Using life history research methods, this study sought to understand how relationships with family and school personnel affect postsecondary opportunities for Latina students. The focus is on primary and secondary school experiences of two groups of Latina students and how those experiences influenced their opportunities to pursue postsecondary education. Findings suggest exposure to or accumulation of high or low volumes of social capital or institutional neglect and abuse limits or expands students’ perceived and/or actual opportunities for college.
The primary goal of this study was to uncover the elements of campus culture that hindered or supported Chicano student persistence in college. The first set of findings describes the elements of campus culture that hindered the persistence of Chicano students. These elements were identified as three cultural systems of asymmetrical representations, labeled (a) the social world, (b) the physical world, and (c) the epistemological world. It was found that within each of these three worlds, dominant White cultural representations communicated the message that a Chicano presence in a predominantly White university was not valued or welcomed. The second set of findings describes the limited, but important, sources of support for Chicano students, conceptualized as sources of cultural nourishment. Cultural nourishment is defined as individuals and material elements that replenish the students' cultural sense of selves.
The numbers of Latinas who attend college, stay in college, graduate, and attend graduate school escalated in the 1990s, surpassing gains made by any other underrepresented group of students in higher education. However, their achievements come at a personal cost, as the high‐achieving Latinas profiled in this chapter demonstrate.
This article describes the construction of an alternative framework for minority, specifically Chicano, student participation in predominantly White colleges and universities. The framework described is based on a two-year study investigating the experiences and actions of first-generation college students who identify themselves as Chicano. Through interpretation of interviews, observations, and documents, an in-depth understanding of the nature of their experiences and actions on a predominantly White university in the Southwest United States was gained. The culmination of this understanding was captured in the construction of a grounded (Glaser & Strauss, 1967), conceptual framework. Development of the framework occurred in three stages: first the role of the students as cultural workers was posited, highlighting the ways in which the students took active roles in fighting their marginalization; the next stage focused on the ways in which Chicano culture provided "cultural nourishment" for the students in their role as cultural workers; and finally, the framework suggests that students seek to achieve synthesis between their own culture and the university culture in such a way that it creates cultural transformation and liberation.Recently, the premature departure of students from postsecondary institutions has been characterized as a "puzzle" (Braxton, Sullivan, & Johnson, 1997). Braxton, Sullivan, and Johnson argue that, given the enormous amount of time and effort invested in the college selection process, it is puzzling that nearly half of students entering two-year colleges and more than one-fourth of students entering four-year colleges or universities depart these institutions by the end of their first year. The puzzle of college student departure is further complicated when
This chapter discusses college completion for Latino/as who attend community colleges and the role of leadership in promoting completion. The chapter also provides a number of lessons for success drawn from the national initiative, Achieving the Dream.
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