.

University of Louisville - Michael J. Cuyjet

Verschelden convincingly makes the case that many lower income and minority students struggle in college not because of lower ability or poor preparation, but because they deal with life situations that deplete cognitive resources that are needed for learning. Offering us a distinctly different lens through which to view these students, she describes concrete strategies we can implement to replenish their cognitive resources so that they don’t just survive, but thrive in the college environment with recovered ‘bandwidth’.

Saundra McGuire

Bandwidth Recovery provides a roadmap for reversing the current trend, whereby only one in two high school students from low-income families enrolls in college in the first place, and the completion rate for those at the lowest socioeconomic rungs continues to lag far behind their wealthier peers. By drawing attention to the persistent economic and cultural barriers that continue to thwart the equity imperative upon which the American Dream is built, Verschelden brings us closer to being able to fulfill the true promise of American higher education—that of educating for democracy.

Lynn Pasquerella