Promoting racial and ethnic identity: A school-based intervention to support Latino youth (original) (raw)

2017, Journal of Latinos and Education

Latinos disproportionately face societal and educational hardships. Thus, it is incumbent upon the education system to offer a method of support that remediates this inequitable reality, particularly from a Critical Race Theory perspective. Research has offered a connection between racial and ethnic identity and academic success in youth of color, though little research is explicitly connected to Latinos. This study offers a mixed-methods approach to explore the development of racial and ethnic identity in Latino youth through a culturally responsive school intervention, cuento (story) group work. Findings indicated an increase in racial and ethnic identity after the eight-week intervention. KEYWORDS racial and ethnic identity; culturally responsive; school intervention; cuento Latinos comprise over 17% of the United States population, yet stark inequities exist between this group and their ethnic and racial counterparts (Brown & Patten, 2014; U. S. Census Bureau, 2016). In a statistical profile compiled from U.S. Census data, Latinos face greater disproportionalities in many areas when compared to the rest of the population, including having the highest high school dropout rate of any population group (Brown & Patten, 2014). Overall, people without a high school diploma or equivalent earn nearly $700,000 less over a lifetime than those with a diploma or GED, in addition to having poorer health outcomes and costing the government approximately a quarter of a million dollars due to situations such as welfare benefits and smaller contributions to tax revenue (Stark & Noel, 2015). Moreover, 64% percent of the entire Latino population has an educational career that peaks at a high school diploma or less, as compared to their White counterparts at 37.2%. Other areas in which Latinos rank at the bottom of the U.S. population include personal income levels and post-secondary education attainment. In relationship to these facts, Latinos have the second highest group poverty rate in the U.S., surpassed only slightly by African Americans (Brown & Patten, 2014). Cumulatively, this information suggests that educators should reflect on the current system and attempt to discover methods of intervention that can provide additional support and garner marked improvement in the academic success of Latinos. One method of offering support to Latinos includes understanding the impact racial and ethnic identity (REI) has on academic success and the overall well-being of individuals (Chavous, Rivas-Drake,