Abstract

This qualitative case study used a critical resilience framework to explore how a three-way learning community
composed of a student success course and ESL reading and writing courses aided in the transition of a group of
Mexican American ESL students to mainstream college courses. The findings illustrate that this transition
involved helping the participants twist fibers of struggle into resilient yarn in order to improve their lives and
those of their families. The author describes many of the students’ life experiences and the strategies supported
by the three-way learning community that facilitated the students’ transition. The strategies of validation,
challenging gender and racial oppression, and building cultural capital were situated within a social cultural
context and therefore helped to cultivate the participants’ critical resilience.

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