Advancing Care in Our Classrooms: An Inquiry of Curriculum-Based Emotional Support and Its Efficacy in Community College Classroom Settings

College enrollment has been dropping nationally since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic due to shifting demographics and numerous other factors, including expanding costs. At City University of New York (CUNY), this issue has had an outsized impact on the university’s community colleges. At CUNY’s Queensborough Community College (QCC) specifically, student retention rates are declining, and data indicates that students’ emotional health is a critical factor that is disrupting their ability to persist in their studies. Students and teachers at all levels of education testify to the value of care-based pedagogy and instructional methods that advance students’ self-esteem and positive emotional classroom relationships. With this in mind, the authors undertook a study during one academic year to determine whether care-based pedagogical methods and course assignments could increase students’ likelihood of remaining active and successful in class throughout an entire semester. Student grades, feedback, and survey responses comprise the study’s data. Results suggest that the value of care-based pedagogy is real and measurable, and that applying these methods broadly across curricula and among institutions may stem the tide of student disaffection and declining enrollment at QCC and beyond.