Leveraging Their Family Capital: How Latino Males Successfully Navigate the Community College

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to apply Yosso's community cultural wealth framework to the experiences of Latino male community college students to understand how they balance family obligations, work, and academics while also navigating their educational pathways. Method: The research team conducted 23 semistructured focus groups with 130 Latino male students enrolled full-and part-time at seven distinct community colleges in Texas. Results: Findings reveal the important role family members play in the educational pathway of Latino males who relied heavily on familismo and familial capital as a source of support as they matriculated through the community college environment. Despite entering the community college with multiple sources of community cultural wealth, Latino males had a difficult time navigating their educational experiences due to their first in family, first-generation status, and their apprehension around help-seeking. Contributions: Despite the multiple roles and responsibilities Latino males hold within their family units, they do not pose limitations on their educational pathways; rather, these family relationships motivate Latino males and provide them with support that strengthens their aspirations to persist onto graduation.

When Relevance Is No Longer the Question

“…In this current article, while we argue that the HBCU environment and as well as faculty, staff, and administrators imbue students with CCW in the form of aspirational, linguistic, navigational, familial, and resistant capital, others have discussed how family and mentors of Latinx students provide them with a sense of familial, aspirational, and navigational capital, which have helped to promote and sustain their academic achievement (Espino, 2014, 2016; Huber, 2009; Larrotta & Yamamura, 2011; Luna & Martinez, 2013; Saenz, Garcia-Louis, Drake, & Guida, 2018). Specifically, in qualitative study with 130 of Latinx male students enrolled across several community colleges, Saenz et al (2018) explained that the family of the participants not only provided them with familial capital, but also from their family networks, they were provided with aspirational capital. Similarly, the participants in Saenz et al’s (2018) study explained that they found navigational capital through their mentors in college, given that many of the participants’ parents lacked a college education.…”

“…Specifically, in qualitative study with 130 of Latinx male students enrolled across several community colleges, Saenz et al (2018) explained that the family of the participants not only provided them with familial capital, but also from their family networks, they were provided with aspirational capital. Similarly, the participants in Saenz et al’s (2018) study explained that they found navigational capital through their mentors in college, given that many of the participants’ parents lacked a college education. In all, the way we discussed how HBCU students have gained various tenets of CCW from the HBCU milieu is similar to how Latinx students have gained similar variations of CCW from their families and others (i.e., mentors).…”

Landing Spaces and Capital: Transfer Resiliency and Knowledge Building Among Latino Men

“…The latter, although a positive influence, also caused tension between students’ commitment to their education and responsibility to family. As noted by Sáenz, García‐Louis, Drake, and Guida (), familismo plays a meaningful role in the way Latino men interpret and navigate their college experience. On one hand, earning a college degree inspired a sense of pride, not only for Latino men, but also for the entire family.…”

Ni Latino, Ni Negro: The (In)Visibility of Afrolatino Males in Higher Education Research

“…A consistent finding across studies is the negative impact lack of financial means has on Latino males' academic and extracurricular engagement. Latino males report feeling increased pressure to work while in college to help sustain their family, but they took pride in helping (Sáenz, García-Louis, Drake, & Guida, 2018). Crisp and Nora (2010) identified environmental pull factors that draw Latina/o students' attention away from academics to external factors of university life such as working, commuting, parttime status, and other financial obligations.…”

“…In fact, Latina/os, as a whole, are significantly less likely than other groups to accept educational loans and accumulate student debt (Krogstad, 2016). Therefore, many Latino males find themselves working multiple jobs while enrolled in college (Sáenz et al, 2018), they tend to enroll in community colleges at higher rates than any other group (Krogstad), and they enroll part-time rather than full-time (Sáenz & Ponjuán, 2011). The noted factors are not unique to Latino males, but extant literature accentuated that these common threads can manifest into unfavorable circumstances which can inhibit (or slow down) their academic persistence.…”