Pathways to Mobility: Family and Education in the Lives of Latinx Youth (original) (raw)
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This case study explores the first year college transition experiences of a cohort of eight first generation Latinx students who graduated from the same low-performing urban high school. Drawing on Tara Yosso’s (2005) model of community cultural wealth, I examine the challenges students confronted at their respective postsecondary institutions and highlight connections to their high school preparation. Findings demonstrate how students mobilized aspirational, navigational, social, and familial wealth to overcome barriers and persist. This study suggests the value of applying asset-based frameworks to understand the college pathways of students of color.
Complicating College Access: Understanding Compliance and Resistance for Latinx Youth in Suburbia
Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 2023
This qualitative study examines the experiences of Latinx youth and mainly white staff of the Academic Scholars Program, a college access program that operated in an affluent suburban high school. Guided by Critical Race Theory and Critical Whiteness Studies, the findings highlight the constraints Latinx youth and staff faced and how they resisted assimilative practices. [college access, Latinx youth, resistance, suburban schools]
Understanding Latina and Latino College Choice
Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, 2008
Through interviews and focus groups with 106 high school juniors and seniors, this research examined the college choice process for Latina and Latino students in the greater Los Angeles basin. Using chain migration theory within a social capital framework, the results indicated that as primarily first-generation college students, the students in this sample relied heavily on siblings, peers, relatives, and high school contacts for purposes of postsecondary planning and for creating a college consideration and application set.
The education crisis facing the Latino community in the United States has received considerable attention. Recognizing the demographic growth, low-educational attainment levels, high dropout rates and low college attendance rates among Latinos, research suggests that Latino males specifically are struggling. In recognition of the various factors that shape the disparity in Latino male outcomes, this article aims to focus on the experiences of four low-income Chicanos within the US context. Our counter-narratives demonstrate that beyond " ganas, " key institutional processes, practices and policies shaped our experiences, providing a complex analysis of Latino student mobility from kindergarten to college and career.
LATINX FIRST GENERATION COLLEGE STUDENTS: NEGOTIATING RACE, GENDER, CLASS, AND BELONGING
Race, Gender & Class , 2018
This qualitative study uses Critical Race Theory and the Community Cultural Wealth framework to describe the experiences of Latinx first generation college students in predominantly white institutions of higher education (PWIs). Twenty-one interviews were conducted with first generation Latinx graduates who participated in Academic Support Program (ASP), a college readiness program in an economically marginalized area. Moving away from the deficiency models used to study Latinx students in higher education, this paper expands Yosso's (2005) Community Cultural Wealth framework to investigate the gendered, raced, and class mechanisms by which Latinx students utilized three different forms of capital (social, resistant, and aspirational) to cope and succeed within racially hostile academic environments. Through centering students' voices, this study contributes to understanding the educational experiences of Latinx students in four year PWIs who have earned bachelor's degrees. The findings provide insight on institutional barriers that affect students' learning environment and offer an understanding of how Latinx first generation students are able to persist and ultimately graduate.
2001
Using life history methods, this study sought to produce a more adequate understanding of how Latinas acquire the opportunity to attend postsecondary institutions, especially 4-year universities. The examination focused on primary and secondary school experiences of two different groups of Latinas and how those experiences limited or expanded their opportunities to pursue postsecondary education. The first group of 12 students completed their K-12 schooling having acquired the opportunity to attend a prestigious 4-year university. The second group, 10 students, did not meet the requirements for admission into a 4-year university and began their postsecondary education at a community college. The findings suggest that exposure to or accumulation of high or low volumes of social capital or institutional neglect and abuse limited or expanded the students' perceived and actual opportunities for college. (Contains 1 figure and 22 references.)
(Re)considering the Role Familismo Plays in Latina/o High School Students' College Choices
The High School Journal, 2013
This qualitative study examines the role familismo (Marín & Marín, 1991) played in 20 Latina/o high school seniors' college choices. Familismo is the tendency to hold the wants and needs of family in higher regard than one's own and has been considered a common trait of Latina/o families. Interviews with students and secondary school counselors revealed this trait may be a common value upheld by Latina/o families but is also a reflection of structural forces outside the family unit. Findings highlight ways students negotiated the options of attending a university close to home to benefit from familial support and/or financially contribute to the family; leaving the region for college in order to ensure a "better life" for themselves and their families; or compromising by beginning at a regional institution and later transferring to another university. High school personnel, and others assisting Latina/os with their college choices should consider such findings. One in four K-12 students enrolled in America's public schools today is Latina/o 1 (Fry & Lopez, 2012). Hispanic enrollment increased from "5.1 to 12.1 million students, and the percentage of public school students who were Hispanic increased from 12 to 23 percent" from 1990 to 2010 alone (Aud et al., 2012, p. 26). With this increasing enrollment, one might expect that greater numbers of Latina/o students would also be continuing their education beyond high school. However, this is not necessarily the case when considering the number of Latina/o students that successfully complete high school and immediately enroll in either a two-or four-year college. From 1975 to 2010, for instance, college enrollment rates for White, Black, and Asian students who completed high school increased respectively from 51% to 70%, 43% to 66%, and 80% to 88% (Aud et al., 2012). Yet the college enrollment rate for Latina/o high school completers remained at approximately 60% (Aud et al., 2012). Enrolling in college, however, does not necessarily equate with college completion. Data from 2004 indicates that among first-time, full-time students seeking a bachelor's degree only 50% of Latina/os graduated within 6 years (Aud et al., 2012). This was a lower rate than Asian/Pacific Islanders (69%) and White students (62%), although higher than the completion rate for Black (39%) and American Indian/Alaska Native students (39%). It is also important to note that individuals of Mexican descent comprise the largest population (2.8 million in 2007) within the Latina/o community, yet
No place like home? Familism and Latino/a–white differences in college pathways
Social Science Research, 2015
Recent research has argued that familism, defined as a cultural preference for privileging family goals over individual goals, may discourage some Latino/a youth from applying to and attending college, particularly if they must leave home . Using data from the Education Longitudinal Study, we find that Latino/a students and parents indeed have stronger preferences than white students and parents for living at home during college. For students, most differences in preferences for proximate colleges are explained by socioeconomic status, academic achievement and high school/regional differences. Moreover, controlling for socioeconomic background and prior achievement explains most racial/ethnic gaps in college application and attendance among high school graduates, suggesting that familism per se is not a significant deterrent to college enrollment above and beyond these more primary factors. However, results indicate generational differences; cultural factors may contribute to racial/ethnic gaps in parental preferences for children to remain at home. j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w . e l s e v i e r . c o m / l oc a t e / s s r e s e a r c h Recent research has investigated whether familism, defined as a social pattern unique to Latinos/as wherein family interests receive higher priority than those of the individual, may contribute to persistent Latino/a-white differences in college pathways. . The Desmond and López Turley (2009) study, based on data collected in Texas, documented large differences between Latinos/as and whites in preferences for staying close to home while attending college and found that these preferences explain part of the Latino/a-white college application gap in that state. Explanations for why Latinos/as lag behind other groups on several key measures of higher education attainment have focused mainly on race/ethnic differences in academic achievement (test scores, grades) and socioeconomic status (parent education, income). These factors are important predictors of college attendance and completion and Latino/a students remain disadvantaged on these measures as compared with their white counterparts; however, many studies find that these factors cannot account for the entire gap . Studies that examine the potential contribution of familism shed an important light on how cultural differences may affect college application and attendance choices among students who expect to finish high school, contributing to differences in college completion rates between groups.