“It’s the Person, but Then the Environment, Too”: Black and Latino Males’ Narratives about Their College Successes

Abstract

This study relies on in-depth interviews with 30 Black and Latino males to explore how they narrate and make meaning from their college experiences at a Hispanic Serving Institution. A good deal of public and educational discourse often supposes these students’ lack of care and concern about their educational outcomes without understanding a larger context for their experiences. In this study, I explore these Black and Latino male students’ transitions to college and their success narratives. First, investigating their transition experiences allows for an opportunity to understand the strategies they deployed upon entering college and how these early experiences matter in their aspirations and sense of self. In their transitions, I find that students primarily relied on strategies and behaviors that are focused almost solely on academic effort while also isolating themselves from the college community and precluding themselves from developing social and cultural capital on campus. Second, analyzing their narratives of success allows for understanding the various networks and resources that students call upon in their college career. My findings show that students rely on a family–community nexus, including their on-campus involvement to support their college efforts. In addition to showing how social and cultural capital matter in Black and Latino males’ college experiences, this study extends our understanding of how students strive for and achieve success in college.

Foregrounding Family: How Salvadoran American Boys Formulate College‐Going Mindsets at the Nexus of Family, School, and the Self

“…School supports for individual students that do not encompass broad familial needs run the risk of short-changing boys raised mindful of both U.S.-based family and those abroad. Seen here and in previous studies (Brooms 2020;Carey 2018;Harklau 2013;Martinez 2013;Huerta 2015;Ojeda et al 2011;Sáenz and Ponjuán 2009), negotiating the family's collective needs while making individual college-going decisions reveals the conflicting pressures felt by many Latinx youth determining postsecondary pathways. Such pressures are often interpreted by Latino boys and men at the nexus of their gender roles, their families' needs and desires, and their own self-assessments.…”

“…“Keeping the immigrant bargain” (Louie 2012) by earning postsecondary educational degrees or “papelitos” (Huber et al 2018) reflects the shared reciprocity or obligation couched in familismo. Though youth benefit significantly from familismo, the familial obligations and shared decision making can cause college‐going students to feel pressured or constrained (Brooms 2020; Carey 2018; Harklau 2013; Huerta et al 2018; Martinez 2013; Reyes 2013; Sáenz et al 2018). In Martinez’s (2013) study of twelfth graders of Mexican descent, she found boys and young men, in particular, felt obligated to attend college near home to “financially contribute to the family or take over a family business” (37).…”

“…In Martinez’s (2013) study of twelfth graders of Mexican descent, she found boys and young men, in particular, felt obligated to attend college near home to “financially contribute to the family or take over a family business” (37). A Latino collegian in Brooms’ (2020) study divulged his college‐going reluctance noting, “I had too many family ties; I couldn’t go away [to college] because I was the glue to the family” (203). Similarly, other studies show Latino boys are expected to contribute to household expenses (Ovink 2014; Sáenz and Ponjuán 2009) or feel pressures to attend college in ways that do not detract from familial financial resources (Carey 2018, 2019; Huerta 2015; Ojeda et al 2011).…”

“…As scholarship continues to emerge on the pre‐college factors shaping the postsecondary pathways of Latinx youth, research agendas must be situated within PreK‐12 contexts (for examples, see Carey 2016; 2018; 2019; Duncheon 2018; Knight‐Manuel et al 2019). Accounts from adults reflecting on pre‐college influences have added critical understandings about impactful college access practices (Brooms 2020; Cabrera and Padilla 2004; Rodríguez et al 2013). But more studies are needed with high school‐aged and even middle school‐aged students (see Martinez and Castellanos 2018; Means 2019) to learn what shapes their present‐day formation as adolescents (Savitz‐Romer and Bouffard 2012) and how they thwart barriers to forming college‐going mindsets.…”

Understanding the Laws of Harvest: Black and Latino Male Collegians Enacting Critical Race Care as Youth Mentors

“…Studies that provide space for Black and Latino male students to share their experiential knowledge and make meanings from their own experiences provide critical insights about their lives and interiorities (Brooms, 2020; Brooms et al, 2018; Howard et al, 2019; Pérez, 2014). We build upon previous scholarship by demonstrating that Black and Latino men viewed their communities from an asset-based lens and that community ties are a beneficial form of community engagement.…”