The Educational Journey of Mexican Americans from k-12 to college and beyond

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PART II

CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDINGS

The Magic Key : The Educational Journey of Mexican Americans from K-12 to College and Beyond, edited by Ruth Enid Zambrana, and Sylvia Hurtado, University of Texas Press, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/csupomona/detail.action?docID=3443788. Created from csupomona on 2020-02-26 11:00:18.

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CHAPTER 4

An Intersectional Lens: Theorizing an Educational Paradigm of Success

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Presently, many behavioral and social scientists hold the deficit thinking model in disrepute—arguing that it ignores the role of systemic factors in creating school failure, lacks empirical verification, relies more on ideology than science, grounds itself in classism, sexism, and racism, and offers counterproductive educational prescriptions for school success. rICharD r. valenCIa, Dismantling Contemporary DefiCit thinking

The goals of educational opportunity, equity, social mobility, and diver- sity—what do these terms mean for Mexican American progress and com- pletion of schooling and higher education, and what does the achievement gap portend for the social and economic well- being of the United States as a nation? The achievement gap, as educational inequity has been labeled, recalls for the American public the question of access to the basic right to a quality education, whether in compulsory P– 12 or voluntary participa- tion in sectors of higher education necessary for high- skill jobs. Gaps in educational performance have been stark and indisputable markers of how historical exclusionary practices and social disinvestments have shaped Mexican Americans’ educational opportunities and progress in their edu- cational journey. The causes of these disparate outcomes cannot be under- stood without theoretical framing that devotes attention to myriad social and institutional factors that reproduce inequity, permit incremental so- cial mobility, and transform conditions for Mexican Americans through- out their educational trajectory.

An examination of the foundational knowledge base on Mexican Americans and educational success in the mainstream literature shows a culturally circumscribed framework that seriously delimits the power to ex- plain factors associated with academic achievement. Therefore, several

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78 The Magic Key

important empirical questions guide the analytical review in this chapter in understanding the factors associated with educational progress among Mexican Americans: Why has culture become the default signifier of edu- cational failure for Mexican Americans and the larger aggregate of Lati- nos? How do we explain achievement and success among Mexican Ameri- cans? What new theoretical developments and approaches can help us best explain the educational trajectories of Mexican Americans? Our ultimate goal is to shift the discourse on Mexican American education, subvert the master narrative of cultural deficit and blaming individual victims, break disciplinary silos, and link individual with group and organizational/insti- tutional contexts.

The overall goal of this chapter is to engage the multiple bodies of scholarship that contribute to understanding the pathways of educational success, with particular attention to integrating sociohistorical and in- stitutional contexts that shape the conditions for Mexican Americans in education. To that end, this chapter has four major purposes: (a) to briefly critique major theorizing assumptions in existing conventional theories of performance and educational attainment that obfuscate historical social and power relationships between White dominant and Mexican Ameri- can groups; (b) to examine the role of structural inequality and institu- tional barriers throughout the educational pipeline as central constructs in reproducing inequality for Mexican Americans; (c) to proffer an inter- sectional theorizing lens to engage a theoretical discourse that decen- ters individual attributions as major predictors of success as opposed to outside and institutional context; and (d) to integrate multiple Mexican American identities, and institutional contexts, and extend the intersec- tional lens to address its use in specifically higher education outcomes. In doing so we can extend and fill in gaps of knowledge about the factors that matter most in successful completion by Mexican Americans of edu- cational milestones in P– 16 and beyond. We proffer a more comprehen- sive and nuanced accounting through the use of an intersectional lens, one that accounts for coconstitutive student identities of race, class, eth- nicity, and gender and power relations between majority and subordinate minority groups.

We focus on Mexican Americans, as they represent the largest and most maligned group and as a result have experienced generations of ex- clusion (Telles and Ortiz 2008). Our scholarly investments are driven by shifting ethnic- and gender- centered discourses that all too often essen- tialize the Hispanic/Latino ethnic category, erasing the experiences of Mexican American men and women. Ultimately, the intellectual outcome

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An Intersectional Lens 79

of this chapter is to develop an approach that not only identifies the re- production of inequality, but also reveals the transformative moments that are shaped by the dynamics of actors within educational contexts that reverse long- standing oppression and privilege in each historical epoch. Our first step in the development of a more comprehensive theoretical approach is to critique existing paradigms that frame the problems and solutions for the education of Mexican Americans.

The Contours of Conventional Paradigms of Success: Disjuncture in Lived Experiences

In past and contemporary periods, the prevailing explanatory framework in the field of education has been the culturally deterministic approach, wherein ethnic values regarding education were assigned a causal role in educational performance. The paradigm of cultural determinism has been unyielding in its narrow conceptions of individual attributes assigned, such as lack of parental value on education, as a major cause of educational failure. This master narrative is deployed to focus on individual and ethnic group deficits, and dismisses structural inequality and institutional factors that strongly shape educational outcomes (Espino 2012).

Critically important is the dominant discourse on Mexican- origin groups, which is rooted in traditional theory that rests on a restricted and static notion of social history, and the ways in which problems have been ascribed to culturally coded difference (Baca Zinn 1995). In these narra- tives and many others, the grounding of theory is based on the documen- tation of historical observations without acknowledging how structural forces shaped the lives of Mexican American communities (Almaguer 1994; Barerra 1979). More to the point, conventional sociological theory has treated race, gender, and class as secondary factors in its analysis of nondominant culture group differences, a practice that strongly supports a Eurocentric view, a social problem orientation, and a culturally deter- ministic fallacy (Palmer 1983, 154; Bonilla- Silva 2006). Conventional thinking dominates the intellectual discourse on Mexican Americans and other Latinos, as it both reflects and is rooted in a superior/inferior binary that obscures the relationship among power, institutional investments, and the production of knowledge (Zuberi and Bonilla- Silva 2008).

The legacy of conventional research has promulgated a master narra- tive of basic deficiency theories, which contend that historically under- represented racial/ethnic minority groups occupy an inferior economic,

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80 The Magic Key

social, and political position because of some cultural deficiency within the minority group itself. For example, Mexican American families have been characterized as highly traditional and as using nonadaptive family structures that are in conflict with the requirements of upward mobility in an industrialized Western society. Further, their gender role structure has been described as ruled by a rigid patriarchy or the myth of machismo and inflexible gender roles (Valencia 2010). These deficit models thrive be- cause the majority of studies are conducted with low- income families, and results are all too frequently misinterpreted and generalized to an entire group regardless of socioeconomic status. A careful review and critique of mainstream literature on Latino families, the majority of the evidence for which is derived from Mexican American samples, challenge the claims that families have a patent on male dominance, and highlight the varia- tions in family patterns and gender role behaviors (Zambrana 2011). Re- search that utilizes deficit framing typically relies on victim- blaming and offers programs and policies dedicated to correcting deficiencies (Valencia 2010), ignoring structures and power relations that perpetuate inequality.

A school of thought has developed alongside, and in opposition to, tra- ditional theorists that debunks the myths of ethnic causality and simplistic explanations that point to parental values and attitudes as an explanation for educational underperformance (Valencia 2010). Rather, these theo- rists argue that institutional forces assume varying degrees of relevance, and interact in diverse ways throughout the life course of a family, and in the school and community, to expand or constrict access to the social and economic opportunity structure. Mexican American families experience a disproportionate burden of low material resources that creates pathways of disadvantage and diminishes their access to the opportunity structure (e.g., quality of health services, employment opportunities, and access to educational institutions).

Families as Resources: The Role of Material Advantage in Educational Performance

Beyond the critical body of interdisciplinary work, we also draw from the sociology of family. The study of the educational pipeline is firmly en- trenched in the study of families, as parents are viewed as the major gate- way or gatekeeper to educational performance and success. Significant limitations of these studies include samples that are predominantly of low- income Mexican- origin families, which proffer a limited view of socio-

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An Intersectional Lens 81

economic variation in family socialization processes and family assets. Ample evidence suggests that Mexican- origin families exhibit values that provide cohesiveness to the family structure and reliance on each other for emotional encouragement and support, and extended family structures that vary by generational status and socioeconomic status (SES) (Landale, Oropesa, and Bradatan 2006; Espino 2014). New avenues of inquiry have been pioneered by the examination of family and institutional factors, and how the intersection of race, ethnicity, gender, and SES is associated with academic and professional success (Covarrubias 2011; H. Garza 1993; Molina 2008; Zambrana, Dorrington, and Bell 1997).

Family size, family structure, and socioeconomic status critically shape a child’s access to early learning activities and future academic achieve- ment (Lee and Burkam 2002). A two- parent family structure is consid- ered most favorable for providing positive learning and schooling experi- ences. This advantage is accentuated when both parents have a decent standard of living, knowledge of their role as advocates in the school sys- tem, and the emotional energy and economic means to provide extra- curricular opportunities for their children. Several scholars contend that we cannot study Mexican American family processes, gender socializa- tion, and development without taking into account the role of material conditions and community resources (García- Coll et al. 1996; Baca Zinn 1995; McLoyd, Cauce, Takeuchi, and Wilson 2000; Lareau 2003, 2014). In an in- depth comparative ethnographic study of African American and White families to assess different child- oriented educational practices, Lareau (2003) found that middle- income, college- educated parents have more economic resources to provide multiple access points to the op- portunity structure—such as academic tutoring and sports—to promote cognitive growth and nurture specific talents, which are associated with accomplishing future goals. These resources also allow them to engage in parenting practices that stress communication, negotiation, logic, and reasoning. Furthermore, values of assertiveness and competitiveness are associated with high parental education level in all cultures. Generally, parents with higher education and marketable skills tend to be more eco- nomically and psychologically prepared to engage in early learning ac- tivities and skill- building with their children, and to be actively involved in their education regardless of racial/ethnic grouping. In contrast, low- income, non- college- educated parents are less likely to effectively engage in their children’s early learning due to a lack of access to information, and to help with homework due often to low literacy and math skills. These impediments, combined with language barriers, discrimination by school

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counselors and other personnel, economic necessities requiring parents to work two or more jobs, and transportation problems, preclude attendance at school meetings (Auerbach 2002; Loza 2003; Zambrana and Morant 2009). High- income Mexican American and other Latino parents do not face these challenges, and are more likely to send their children to high- performing schools, live in neighborhoods with higher- resourced schools, and have children who engage in extracurricular academic activity. None- theless, low- SES parents also have much family capital and proffer impor- tant assets to their children to help them remain in school and enhance academic preparation for a competitive application for college entry.

Data show the unique ways in which Mexican American parents social- ize children to navigate the educational process. In a study of Mexican American families and their interactions in the home, Delgado Gaitan (1992) shows how parents draw upon material resources and social net- works to facilitate their children’s educational experience. Further, par- ents offer their children emotional support, often referencing their own personal experiences to communicate their aspirations and motivate their children. Montoya (1994) identifies “masking our inner selves” as a de- fensive strategy parents teach their children in order to navigate racism within schools and society. She states, “There is sometimes the feeling of moving between different worlds, of putting on one face and taking off another” (5).

In an attempt to shift away from the deficit- driven frameworks applied to economically underserved ethnic communities, Yosso (2005, 2006) posits a theoretical model of community cultural wealth, which she argues encompasses the various forms of capital that are abundant in commu- nities of color and can be used in order to resist oppressive forces. Yosso (2005, 2006) has identified six forms of community cultural wealth:

1. Resistant capital: acknowledging when Latinos challenge inequity and/or subordination;

2. Linguistic capital: where communication through different languages and/or styles is seen as an asset;

3. Navigational capital: one can learn to maneuver social institutions and barriers;

4. Social capital: resources that are accessed through social networks; 5. Familial capital: acknowledges the strength of cultural and/or family

knowledge and histories; and 6. Aspirational capital: acknowledging that aspirations and hope are

motivating factors despite challenges.

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An Intersectional Lens 83

Among the six forms of capital, familial capital highlights the way cultural knowledge is developed, maintained, and encouraged by kinship networks and fosters a commitment to community well- being. Although Yosso fo- cuses on all Latinos, her model’s applicability to Mexican Americans is evident in more recent scholarship in higher education that is being ex- panded on by emergent scholars. These scholars have weaved together a theorizing lens that incorporates and constructs intersectional and so- cial capital theory to create counternarratives around factors associated with successful pathways to higher education (Espino 2012, 2014; Cabrera 2014; Núñez 2014a, 2014b).

Cultural and social capital theory (Bourdieu 1986; Bourdieu and Passe- ron 1977) was developed as a theory of social reproduction—explaining how the rich sustain opportunities for their children and the poor repro- duce poverty in their children’s life trajectory. In framing the problem as one of social reproduction, however, researchers neglect moments of re- sistance and success in transcending these social and cultural norms. How can we explain, for example, the relatively high proportion of Mexican Americans from low- income, first- generation families gaining access to four- year colleges over the decades (see chapter 3)? This fact disrupts the reproduction hypothesis and opens possibilities for understanding alter- nate forms of capital, including what Yosso (2005) calls resistant capital. More important, educational solutions based on this social reproduction narrative seek to remedy deficits using interventions to provide social and cultural information missing from low- income students’ families rather than addressing the real problem of power and/or lack of empowerment. Alternately, Yosso (2005, 2006) acknowledges that inequality is repro- duced, and at the same time identifies the transformative resources within communities and families that foster resistance and strength among Latino children in the educational process. Conchas (2006) also identifies the mechanisms by which familial and nonfamilial capital (peer norms and behaviors within school structures) work to produce achievement among Mexican American urban youth, in spite of discrimination and neglect.

The scholarly discourse on Mexican American family socialization and educational processes requires shifting the lens to account for an under- standing that the transmission of values is filtered through gender dif- ferences, racial/ethnic origins, class background, and historically unfair treatment in the host society. Critical to placing Mexican Americans at the center of analysis is an understanding of their multiple social identi- ties as marginalized and privileged, depending on the source of oppression (e.g., racism, sexism, classism). Critics have also stated that many inter-

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sectional studies that do well in documenting how life experiences lead to multiple forms of identity are often limited in that they undertheorize the role of power in different settings, and how it shapes life chances (Cho, Crenshaw, and McCall 2013). The power hierarchy is often institutional- ized as structures, norms, and legitimizing myths that shape daily life and forms of epistemology (Espino 2012). The next sections detail intersec- tional approaches that recognize these essential components.1

Emerging Scholarship on the Intersections of Race, Ethnicity, Class, and Gender

A major barrier to creating a discourse reflective of the lived experiences of Mexican Americans has been the resistance (or blindness) by leading education scholars to the emergence of major embedded and interlock- ing systems of oppression around race, ethnicity, gender, and SES aris- ing from a history of past racial relations in the United States. Mexican American racial and/or social identity continues to be a contested issue. History and legal policy demonstrate that Mexican Americans were clas- sified as Black or Other Race up until 1960. Different historical periods have shaped the social identity of Mexican Americans in terms of im- posed identity definitions by dominant cultural institutions, such as the United States Census Bureau, and by individual perceptions associated with geography and peer group. Not unexpectedly, fluid constructions of identity in the twenty- first century are associated with individual am- bivalence, level of political consciousness regarding the benefits of being White, family socialization, and the ever- changing national diversity dis- course on race and mixed- race ethnicity (Bonilla- Silva 2006; Ortiz and Telles 2012; G. A. Martinez 1997; C. E. Rodríguez 2000). Ample criticism has been leveled against conventional theorizing models for their short- sightedness and limited power to further our understanding of factors associated with the social and economic mobility of racial/ethnic groups in the United States (Cho, Crenshaw, and McCall 2013; Zambrana 2011; Zuberi and Bonilla- Silva 2008; Telles and Ortiz 2008). These challenges are exacerbated by the lack of consensus on definitions for “ethnicity” and “class.” New understandings regarding culture as an asset, rather than a predictor of inequality, are being inserted into the discourse of academic success (Yosso, Smith, Ceja, and Solórzano 2009). Similarly, “class,” or “socioeconomic status,” is a term that has received extensive attention at different moments in intellectual discourse.

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Acknowledging race and class categories challenges existing ideal notions of meritocracy and upward class mobility. Class is deeply em- bedded in a framework of economic resources, which influences educa- tional standpoints, achievement, values of work, and expectations for so- cial mobility. Long- standing empirical work furnishes strong evidence of the relationship between class status and educational standpoints (belief in the value of education). In general, a fairly high positive relationship is reported between social class and parental emphasis on ideals, criti- cal thinking, and the development of special abilities, rather than an em- phasis only on obtaining a better job (Allen and Solórzano 2001; Lareau and Horvat 1999; Lareau 2003, 2014). A significant counterargument to conventional individualistic theories of success and meritocracy is that the relationship between social class and educational standpoints can be generally conceived of as linear, with increases in education level asso- ciated with increases in SES, and in turn increased access to social and economic opportunity structures (Guinier and Sturm 2001). We argue that the educational standpoint on value of education does not differ con- siderably across SES groups, but rather access to educational and social resources differs by SES and impacts educational outcome. Yet within the discourse on unequal opportunity and treatment, gender and Mexi- can American ethnicity were marginal to the civil rights demand of equal treatment and inclusion in the national discourse on educational achieve- ment and success.

Late twentieth- century Chicana scholars demanded the insertion of Mexican American women into the Chicano movement and into the femi- nist discourse. Cuádraz (2005) noted that theoretical developments in the 1990s took several important turns in the study of Chicanas in higher edu- cation. Scholars incorporated “feminist theory (particularly that of women of color), social reproduction literature, postcolonial studies, and cultural studies, employing innovative and methodological frameworks to explore the issues of educational attainment for Chicanas” (224). These develop- ments brought together and explored gender, social agency, strategies of resistance, and community and institutional contexts. And yet, despite the progress in theorizing after three decades of research on Chicanas and higher education, Cuádraz (2005) concludes with some questions: Has theory been decolonized? Does it go far enough in “interrogating the cen- trality of power, culture, and ideology to understand how the variegated experiences of Chicanas are shaped in institutions of higher education? And how are we translating across theory and practice?” (228). A reading of contemporary empirical literature and trend data suggests that this body

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of groundbreaking theory linked with action has yet to be operationalized, as Chicanas are still not faring well in institutions of higher education rela- tive to other groups, and continue to confront the effects of gender, class, and racial/ethnic stereotyping and discrimination (C. E. Rodríguez 2000; K. P. González 2002; Gándara and Contreras 2009). Yet continued in- vestigation of the role of gender in Mexican American progress in higher education has revealed a reversal in prior data trends. More recent trends reveal that Chicano males now face specific and unique forms of discrimi- nation in education, and have experienced a reversal of opportunity rela- tive to Chicanas in educational progress. This poses new questions for further studies on changes in men’s and women’s experiences relative to distinct domains of power, especially in academic settings.

Schools and Colleges as Institutions That Maintain or Change the Status Quo

Educational institutions are powerful in the socialization and intellectual and cognitive development of Mexican American children. The quality of institutional agents and academic resources along the P– 12 pathway, such as advanced placement (AP) classes and computers, is associated with and deeply affects structural inequality over the students’ life course. Ex- tensive studies have been conducted on the persistence of institutional barriers to learning and educational performance—namely, the prevalent stereotypic attitudes held by educators regarding their students’ ability, resulting in lower expectations; lack of support systems, such as financial assistance; and lack of Latino role models, such as faculty and adminis- trators who can provide mentorship and emotional support during stu- dents’ higher education experiences (Escobedo 1981; Azmitia, Cooper, Garcia, and Dunbar 1996; Cooper 2001; Gándara and Bial 2001; Reese, Balzano, Gallimore, and Goldenberg 1995; Zambrana, Dorrington, and Bell 1997). Research on the high school experiences of Mexican Ameri- cans continues to confirm that high schools provide inadequate prepara- tion for college, low teacher expectations, and too little information and communication about college options, which hinders academic achieve- ment and erodes self- confidence and a sense of belonging and pride in heritage and ethnic identity. Researchers have identified academic track- ing as the primary way schools structure inequality in America (Oakes 2005; Malagon 2010). Academic tracking ensures that large numbers of African Americans and Latinos from low- income families rarely attain

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An Intersectional Lens 87

social mobility through education. Tracking shapes the educational ex- periences of Mexican American students, and males in particular, as they are often concentrated in special education and vocational training and targeted for disciplinary sanctions (Malagon 2010). This results in Mexi- can American students’ receiving unequal access to college preparation, and in some cases, unwelcoming classroom environments and tense inter- actions with teachers. Malagon (2010) uses evidence from a study of Chi- cano male continuation high school students to argue that they experience a binary of neglect and hypersurveillance from teachers and school staff. B. Dávila (2014) exposes Latino student interactions with special educa- tion teachers, which include disregard, bullying, and low expectations. Tracking is influenced by not only measures of performance in students’ earliest years, but also teachers’ judgment of students. Solórzano (1997) argues that stereotyping is often relied upon in order to justify teachers’ unequal treatment of students in high schools. Racial profiling in schools also reinforces rationales for tracking systems, and affects the academic performance and identity development of Mexican American students (Conchas 2006; Noguera 2003; Pizarro 2005).

Some scholars have also contended that community colleges, where the majority of Mexican Americans begin college, serve as a form of track- ing in higher education; they were built to offset demands for access to more elite institutions, and the role of counselors is to discourage stu- dents from pursuing baccalaureate degrees (Karabel 1972; Alba and Lavin 1981; Dougherty 2001). Research specifically on Latino community col- lege students confirms that many who begin college with intentions to transfer to a four- year institution do not transfer within the time frame of most studies (Crisp and Núñez 2011). Controlling for individual and institutional factors, predominantly first- generation, low- income Latino community college students who intend to transfer are placed in voca- tional curricular tracks (rather than academic tracks) that reduce the like- lihood of ever transferring to a four- year institution. However, educators can assume, and have assumed, more empowering roles to assist Mexican American students in navigating systemic barriers.

Research demonstrates the importance of the presence of role models and other institutional agents in the development of Mexican Ameri- can and other racial/ethnic minority youth. Stanton- Salazar (1997, 2001, 2010) provides the theoretical construct of institutional agents, people in key positions with a high degree of social and cultural capital, and the ability to mobilize resources on behalf of low- income youth. Essential to this process is the critical consciousness that institutional agents pos-

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sess, which is dedicated to empowering youth. Expanding on this work, Espinoza (2011) offers a model of pivotal moments that present low- income youth pathways to higher education. She argues that students’ disposition toward schooling is transformed by pivotal- moment educa- tors who establish trust with students and transmit academic knowledge. Key personnel can make a difference in students’ lives in their transition to college. New complexities identified include a reversal of opportunity for college enrollment of Mexican American men compared with women— a key illustration of how historicity can alter conditions. However, both groups continue to face structural, representational, intersubjective, and experiential challenges that sustain oppression, but appear to have be- come more unique to each gender. Thus, what may largely be attributed to individuals are really responses to larger social dynamics that shape forms of oppression experienced by Mexican American students. From a life course perspective, family material assets are associated with educa- tional choices and educational and social resources that affect life chances and access to the opportunity structure.

Drawing from existing and emergent theory, we examine and argue for a more interdisciplinary, intersectional perspective to formulate a broader theorizing discourse of educational processes and outcomes among Mexi- can Americans. This approach allows for an expanded understanding of the complex role of historical conditions and their associations with family, socioeconomic status, and structural and other institutional factors asso- ciated with the successful completion of various educational milestones in the P– 16 pathways and beyond to the long- term career trajectory. What is more, it is necessary to expand the theoretical lens to include new frame- works that address the larger social and political macro forces, so as to fully appreciate how these forces have shaped the life course of Mexican Americans in the United States.

Key Features of an Intersectional Approach to Mexican American Education

To advance our understanding of Mexican Americans, research may be improved by operating with explicit critical assumptions that contest con- ventional explanatory paradigms about inequality and social location. We propose the use of an intersectional lens that includes four foundational critical theorizing assumptions:

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1. History shapes lived experiences that, in turn, are reflected in domi- nant/subordinate group relations, which shape access to resources, and policies and practices that maintain subordination of groups and hinder social mobility. Every study is historically situated, and although eras, issues, and struggles have changed, the mechanisms of oppression can be similar in outcome, resulting in only incremental progress for Mexican American communities.

2. Racial/ethnic characteristics are mutually constituted and embedded in power relations. Power- based relations are defined as “hierarchi- cal, stratified (ranked), centered in power—benefiting and providing options and resources for some by harming and restricting options and resources for others” (L. Weber 2010, 23). Power- based relations make invisible the structural factors that contribute to restricted resources and options. They uphold a paradigm that attributes suc- cess and upward mobility to the assumptions and legitimizing myths embedded in discourse, such as individuals “pulling themselves up by their bootstraps,” a shared definition of meritocracy, or the existence of a color- blind society (Bonilla- Silva 2006).

3. Gendered and racialized social constructions are made visible and fil- tered to and through the American public imagination via primary mechanisms of socialization, such as schools, media, and science. The major argument here is that the marking of Mexican Americans as a racialized other has consequences that limit access to economic oppor- tunity structures, such as P– 16. Racialized social constructions of Latino subgroups as poor and culturally stagnant are inserted into social science research and reinforced in educational and college sys- tems, creating negative identity markers with severe social conse- quences (Amaro 1995; Bettie 2003; A. Hurtado 1996; Sandoval 2000; de la Torre and Pesquera 1993; Cobas, Duany, and Feagin 2009).

4. Social agency is a critical concept for understanding the lives of indi- viduals and the transformation of institutions. Social agency can take the form of individual resistance or collective action (which has his- torical roots in a community), to consciously alter the reproduction of inequality (Espino 2012; Yosso 2005, 2006).

These explicit deconstructionist features have been central in ad- vancing the knowledge production of the interdisciplinary field of Chicana/o Studies. The major contributions of the field have been to produce counternarratives that document multiple realities and lived ex-

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periences, and to expose legal and institutional practices that continue to prevent successful educational outcomes for Mexican Americans, both men and women (see Harvard Educational Review 2012). Such research is beginning to launch new approaches to the study of Mexican American educational progress. Contemporary intersectional theorists who study the educational trajectory of Mexican Americans engage in four main ana- lytic tasks (see Zambrana 2011; Zambrana and MacDonald 2009; Espino 2012):

1. Placing the lived experiences and struggles of racial/ethnic minorities and other marginalized groups at the forefront of the development of theory;

2. Exploring the complexities of individual identities and group iden- tity, recognizing that variations within groups are often ignored and essentialized;

3. Unveiling the ways interconnected domains of power organize and structure inequality and oppression, particularly in P– 16 educational systems; and

4. Promoting social justice and social change by linking research and practice to create a holistic approach to the eradication of disparities, and to change higher education and other social institutions.

Advancing this kind of understanding of students’ educational trajec- tory—along with multiple other contextual factors, such as lack of a wel- coming academic environment, the community- resource education (P– 12) environment, and educational institutional policies and practices—has a powerful impact on the life course processes that shape the formation of Mexican American ethnic identity, life choices, and life options. Over the life course, the accumulation of social and psychological disadvantage erodes a sense of self- efficacy and too frequently contributes to depres- sion and a diminished sense of hope and control over one’s life. Social and historical determinants of educational achievement, in conjunction with psychological disadvantage, have powerfully affected the real- life educa- tional experiences of Mexican American students in the United States.

Núñez (2014a) reviewed the literature on Latino access and success in higher education to find that very few studies fully employed an inter- sectional lens in which power dynamics are addressed at the societal and institutional levels, often leading researchers to ascribe unequal out- comes to individuals rather than to institutions or educational practices that perpetuate inequality. She argues that not understanding how power

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dynamics work makes it more difficult to achieve the task of advancing social change. Further, she indicates that many more studies are begin- ning to document the lived experiences of Latino P– 16 students, graduate students, and faculty with specific social identities (of gender, ethnicity, and class), but very few have focused on varied structures of inequality to understand unique contextual effects. Drawing on intersectionality, Núñez (2014a) applies existing frameworks to the study of Latino access and success in education, so as to take into account: (a) the multiple social identities (of gender, immigrant status, race, phenotype, national origin, religion, sexuality, language, and class); (b) the four domains of power that operate in educational contexts, including the organizational, repre- sentational, intersubjective, and experiential; and (c) historicity. In doing so, she advances the study of intersecting identities among Latinos that have been understudied in education and critical race theory. Attending to the structures of opportunity and inequality, and to variation in edu- cational environments, is an important starting point for uncovering the invisible role of the domains of power in different historical eras, and how the force of power relations has shaped complex identity formations.

Perceptions of the dominant society, historical treatment, and institu- tional practice all play a significant role in processes of (non)integration of marginalized Mexican American groups into a host society. Interestingly, a small number of studies on Latino immigrant college students propose a framework of resiliency as their key to educational success and perfor- mance (Perez, Sribney, and Rodríguez 2009; Alva 1991; R. Garza 2009). These researchers have attempted to highlight the resilient strengths of immigrant students, but sometimes such stories speak to the Ameri- can imagination of individual strength, absent a context of race, history, parental resources, and social capital. As a result, other scholars have sounded urgent calls to move well beyond the well- worn debates on indi- vidual achievement outside of a social context (Noguera 2006; Valenzuela 1999).

Although the research on resilience has come a long way in recent years, major considerations have been ignored in its conceptualization. The traditional notion of resilience “tends to place the responsibility of achieving success primarily on the effort of the individual without consid- ering the economic, historical, and political contexts of schooling,” thus “leaving the dynamics of power embedded in the schooling systems unex- amined” (Campa 2010, 431). Excluding the larger institutional systems of society from the operation of resilience attributes the blame for failure and credit for success primarily to the individual, and relieves educational

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institutions and society of responsibility, perpetuating the status quo. An- other mechanism that veils power dynamics is promotion of the fallacy of Hispanic pan- ethnicity and aggregating all Hispanic native- born and immigrant groups together, regardless of race and racialized identity. This aggregation, both at the Hispanic group level and at the immigrant- status level, belies subgroup differences and masks educational disparities and inequities, particularly for Mexican Americans. Questioning power dy- namics within social and socioethnic contexts is crucial in order to have a deeper and complex understanding of resilience. These limitations trig- gered a reconceptualization of resilience, and the term “critical resilience” evolved as a result of applying a feminist critical perspective (Anzaldúa 1987; Campa 2010; Collins 2000; Delpit 2006; Delgado Bernal, Elenes, Godinez, and Villenas 2006), adding more complexity to the original theory.

This new construction of resilience critiques established power and knowledge in educational practices and therefore can help us examine in greater depth, for instance, how the social systems (peers, teachers, fami- lies) in a learning community influence the success of a group of Mexi- can American English as a Second Language (ESL) students. Critical resilience emphasizes the importance of social, cultural, economic, and historical contexts in understanding the lives of Mexican American ESL students, and therefore allows us to see a more nuanced and multidimen- sional portrait of their experiences (Campa 2010). For example, commu- nity college students in general, and the participants in Campa’s study in particular, inhabit multiple intersections; they tend to be older, female, and Latino, and are in the process of learning a second language. Collins (2000) reminds us that oppression cannot be reduced to one cause, since race, gender, class, sexuality, and other social forces intersect to produce injustice. Thus, we move from traditional notions of resiliency to propose that Mexican American men and women (U.S.- born or Mexico- born) have effectively used strategies of resistance as an ethnic group to inform and promote their use of social agency to overcome barriers and pursue avenues of educational opportunity.

Critical Intersectionality in Life Course Pathways to Higher Education for Mexican Americans

Another emerging model that extends a critical intersectional lens is pro- posed by Zambrana and colleagues (2015), specifying the role of mentor-

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ing as a form of intersubjectivity and highlighting the factors that affect Latinos uniquely over the life course. This extends previous intersectional work to include life stages as a form of historicity. Previous studies have focused on different stages of the educational trajectory without integrat- ing an intersectional lens across the stages of the life course when critical decisions are made (e.g., decisions about academic objectives and college enrollment). This neglect is caused primarily by the requirement of the critical intersectional approach of a longitudinal design or in- depth retro- spective study of a single and/or multiple cohorts, and an understanding of how the lives of Mexican Americans at different stages interact with the educational system. To be more explicit, as we examine multiple iden- tities and their intersections with history, the accumulation of advantage or disadvantage is viewed as an important dimension, particularly in the educational progress of low- income Mexican Americans.

Central to the life course framework is the notion that events experi- enced by individuals at every stage of their life inform subsequent ones, and individuals are constantly relearning stages, while progressing for- ward along a spiraling path. This interrelationship of events starts before birth, and in fact, before conception. There are four central components to a life course framework:

• Linked lives: parental choices, behaviors, and biological vulnerabilities affect their children.

• Life events can be viewed as a trajectory: influences have a differential impact at various stages of the life course.

• Personal agency: individuals make choices influenced by the social worlds in which they live (e.g., family, peers, neighborhood).

• Historical and social context matters: a historical perspective provides a context for understanding how current dominant- subordinate group relations and social conditions, including the intersections of multiple dimensions of identity (e.g., race, sexuality, socioeconomic status, gender), impact how systems of inequality are experienced.

This theorizing lens was found to be salient in the study of pioneer re- spondents and historically underrepresented minority faculty. The re- spondents reported on the importance of life course (elementary school through college), access to mentors, and social capital, for the purposes of opening doors and providing information. Many of the participants described the importance of mentors during their educational journey, including parents, religious leaders, community kin, and college profes-

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94 The Magic Key

sors. Mentors served as role models across many settings and set an as- pirational bar for respondents in their personal lives and scholarly work. Mentors helped participants during the college years to negotiate insti- tutions, particularly cultural and political norms at Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs): unwritten rules, institutional climate, access to sup- port, and access to opportunity structures (e.g., financial support) (Zam- brana et al. 2015).

In summary, the emerging body of critical intersectional life course scholarship has created an important counterdiscourse to disrupt knowl- edge production practices that reinforce deficit thinking. This new body of work interrogates the attribution of individual and cultural factors as integral to the deficit- driven paradigm that has dominated scholarship on Mexican American educational performance. This corpus of knowledge demonstrates how multiple institutional factors and majoritarian world- views, particularly the superior/inferior binary, powerfully shape the opportunity structure throughout the life course of Mexican American youth and, unquestionably, other racialized Latinos and African Ameri- cans. We draw on this nascent, yet important, scholarship to extend the intersectional lens and its use in education, specifically higher education and its outcomes, with particular focus on integrating multiple identities and multiple institutional contexts.

Climate Research and a Multicontextual Identity- Based Framework

In the last twenty years, more research has extended to and given empha- sis to racialized higher education contexts, and has extended to illustrate the phenomenon of underrepresentation across Latinos identity groups (Ruiz Alvarado and Hurtado 2015). The institutional climate for inclu- sion or exclusion on campus can be considered part of the normative envi- ronment, created by both institutional actors and organizational factors. The earliest large- scale, national study on climate focused on perceptions of a hostile campus environment among Chicano students, in compari- son to African American and White classmates, in their fourth year of college (S. Hurtado 1992). It also took care to contextualize within the late 1980s the larger social and historical events occurring at the time, including many campus racial incidents. Chicanos who perceived higher racial tension on campus tended to have higher academic self- concepts and attended four- year public universities. Interestingly, Chicanos were least likely to perceive racial tension at Catholic colleges, presumably be-

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cause these students may have had greater similarities in religious iden- tity. Another study, on Chicano and African American graduate students, using an earlier longitudinal cohort in the late 1970s, found that students maintained high academic self- concepts in graduate school and had per- ceived a hostile graduate school climate; S. Hurtado (1994a) believed this phenomenon was historically typical of “pioneering” students, who were the first to experience underrepresentation in their exclusive graduate programs. The effects of parental SES on minority students’ academic self- concept diminished over time, as students reached graduate school, suggesting the need to reexamine these issues over the life course. As the survivors of a long educational process, they had acquired resistance strategies and new areas for building positive self- concept that super- seded class status and the experience of racism in educational environ- ments (S. Hurtado 1994b). Results indicated that student perceptions of a hostile climate had negative effects on all measures of adjustment to col- lege (i.e., academic, social, personal emotional adjustment), and Mexican Americans had substantially lower outcome scores on social adjustment compared to all other Latino groups (Hurtado, Carter, and Spuler 1996). It is important to note that the Latino students in these latter studies were among the most talented undergraduates by standard measures of test scores, having won a national academic scholarship and/or gained access to a four- year institution. These studies show campus racial cli- mate as an institutional force that could negatively affect the most talented Latino students entering higher education during the 1990s. These na- tional studies were further supported by many earlier small- scale studies conducted on other underrepresented groups at specific campuses that show the negative effect of the campus racial climate on a wide range of educational outcomes (Hurtado, Milem, Clayton- Pederson, and Allen 1999). The underlying assumption of this campus climate research is that students are educated in racialized contexts, and therefore, the climate is conceptualized as an institutional phenomenon that has real consequences for college students. This racialized climate is created by the interactions among majority and minority groups, is dynamic, and is shaped by larger social and historical forces.

Studies of campus racial climate continue to illustrate the experi- ences of Mexican American students in higher education. Participants in K. P. González’s (2002) study reported feelings of alienation and margin- alization in the “social world” of campus culture, which were exacerbated by a lack of representation of Mexican Americans among the faculty. Fur- ther, students acknowledged that their communities and culture were not

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96 The Magic Key

reflected in the “epistemological world” via the curricula, or the “physi- cal world” of campus spaces and buildings. In courses where there were few Latino students present, they often felt pressure to serve as “spokes- persons” for their race (Yosso, Smith, Ceja, and Solórzano 2009). As a re- sult of racial microaggressions on college campuses, students of color ex- perienced self- doubt, and their academic performance was affected (Allen and Solórzano 2001; Solórzano, Allen, and Carroll 2002; Yosso et al. 2009; Solórzano, Ceja, and Yosso 2000). Ramírez (2013) found that such campus climate concerns also shaped graduate school choice for Latino students.

Hurtado and colleagues (Hurtado, Alvarez, et al. 2012) introduced a multicontextual model of diverse learning environments in higher educa- tion that includes attention to broader sociohistorical and political con- texts, which in turn influence campus climate and the dynamics among actors within institutional contexts (see figure 4.1). The model is unique in that it both incorporates the multiple intersectional social identities of actors (students, faculty, staff) and acknowledges multiple contextual levels that dynamically shift, as do larger social conditions in different time periods. Institutional climates are composed of (a) a campus’s his- torical legacy of inclusion or exclusion; (b) the compositional dimension or underrepresentation of diverse faculty, staff, and students that shapes interpersonal dynamics; (c) the psychological dimension of the climate based on individual perceptions (e.g., subtle forms of discrimination) and standpoints; (d) the behavioral dimension of the climate (e.g., integra- tion, segregation, overt forms of harassment/bias); and (e) the structural dimension of organizational factors that influence the climate (e.g., di- versity in the curriculum, policies, budget/resources). Student identity is at the center of the model, which involves attention to multiple social identities (e.g., race, class, gender) in curricular and co- curricular spheres that operate in dynamic relationship with instructor and staff identities that include sense of belonging, academic and interpersonal validation, and socialization. Such processes mediate and directly affect student edu- cational outcomes (e.g., habits of mind for lifelong learning, retention, and achievement). These student outcomes, in turn, influence the trans- formation of society in the direction of social and economic equity and democratic participation. Dimensions of the model are supported by em- pirical data (see chapter 8).

The model captures the capacity for institutions to simultaneously house oppression and develop transformative practices, educational pro- gramming, and curriculum content that influence student outcomes and are tied to social progress. It captures dimensions and contexts that de-

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Figure 4.1. Placing Mexican American Student Identity at the Center: Adapted Multicontextual Model for Diverse Learning Environments Source: Adapted from Hurtado, Alvarez, et al. (2012).

The M agic K

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brana, and S ylvia H

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csupom ona on 2020-02-26 11:00:18.

98 The Magic Key

serve the attention of research and practice, and draws from several de- cades of research on underrepresented- group experiences related to campus climate, social identity theory, critical race theory, and feminist theory. Hurtado and colleagues (Hurtado, Alvarez, et al. 2012) present a coherent relational educational model that advances an intersectional perspective, specifying how the role of institutional actors can be trans- formed so that they become institutional agents able to improve student success in terms of social equity, democracy, and improved economic out- comes. These institutional actors also have the potential to engage in re- flexivity to alter their role in the reproduction of inequality.

Conclusions

We have provided an overview of new and emerging theorizing frame- works that begin to shift the lens through which we view Mexican Ameri- can educational progress. The debates that have become more visible in the last three decades have sought to disrupt the focus of analysis to com- bat the deficit perspective and cultural determinist arguments, contest culture- bound myths, and integrate historical and structural forces that continue to shape and will shape the life course and educational journey of Mexican American students. An emerging intersectional scholarly trend has been and continues to be the grounding of lived experiences within emerging conceptual frameworks to guide transformative research and action in the future. A new lens can provide novel insights that result in transformation at the individual and institutional levels so as to affect edu- cational practice. The educational discourse on performance and under- performance has to be decolonized so as to improve the critical quality of educational theory, and provide depth and breadth to the dimensions of the educational trajectory of Mexican Americans.

We have emphasized structure, context, and historicity because con- texts matter and students are educated in economically and racially strati- fied institutions, and these issues have received too little emphasis in inter- sectionality work (Anthias 2013; Núñez 2014a, 2014b; Espino 2014). An intersectional framework examines patterns of educational attainment, taking into account power relations that shape institutions in which his- torically underrepresented women and men have participated, and pat- terns of inequality, which include both hegemonic and disciplinary power (how institutional actors/agents apply school policy—e.g., zero toler- ance policies or financial policy for first- generation college students) (see

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Zambrana 2011; Ramírez 2013; Covarrubias 2011). We have characterized new developments in intersectional work in higher education in order to encourage scholarship that links research, action, and social change. Chicana/o Studies have typically integrated research with social action, but this has not uniformly been the case for those who study the education of Mexican Americans in different disciplines. Our hope is that veteran scholars will find connections across various theoretical traditions, and younger scholars will be more conscious of how to conduct research that avoids using culture as the default signifier of educational failure. Finally, we hope that our theorizing lens will serve as a catalyst for increasing interdisciplinary connections and social consciousness, so as to move be- yond traditional paradigms to build on emerging intersectional analyses of the K– 16 pathway to advance critical knowledge production on Mexi- can American educational progress.

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CHAPTER 5

Parental Educational and Gender Expectations: Pushing the Educational Trajectory

ruth enID zambrana anD rebeCa burCIaga

Researchers have long assumed that poor parents display poor parenting, but we find robust cultural strengths in Mexican American homes when it comes to raising eager and socially mature preschoolers. bruCe fuller, quoteD In Kathleen maClay, “mexICan amerICan toDDlers lag In prelIteraCy sKIlls, but not In theIr soCIal sKIlls, neW stuDy shoWs”1

The schooling of Mexican Americans has been clouded by a myth that parents do not value education (Valencia and Black 2002). We know, how- ever, that Mexican American families have many strengths and assets that have not been adequately described in traditional education scholarship. Studies have shown that both mother and father are active with their chil- dren (A. Hurtado 2003), raise socially agile and mature toddlers and pre- schoolers (Jung, Fuller, and Galindo 2012), tend to treat male and female children similarly regardless of socioeconomic status (SES as defined by educational level) (Burciaga 2007), and hold high occupational expec- tations for their children (Velez and Bedolla 2012). The purpose of this chapter is to chronicle the family lived experiences of the first large cohort of Mexican American women who successfully navigated the educational pathways from K– 12 through college and beyond, between 1960 and 1978. The major questions guiding this study were: How did parents and other family members’ expectations and supports contribute to respondents’ aspirations and achievement of a college degree? What were the family messages transmitted to encourage higher education?

In Outliers: The Story of Success (2011), Malcolm Gladwell tells the poi- gnant story of how mothers at Bill Gates’s private middle school raised money to purchase sophisticated computers to further develop the inter-

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Parental Educational and Gender Expectations 101

ests of their children in the school’s computer club. We know that the chil- dren of college- educated parents are more likely to: attend well- resourced schools, choose from multiple languages for study, choose from an array of extracurricular after- school programs, have higher scores on the SAT, have more books, and have more regular access to high school and college counselors. Thus, for upper- income youth, their life options and oppor- tunities to navigate educational and other institutional spaces and their agents are powerfully shaped by their parents’ access to financial resources and social capital.

Although low- income, first- generation Mexican American college youth still face many financial and social obstacles, such as discrimination and racism, family- transmitted strengths have enabled them to overcome and succeed through various educational pathways. While many of the deficit- based studies on Mexican American educational attainment erro- neously assert that families are not supportive (Valencia and Black 2002), research shows that structural inequality and limited material resources are critical factors in creating or blocking opportunities, influencing edu- cational careers, and shaping the life course for Mexican American youth (Lareau 2003, 2014; Telles and Ortiz 2008).

A growing body of knowledge depicts myriad roles that families play in the successful academic performance of Mexican American girls (Bur- ciaga 2007; Ceja 2004; Flores Carmona 2010; Villenas 2006; Villenas and Moreno 2001). Less is known, however, about the pioneers—what types of family strengths and social capital did the families of the first Mexican American female cohort transmit to their daughters to help them success- fully navigate the educational pipeline, from K– 12 through college and beyond (Gándara 1995, 1997)?

Asset- based research challenges overly simplistic studies that often ex- amine delinquent behaviors as a catalyst for why Mexican American girls have left school (Chavez and Oetting 1994)—such deficit- based research seems to assume that we learn best about their lives by examining failure. The major shortcoming of this research is its narrow focus on the indi- vidual or cultural aspects of the phenomenon without an understanding of the relationship of ethnic groups, specifically Mexican Americans, to the historical record and existing social structures. To understand these con- ditions, in the study of persistence and aspirations, one must look beyond traditional conceptualizations of education as mere schooling. Burciaga (2007) found that both education (formal schooling) and educación (in- formal family values based on integrity, respect, and communal respon- sibility) provide an important foundation for persistence in school and

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future career aspirations. Inquiry into how family expectations and value transmission make a difference in Mexican American girls’ educational performance is central to understanding how to increase their access to higher education.

The Role of Family in Life Course Educational Milestones

Families are the prime motivators in the education of their children (Usher 2012; Brooks- Gunn and Markman 2005; Velez and Bedolla 2012). The role of the family in motivating their children to perform well academi- cally includes emotional and instrumental support—including financial support and information—which can be used to attain one’s goals. Goal- setting for the future is a process guided by the parents in middle- class families, and it is related to their own set of educational, financial, and cultural resources. In the social science and family science literature, it is helpful to see how broader conceptualizations of the Latino family, in general, have been depicted in idealistic and non- normative terms. Fami- lies are characterized as centers of nurturing and survival (Massey, Zam- brana, and Alonzo Bell 1995; Baca Zinn and Wells 2000); locations of support, stability, and coping mechanisms (Velez and Bedolla 2012); and purveyors of values—including educación—that influence persistence and aspirations (Burciaga 2007) and gender socialization (A. Hurtado 2003). Among low- income Latino families, the gender socialization of children is deeply shaped by the material conditions of their parents’ lives. Child care and parents’ presence in the labor force have been linked to less time and emphasis on educational goals (Gándara 1995, 1999a; Zambrana, Dor- rington, and Bell 1997).

For Mexican American youth, traditional gender role expectations are more likely to exist in low- income families than in middle- class families. Yet these traditional gender roles have been translated by social science researchers into stereotypes of deviant cultural traits of male dominance and female submissiveness characterizing familial processes, especially with regard to value placed on education and gender role socialization. In many low- income families, children have contributed in instrumen- tal ways to supporting the family, including translating (Faulstich Ore- llana 2003) and providing care for siblings so parents could earn a living (Burciaga 2007). Empirical work on Mexican American socialization processes has consistently demonstrated variability in gender role atti- tudes and family processes (Baca Zinn 1995; Cofresi 1999; Toro- Morn

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2008). Ethnic differences in family integration among Mexican Ameri- cans, Puerto Ricans, and Whites show that social class position matters more than culture (Sarkisian, Gerena, and Gerstel 2006). In a study on gender role attitudes, Latino and White women respondents did not differ in terms of the values they placed on work, marriage, and parenting or in terms of the time allocated to each of these roles. However, differences re- main between men and women in their gender- specific behaviors (Franco, Sabattini, and Crosby 2004). Emerging research shows that higher edu- cation is a major marker of more egalitarian attitudes and more fluidity in family gender roles, and that the parental transmission of gender role socialization messages varies by SES.2

Multiple socialization institutions—namely, family, school, and media— play a central role in the opportunity structure of an individual. Access to power structures through social capital as proffered by family material conditions greatly determines the transmission of social norms and ex- pectations and is a marker of access to the opportunity structure. Den- ner and colleagues (2001) similarly employ the concept of social capital as “parental and kin support, relationship networks that provide collective supervision and resources for youth” (5). Additionally, Bourdieu’s con- struct and theory of multiple capitals suggest that students develop their future aspirations through their accumulation (or lack of accumulation) of economic, informational, social, and other resources (Bourdieu 1986). For example, Marlino and Wilson (2006) identified significant sources of personal influence on the career aspirations of Latinas: mothers, fathers, and the media (in that order); mentors and professional women who give career advice. Recently, research has revealed myriad funds of knowl- edge (Moll, Amanti, Neff, and Gonzales 1992) and community cultural wealth—the cultural knowledge, skills, and abilities nurtured by families and communities that influence persistence and social mobility, often in the face of significant obstacles (Yosso 2005).

In addition to increasing opportunities for Mexican American girls and women, early pioneering college graduates of the 1980s challenged cul- tural deficit models and provided a growing intellectual force to advocate for revisionist scholarship. For example, in 1978 the Ford Foundation com- missioned the first report about Chicanas in higher education. The report found that the educational barriers Chicanas confronted included (1) the high number of hours of domestic labor they engaged in, (2) less parental support in comparison to their male counterparts, (3) greater stress, and (4) the quality of the institution they attended (Chacón and Cohen 1982; Chacón, Cohen, and Strover 1986). In 1980, participants at the National

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Hispanic Feminist Conference articulated an educational agenda for His- panic women. This agenda, along with the 1982 publication of Patricia Gándara’s article “Passing through the Eye of the Needle,” advocated a need to understand Chicanas as a heterogeneous group with diverse needs. What is more, conference participants claimed that academic failure must not be blamed on women, but rather must be contextualized.

An interdisciplinary lens with a focus on cultural capital, forms of re- sistance, and agency would further illuminate the reality of Chicanas. In other words, Mexican American scholars strongly argue for the disruption of “colonizing discourses that distort and erase the relationship between ineffective schooling and the educational experiences of Chicano youth” (Calderón, Delgado Bernal, Pérez Huber, Malagón, and Vélez 2012, 530). Cuádraz (2005) suggests five theorizing lenses that might be applied to understanding and addressing the needs of Chicanas in higher education: (1) Chicana feminist theory, (2) social reproduction literature, (3) post- colonial studies, (4) cultural studies, and (5) critical race theory. The study of Chicanas in higher education can be traced back to the grassroots activism of the Chicano movement and to a push by both feminists and scholars to identify Chicanas as an “invisible minority” (Cuádraz 2005, 218). These social forces have made visible a Chicana educational his- tory that, in some ways, gains critical momentum with the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the Higher Education Act (HEA) of 1965.3 Hurtado (see chapter 3) indicates that national data are not available to confirm how quickly Mexican American college students increased in numbers in the 1960s, but data at the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) dem- onstrate that although a new door opened for Chicanas/os in the 1970s at four- year colleges, Chicanas remained underrepresented relative to males until the late 1970s/early 1980s. Chicanas who obtained their degrees be- fore this period are considered relative pioneers, and were outnumbered in terms of representation relative to all men and to women from other racial/ethnic groups. Given the era when these pioneers first attended col- lege, they were able to do so because financial aid (due to HEA, 1965) had become widely available, so as to decrease economic barriers and “level the playing field” for historically underrepresented minorities. It was then that colleges and universities began to admit Chicanas in precedent- setting numbers.

This chapter answers Cuádraz’s call for the use of critical theories to capture the experiences of Chicanas in higher education. We investigate the associations of Mexican American community cultural wealth with the transmission of family and aspirational capital to their daughters as strate-

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gies for success. Further, we highlight critical race theory (CRT), which posits racism’s intersections with other forms of marginality. It informs the study of educational inequalities with an asset- based lens of inquiry— as opposed to conventional deficit models of inquiry (Solórzano and Yosso 2000). A community cultural wealth (Yosso 2005) framework informed by CRT is especially useful, as it foregrounds gender, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status—among other intersections of marginality—with respect to educational attainment. Community cultural wealth highlights values and capacities nurtured by Mexican American communities—that enable persistence and social mobility in the face of significant challenges. These resources are often overlooked in widely used analyses of cultural capital and social mobility, which tend to frame historically underrepre- sented minorities as merely deficient with respect to a constructed norm (Bourdieu and Passeron 1977). We apply several of Yosso’s community cultural wealth assets (familial, social, resistant, and aspirational) to in- form our analyses and understanding of the families and the respondents who overcame many challenges to succeed academically.

We argue that in understanding the role of low- income Mexican American families in the educational performance of their offspring, both the economic context of family resources and access to social capital and community cultural wealth must frame the discourse on educational per- formance. Therefore, this cohort of women we study represents a unique opportunity to show which family factors, in tandem with other school- related factors discussed in chapter 6, are associated with high educational performance. This study contributes to our theorizing lens on family so- cialization processes of Mexican American women who successfully com- pleted higher education, an area of inquiry decidedly absent from conven- tional scholarly discourses.

Methods

The mixed- methods study had a retrospective, cross- sectional design. The study collected data from the first large cohort of three hundred Mexican American women who successfully navigated the educational pathways from K– 12 through postsecondary education and into their careers. All data were collected in Los Angeles, California, during the period 1987–1990 (methods are fully described elsewhere; see Zambrana, Dorrington, and Bell 1997).

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Sample Selection and Procedures

Respondents were identified through a network sampling technique. His- panic/Mexican American/Chicana professional organizations of women and Zambrana’s professional networks were solicited to assist in the iden- tification of Mexican American women who fulfilled the educational and racial/ethnic criteria. Potential respondents were then contacted by tele- phone and informed of the referral source and purpose of study. An inter- view time and place were mutually agreed upon. In addition, all individu- als contacted were asked to provide names of three women who fulfilled the criteria. The interviews took, on average, 1.5 hours to complete.

Survey Instrument

Face- to- face interviews were conducted using a 233- item questionnaire that included both closed- ended and open- ended response options. The survey was designed to obtain in- depth quantitative and qualitative retro- spective information and drew items from other interview and survey protocols (Allen 1985; Chacón, Cohen, Camarena, and Strover 1983; Higginbotham 1980). The instrument was designed to reconstruct the educational trajectory of the respondents to identify specific familial and institutional factors that contributed to completion of a college degree. In addition, for this chapter, respondents’ lived experiences were chronicled through the life course, from childhood to early adulthood, focusing on characteristics of family of origin, residential setting, and family educa- tional and gender expectations.

Characteristics of family of origin, including education level, marital status, work status of parents (when respondents were 0–18 years of age), income, state of residence, residential setting, and relatives in neighbor- hood, are presented in table 5.1. Perceptions of mothers’ and fathers’ edu- cational expectations were measured by asking three items concerning each parent (six items total). Initial items were: whether their mother and father expected A’s in primary and high school (1 = yes and 2 = no) and how far their parents expected them to progress (ranging from complet- ing high school to college or beyond). Respondents were then asked to rate their parents’ involvement in their primary school education. Involve- ment was recoded as 1 = actively involved and 2 = not actively involved. In addition, they were asked to rank how helpful assistance from parents had been during college in the areas of encouragement, financial and emo- tional support, help entering college, and practical assistance with domes-

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Table 5.1. Characteristics of Family of Origin

Variable Mother Father Both

Parents

Reported in percentage Education < High school 58.6 54.5 High School plus 41.4 45.5 Marital Status Never married 1.7 Married/living with partner 68.3 Sep/divorced/widowed 30.0 Parents worked (respondent 0–18 years of age) 0–6 years 4.8 64.9 25.1 7–12 years 6.8 44.1 49.1 13–18 years 9.2 32.1 58.7 Parents’ income (respondent 0–18 years of age) 0–6 years $0– $20,000 96.5 $20,000+ 3.5 7–12 years $0–$20,000 93.0 $20,000+ 7.0 13–18 years $0– $20,000 77.3 $20,000+ 22.7 State of residence California 86.3 Other 13.7 Residential setting (age 0–12) Urban 47.4 Rural 22.7 Suburban 29.9 Relatives in neighborhood <20 miles 75.9 >20 miles 24.1

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108 The Magic Key

tic chores/responsibilities (1 = most helpful to 5 = least helpful). Whether their mother or father saw marriage as a primary life goal was measured by 1 = yes and 2 = no. Last, perceived educational expectations between sons and daughters were measured (1 = expected sons to excel/not daugh- ters, 2 = expected daughters to excel/not sons, 3 = equal expectations).

Six open- ended questions were asked about perceptions of mother/ father attitude toward education, high school experiences such as aca- demic resources and factors that influenced motivation, and decision to enter college (see chart 5.1 for original coding categories and recodes). Open- ended items provided rich qualitative data. These narratives pro- vided rich insight into the early life course stages of this cohort, extended the depth and breadth of the survey results, and illustrated what family messages and behaviors were the driving forces in respondents’ decisions to attend college, despite the odds.

Who Are the Respondents?

The study respondents were all of Mexican origin (300) and residents of the state of California, with a mean age of thirty- five years at the time of the interview. Eighty- six percent (86.3 percent) had been reared and had received their baccalaureate degree prior to 1978 in California. Their high school and higher educational careers spanned a period from the 1960s to 1978. All women had completed a minimum of a bachelor’s degree, with 43 percent having credits toward a master’s (MA) or having received an MA degree, 36 percent having credits toward or having been awarded a doc- toral degree, and 91 percent employed. Close to half were married; about 20 percent were separated, divorced, or widowed; and close to one- third of respondents were single. Slightly over half of the respondents had chil- dren (51.6 percent). Respondents were predominantly first- generation, “out of the barrio” trailblazers, shattering the dominant- majority struc- tural ceiling in many cases, overcoming what were all too often perceived as insurmountable barriers of low expectations, and achieving the “Ameri- can dream” (Zambrana, Dorrington, and Bell 1997).

Results

Who Are the Families? Characteristics of Family of Origin

Parents of the respondents were all of Mexican origin, with 40 percent of the mothers and fathers having been born in Mexico. Thus, 36 percent

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Chart 5.1. Open- Ended Survey and Items on Parental Involvement

Survey Questions Response Options

During primary school, did your mother/ father expect you to get A’s in school?

1=Yes, 2=No

During high school, did your mother/ father expect you to get A’s in school?

1=Yes, 2=No

When you were growing up, how far did your mother/father expect you to progress in school?

1=High School, 2=Business/Technical School, 3=Four- year College, 4=Graduate/Professional School. Items were then recoded: 1=High School, 2=College and beyond

Throughout your primary school years (K through junior high school), how would you describe your mother’s/ father’s involvement with your schooling?

1=Very Involved (regular visits to school, PTA, helped with homework), 2=Involved (regularly helped with schoolwork, occasional visits to school functions), 3=Interested but not actively involved (encouraged to do well in school but rarely assisted), 4=Not ac- tively involved (did not verbally encourage or actively participate in your schooling). Items were then re- coded: 1=Actively involved, 2=Not actively involved

What did your mother/father do to assist you in pursuing a college education?

Rank order of 1=Encouraged me to continue my education, 2=Provided financial support, 3=Provided emotional support, 4=Actively participated in help- ing me enter college, 5=Relieved me from family/ domestic chores

Did your mother/father emphasize that a good marriage should be your primary life goal? In what ways?

1=Yes, 2=No

If you had siblings, were there differ- ences in your mother’s/father’s educa- tional expectations between sons and daughters?

1=Expected sons to excel/not daughters, 2=Ex- pected daughters to excel/not sons, 3=Equal expec- tations for sons and daughters, 4=Expected daugh- ters to excel/no sons, 5=no siblings. Items were then recoded: 1=Expected sons to excel/not daughters, 2=Expected daughters to excel/not sons, 3=Equal expectations)

Six Qualitative Questions

(1) In general, how would you characterize your mother’s/father’s (2 questions) attitude toward your education? (2) What factors most significantly encouraged your educational performance? (3) Were there academic resources (that is, specific programs or organizations) that influenced your motivation to succeed in school? (4) In what ways did high school affect your later educational performance? And (5) Why did you decide to go to college?

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of the sample spoke only Spanish or mainly Spanish in their home dur- ing their early years. However, 85 percent were born in the United States, and close to 60 percent had parents that were U.S.- born, which shows that the majority were at least third- generation. The overwhelming majority of the parents of the respondents were married (68.3 percent). With re- spect to education, close to 60 percent of the mothers and 55 percent of the fathers had not completed high school, and almost 50 percent had less than a ninth- grade education. The majority reported that in 0–6 years only the father worked (64.9 percent); 25.1 percent reported that both parents worked. However, as the respondents grew older, both parents working doubled to 48.8 percent (not shown). Not unexpectedly, 96.5 percent reported family income $0– $20,000 during the early years (0–6 years) of the respondent’s life. However, by later in the life course of re- spondents (13–18 years), family income of over $20,000 was reported by about one- quarter (22.7 percent) of respondents.

Community Characteristics

The community in which the respondents were reared and the types of networks available provide us with a sense of their social environment. Only 22.7 percent of parents reared their children in rural areas; almost half (47.4 percent) were located in urban areas, and one- third in the sub- urbs. The majority were reared in predominantly Mexican American neighborhoods, although as they got older, the ethnicity of their neigh- borhoods became somewhat more diversified. For over 70 percent of the respondents (0–18 years of age), the neighborhoods were reported to be lower or working- class. Of interest is that three- quarters (75.9 percent) of respondents reported living within twenty miles of relatives (aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins).

Parental Educational Involvement and Expectations

Many insights are proffered about the role of family in the lives of Mexican American women (table 5.2). Questions were asked about parents’ expec- tation of high grades in school, and over 50 percent of both mothers and fathers had a high expectation of grades (A) through age eighteen. Fathers (55.5 percent) were slightly more likely than mothers (51.2 percent) to expect high grades in high school. Although mothers (41.8 percent) were more likely to be involved in school activities than fathers (28.4 percent), mothers were also less likely to work outside the home. The majority of

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Parental Educational and Gender Expectations 111

respondents (55.5 percent) reported that their mother had a very positive view of education and showed support by providing encouragement (61.0 percent) and viewing education as a vehicle to success. Similarly, fathers were reported to be proud and encouraged their daughters to reach high (68.2 percent). The encouragement and high expectations embody the parents’ aspirational capital (Yosso 2005) for their daughters—the women spoke about this support at length in their interviews.

Table 5.2. Perceived Parental Expectations and Involvement in Grade School

Variable Mother Father

Reported in percentage Expect high grades (A’s) in primary school Yes 50.7 55.2 No 49.3 44.8 Expect high grades (A’s) in high school Yes 51.2 55.5 No 48.8 44.5 How far did your parents expect you to progress? High school graduate 43.2 41.9 College or beyond 56.8 58.1 Involvement in primary school Actively involved 41.8 28.4 Not actively involved 58.2 71.6 Parents’ assistance in pursuing college education Encouragement 61.0 68.2 Financial assistance 16.3 29.3 Emotional support 21.7 21.8 Helped me enter college 1.2 5.8 Relieved me of family/domestic chores 22.1 9.1 Emphasize marriage Yes 30.1 22.8 No 69.9 77.2 Expectation of siblings Expect more of sons 17.9 30.7 Expect more of daughters 4.8 6.1 Same expectations of both 77.4 63.2

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Mothers’ Expectations: “Encouragement in humble ways”

There were a number of prototypical themes that provide the context for understanding the strengths and force in the families behind these women, and what motivated the women to persist in education. Inter- estingly, 56.8 percent of mothers expected their daughters to complete college and go on to graduate school. To understand these data more deeply, respondents were asked, “In general, how would you character- ize your mother’s attitude toward your education?” Responses revealed the mother as a critical figure—a source of inspiration and of silent ap- proval. They described their mother’s support in the following ways: “let me be,” “never tried to hold us back,” and “didn’t try to get in the way.” The mothers telling others about their daughter’s achievements suggested a vicarious experience. A salient theme was the respondents’ perception that education was very important to their mothers, who were living their lives vicariously, or “living their dreams” through their daughters’ suc- cess. Respondents described the perception of aspirational capital in the following ways:

She always wanted me to do the best I could with myself and she encour- aged me to do that. My education was very important to her because she was living it vicariously.

She sees it as something very positive that she wasn’t able to do.

She would tell me how fun school was and that I was lucky to have this opportunity. The only way was to make something out of myself— through education.

The mothers supported their daughters’ educational attainment in im- portant ways, such as relieving their daughters of domestic responsibility and caring for siblings. A substantial number of women reported that their mothers felt inadequate in providing access to the necessary social capital. One woman stated: “She was extremely supportive, but frustrated because she felt that she didn’t have much to offer her daughter. However, she never stood in my way.” In general, the respondents perceived their mothers as having an extremely positive attitude toward their education. The role of the mother in providing affective support, encouragement, and high expectations substantiates the findings of other studies (Burciaga 2007; Gándara 1979). An important message transmitted by mothers that

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inspired and encouraged the participants was the importance of economic success and upward mobility. Respondents described this “push” in the following ways:

She had high expectations and felt education was a way to economic success.

She felt education was very important. She didn’t want me to work in blue- collar jobs.

These findings further attest to the students’ familial capital (Yosso 2005) in their use of consejos, or advice, encouraging school persistence. Ceja’s (2004) research also asserts that family stories and consejos serve as moti- vation for Chicanas in greater Los Angeles as they complete higher edu- cation. Through semistructured interviews, Ceja learned that parents cre- ated a “culture of possibility” (357) using family stories, lived experiences, and consejos to instill the value of education.

Fathers’ Expectations: “He took me to the fields”

Fathers were more likely than mothers to expect A’s from primary to high school, and to expect completion of college or beyond (58.1 percent). Although fathers were not as actively involved (28.4 percent) in schools as mothers (41.8 percent), they were nonetheless a strong vehicle of sup- port and encouragement for their daughters. When asked, “How would you characterize your father’s attitude toward your education?,” respon- dents reported that their fathers’ involvement in their education was al- most equally as high as that of mothers. Several themes emerged regarding the fathers’ attitude and expectations regarding educational achievement. One overriding theme can be summarized as “proud and supportive.” Fathers were reported to be encouraging toward the educational efforts of their daughters, but not emotionally expressive. Nonetheless, respon- dents perceived support, as described in their own words:

It was something he could tell his friends that his daughter was going to college.

Proud. He was never demonstrative about his feelings. He was proud that I was in higher education. He continued to encourage me, give me posi- tive status.

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Very proud that all his children had gone to college. He expected me to get a PhD.

A second major theme was the fathers’ wanting their daughters to go to college for financial reasons and to achieve more than the parents had. The fathers were more likely than the mothers to continually emphasize the need to get out of poverty, to be different from their parents, and they were the ones who took their daughters “to the fields,” or pointed out low- level jobs and told them that was not their future. The following reflect the fathers’ desire for the daughters to have a better life:

My father verbalized often that he wanted us to go on. He took us to the fields to show us.

He was hysterical about education. He would say, “You have to finish col- lege. If not, you will be scum.”

The majority of fathers encouraged respondents to work hard and to try to be financially independent. Some of the fathers perceived education as a backup in case marriage didn’t work. Others encouraged their daugh- ters throughout high school and recognized their intelligence, but per- ceived “higher education as a luxury” or expressed concern about financ- ing higher education. Yet, one father who had learning disabilities always encouraged his daughter to go on. When he died, he left his life insurance policy for her education.

Equally important, the data reveal that the majority of parents held high expectations for sons and daughters, which supports prior findings on Mexican American families (Burciaga 2007). In response to the ques- tion “If you had siblings, were there differences in your mother’s and father’s expectations between sons and daughters?,” respondents reported that 77.4 percent of mothers and 63.2 percent of fathers held equal ex- pectations of male and female siblings. In instances when parents did not have high levels of formal schooling, they often worked as a couple to reinforce informal learning in the home as a foundation for support- ing formal schooling. One respondent shared coparenting strategies em- ployed by her family:

My mother took time out to teach me how to read and write in Spanish before entering school. My father tried to help me with my homework. I witnessed my father work hard for me to obtain a degree. He encouraged

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and motivated me to get a degree. My father stressed that because I was Mexican I would be educated.

In this instance, pedagogies of the home (Delgado Bernal 2001) served as the foundation for persistence in schools.

Role of Other Family Members and Siblings

For three- quarters of the respondents, relatives (grandparents, aunts, or uncles) lived within twenty miles of their residence. The close proximity of extended family members afforded many opportunities for the respon- dents to call upon their social networks. For close to 60 percent of respon- dents, siblings were reported to be role models, and about 70 percent of siblings had a degree. When asked about whom they most identified with, respondents reported siblings (29.8 percent), followed by mother (25.2 percent), father (12.2 percent), aunts, uncles, cousins (15 percent), and grandparent (9.2 percent). For 85 percent of respondents, these individu- als strongly influenced their education through offering encouragement, supporting their striving for excellence, being a role model, and occasion- ally helping with schoolwork. The role of extended family members is well illustrated in the following quote. In describing the powerful influence her grandmother had, one respondent stated:

My maternal grandmother lived with us. She taught herself and me to read in Spanish. She used to read to me a lot. Tell me a lot of stories. Took me to the movies in downtown Los Angeles.

A maternal uncle who was twelve years older was another relative who influenced educational persistence: “He was very bright, read books and quoted Plato and Socrates.” Brothers were also a major source of inspi- ration and were often perceived similarly—as very smart, hardworking, and talented. One respondent shared, “My brother insisted that I go to high school and college.” For the overwhelming majority of respondents, siblings and other relatives served a critical role in encouraging their edu- cation and serving as role models of hard work, responsibility, and over- coming of barriers.

The findings reveal a consensus around major factors associated with motivation for educational persistence and family transmission of a strong set of values promoting a work ethic, discipline, and independence. Par- ents “pushed” their daughter with the clear messages that “they [daugh-

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ters] didn’t want to be in the same position as the parents and [parents] did not want them to work in the fields.” Thus, combined parental encour- agement, high expectations, and the support of extended family were per- ceived as influencing educational aspirations and career aspirations. The community cultural wealth framework receives support from the finding that immediate and extended families are important resources for the re- spondents. From parents sharing family stories and lived experiences as a way to communicate hope (familial capital), to siblings insisting that re- spondents pursue higher education (aspirational capital), these findings demonstrate the intricate ways in which immediate and extended families are a source of social capital that aid pursuit of higher education. As well, these data demonstrate that there are informal values (educación) that are cultivated and practiced to influence formal schooling (education).

Gender Role Expectations, Economic Concerns

For example, the idea that you’re not supposed to move out of your home until you get married . . . this limits your academic ambitions and forces you to settle to attend a school close to home that may or may not be the best choice for you. (National Women’s Law Center [NWLC] and Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund [MALDEF] 2009, 17)

The data reveal the family fears and material conditions that constitute barriers. We discuss barriers along two interrelated dimensions: fear of reaching too high for financial reasons (material conditions), in conjunc- tion with limited understanding of long- term education options, such as staying in school for higher education (the majority of parents having not completed high school). Although parents (especially mothers) had in- sight into the necessity of immediate work versus planning for a career, daughters received mixed messages regarding marriage and family ex- pectations. Nonetheless, the majority of parents engaged in parenting practices that motivated and inspired their daughters to overcome the obstacles.

eConomIC assIstanCe anD ConCerns: fear of reaChIng too hIgh To interrogate the barriers further, we asked questions about educational and marriage expectations, and financial and other sources of support. Only 16.3 percent of the sample reported mother’s financial assistance,

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Parental Educational and Gender Expectations 117

and 29.3 percent reported father’s financial assistance. Parents’ emphasis on marriage was lower for fathers (22.8 percent) than mothers (30.1 per- cent). A small number of respondents (8.5 percent) reported indifference toward education by mothers, and about 15 percent reported the same for fathers. For these respondents, their families made it harder for them to achieve educationally. The reasons were invariably related to both the eco- nomic resources of the families and traditional gender expectations and values. Common themes in this small percentage of participants included parents’ inability to financially support educational aspirations beyond high school, rigid gender role expectations, and other responsibilities to the family of origin. Two respondents shared the following reasons:

Our families expect something else. They don’t know how to support us and most of our families cannot support us financially. Our own expecta- tions keep getting crushed.

A lot of time we are stuck in taking care of younger siblings and are not able to participate in school activities. There is a lack of time and money.

These themes illustrate the importance of considering economic condi- tions in the lives of young, aspiring Mexican American women, as well as the limited opportunities for upward social mobility for their parents. Although in this study these findings on lower educational expectations were the exception, not the norm, these themes have often been inter- preted by conventional theorists as a lack of value placed on education by the Mexican American community. Missing from these incomplete theories was an understanding of the economic circumstances of these families. These barriers can be understood within the context of par- ents’ experiences with limited options for upward social mobility, as well as a fear of their daughters reaching too high because of financial concerns.

lImIteD unDerstanDIng of long- term eDuCatIon optIons Respondents also expressed discouragement at their mothers’ lack of understanding, because of economic fears, of the importance of college as a path to better opportunities for long- term employment. One respon- dent reported that her mother opposed her going on to college because “she didn’t see the long- range benefit. She felt that I could get a job as a secretary.” Another respondent described the economic fears:

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I won a scholarship to UC Berkeley. Mom wanted me to become a sec- retary. As a child she was encouraging; but she felt higher education was not possible unless you were rich.

Several respondents revealed that their mothers did not feel education for women was important “because of domestic obligations.” A number of other mothers saw education as a way for their daughters to support them- selves until they got married. Yet oftentimes these attitudes were contra- dicted by their mothers’ high expectations of academic performance. This type of maternal support stimulated the young women’s sense of self- confidence and increased their desire to learn. Other respondents strove to live different lives than those of their mothers, some of whom were, for example, trapped in cycles of hard labor for little pay, dependent upon men, or battered by their husbands. The attitudes of the mothers were predominantly influenced by their lack of knowledge of what was possible for their daughters and a fear of “losing” them to the “American culture.” These families struggled financially and perhaps were hesitant to provide their daughters with dreams they believed could not be fulfilled. None- theless, there was a general push by mothers for their daughters to obtain more education than they themselves had had opportunities to pursue. In general, the mothers’ encouragement was reinforced by the positive and supportive attitudes of the fathers.

A significant number of fathers were supportive but feared they would be unable to provide financially. One respondent stated:

My father saw education as very important, but beyond high school, my education—as well as that of my brothers and sister—depended on loans and scholarships. He did not have the money to help out.

On the other hand, a few fathers would help out only if the daughters stayed close to home: “He would support us only as long as we lived in his home.” Many of these fathers expressed fears or were critical of their daughters “leaving the family and changing lifestyles.” Fears prevailed that education would dilute their values and sense of cultural origins. One re- spondent, reflecting on her father’s attitude, stated:

He felt some education was good, but too much would be bad. He felt that you could get absorbed in the system and sell out, forget where you came from. He also felt there were other things in life.

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Parental Educational and Gender Expectations 119

The respondents reported that oftentimes fathers, like mothers, were not aware of the options and discouraged their daughters from reach- ing too high. Some of the respondents perceived their parents as am- bivalent. For example, fathers were not initially supportive—yet parents would show pride and give support after the daughter had reached a major milestone, such as the completion of the bachelor’s or master’s degree. Overall, parental messages clearly transmitted familial, social, and aspira- tional capital encouraging their daughters to engage school so as to “have a better life than they did,” but parents also wanted their children to re- main a part of their life.

Discussion

The educational trajectories of the respondents were greatly influenced by their families’ support of persistence in pursuit of higher education. Pedagogies of the home (Delgado Bernal 2001) are not taught in schools, but instead are indicative of the way community cultural wealth is culti- vated and practiced. These pedagogies of the home, often referred to as educación, are informal transmissions of family values that played an im- portant role in respondents’ persistence and aspirations. Major findings demonstrate the following:

1. The majority of parents transmitted the value of education and a strong work ethic as magic keys to success.

2. The majority of parents with low material resources had educational aspirations. For some, there were economic concerns and fears, and for a few, traditional gender role beliefs that conflicted with educa- tional expectations. Furthermore, the parents did not have access to, and therefore could not offer, information on college preparation, applications, or financial resources, but supported their daughters in other ways, including providing relief from family chores. In addi- tion, extended family members (aunts, uncles, grandmothers) were a significant source of support, as bearers of knowledge that parents did not have, and served as an adaptive social group to help buffer the effects of obstacles in the school environment.

3. Mothers’ expectations were a powerful source of support and strength. Fathers were equally important, though in different ways, which included “taking them to the fields” to demonstrate how lower levels of education limit occupational opportunities.

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These characteristics of the participants’ families of origin were similar to those found in other studies (Chacón and Cohen 1982; Ceja 2004; Gán- dara 1995) of successful Mexican American women. These data support the hypothesis that although families influence educational persistence, for Mexican American families, financial concerns may shadow parents’ ability to sustain aspirations in pursuit of educational opportunities for their daughters. Thus, the role of socioeconomic status, not a low value on education, shapes parents’ and children’s access to material resources to strengthen educational options and achievement. Further, these findings contribute to our understanding of the ways community cultural wealth (Yosso 2005) is developed among siblings and extended family members to support and supplement schooling (Burciaga 2007). The narratives also describe the role of coparenting strategies, with fathers actively involved with their children, and confirm prior scholarship, which reported an active role by fathers among both Mexican American and White lower- and middle- class families (Caldera, Fitzpatrick, and Wampler 2002, 123).

Emerging scholarship contributes to challenging the master narrative of Mexican Americans as not valuing education (see Zambrana 2011 for a review). Among Mexican Americans, the family may serve as a buffer to environmental and institutional stressors, yet the limited material re- sources of the family may also be a cause of stress as the women attempt to negotiate the demands of higher education. The reality of living in tra- ditionally underresourced communities and in economic poverty often forecloses educational options and reinforces traditional gender role ex- pectations (Gándara and Contreras 2009). These data challenge the ideal and mythical role of the poor family by contextualizing family processes and drawing on intersectional theorizing constructs of history, power, and racialized ethnicity. We provide a clear portrait of what it means for many low- income Mexican Americans to have limited economic options, while also clearly identifying and describing family assets and strategies of resistance.

The findings and prior literature strongly suggest multiple directions for future research and practice. Future studies of Mexican American women need to take into account SES, which is highly associated with financial resources; residence in “neighborhoods of opportunity”; segre- gation (Acevedo- Garcia 2000); and gender role expectations, all of which influence life chances and options. Differences by gender, parental edu- cation, and generational level among Mexican- origin groups are critical variables to be explored in subsequent investigations. Future research and practice with Mexican Americans in K– 12 pathways must take into ac-

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count the diversity of family patterns (Baca Zinn and Wells 2000) and the specific role of the historical legacy of racism and structural inequality. The role of schools in providing resources, information, and options to increase chances of access to college is vital in opening doors to low- income Mexican American youth (see chapter 6).

There is much to learn about how educators and school administra- tors work with Mexican American families who—because of work hours, the unwelcoming attitude of institutional school agents, and unfamiliarity with or fear of the schooling system—may be unable to fulfill traditional expectations for parental involvement but display a clear investment in their children’s educación. Because low expectations for Mexican American students are so prevalent (Valencia and Black 2002), much work remains in areas of teacher education, principal certification, and professional de- velopment in schools. However, a greater understanding of the socioeco- nomic challenges confronted by families and a simultaneous cultivation of community cultural wealth by families will disrupt the more conventional interpretations of Mexican American families as deficient and unable to help their children pursue higher education. This study demonstrated tan- gible ways that families provided magic keys to higher education.

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CHAPTER 6

Examining the Influence of K– 12 School Experiences on the Higher Education Pathway

ruth enID zambrana, anthony De Jesús, anD brIanne a. DávIla

Principals and guidance counselors may provide data about college preparation courses, applications, and financing for students without access to these data at home. Guidance counselors may take students on trips to colleges to help them make informed choices. Education personnel may choose students whom they believe worthy to “sponsor” and thus enable their educational achievement. letICIa oseguera, gIlberto ConChas, anD eDuarDo mosqueDa, “beyonD famIly anD ethnIC Culture: unDerstanDIng the preConDItIons for the potentIal realIzatIon of soCIal CapItal”

While much has changed in K– 12 schooling over the past four decades, dropout rates for Mexican American women and their reasons for exiting school have not changed significantly. Overall, research analyses attribute the academic failure of Mexican Americans in transitions to high school and colleges to the lack of academic preparation received in many schools today. For example, for every one hundred Chicano children who entered first grade in 1985, only sixty graduated from high school (Mirande 1985),1 and many students are precluded from successfully making the transition from secondary schools into colleges and universities (Moreno 1999). By the year 2000, the data show a decrease to forty- six Chicanos graduat- ing from high school for every hundred entering first grade; but more distressing is that for every hundred first-grade entrants, eight Chicanos completed a bachelor’s degree (Yosso and Solórzano 2006). Mexican American women attain fewer years of schooling than all other underrep- resented racial and ethnic women. Gándara (1982), for example, observed: “Mexican American women are among the most poorly educated women in our society. . . . As of 1978, the median years of schooling completed by all adult women age 25 and over was 12.4, compared with only 8.6 years

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Examining the Influence of K–12 School Experiences 123

for Chicanas of the same age” (167). As a result, “the low educational attainment of Chicanas has important consequences, for in American society education is said to be the key to success and upward social mo- bility for the poor and racial and ethnic minorities as well” (Mirande and Enriquez 1979, 129). In the last three decades we have observed only mod- est improvement in high school graduation and college enrollment rates. The persistence of approximately one- quarter of Mexican Americans not graduating high school is powerfully associated with historicity and racial- ized identities that inform the low socioeconomic status and limited edu- cational progress of Mexican Americans. A review of Chicana/o education history reveals a consistent theme of educational neglect (see chapter 2). Children were forced to attend segregated schools, were prohibited from speaking Spanish, and were subject to inferior instruction (Carter and Segura 1979; Moreno 1999; San Miguel, Jr. 2013). Attitudes of racism and classism prevailed and served to marginalize these students. As Carter and Segura observe: “Educators shared the community’s view of them as outsiders who were never expected to participate fully in American life” (1979, 15). The neglect of Mexican Americans over time by the political and educational system is the result of persistent structural inequalities associated with disproportionate academic underperformance. Drawing upon previous studies that examine early schooling with a focus on the high school experiences of Mexican American girls, this chapter analyzes data on the experiences of the pioneering cohort of Mexican American women, the majority of whom were in K– 12 during the early 1960s, who successfully completed college prior to 1978.

These data allow for a closer examination of structural factors that facilitate and/or constrain Mexican American women’s motivation to complete college. Accordingly, the following questions guide this in- quiry: (1) What factors contributed to the successful navigation of early schooling experiences? (2) What institutional and interpersonal practices encouraged them? (3) What factors influenced their decision to attend college? The aim of this chapter is to identify the institutional supports available as well as the strategies of resistance used by the Mexican Ameri- can cohort to overcome educational, social, and economic barriers.

Our analyses are framed by an intersectional and social capital theoriz- ing lens that interrogates the barriers to academic performance as part of a set of historical and social structural determinants, including discrimi- natory practices and stereotypic markers that are associated with insti- tutional agents’ perceptions of student abilities. The integrative concept of social/cultural capital, jointly with intersectionality, provides a useful

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124 The Magic Key

lens to interpret what participants reported worked for them (Bourdieu 1986; Coleman- Burns 1989; Lopez and Stack 2001). Social/cultural capi- tal, which manifests in multiple forms, constitutes a key resource in the academic achievement of Mexican American women.

The opportunity for historically underrepresented Mexican Ameri- can students to form supportive relationships with teachers and other adults with access to insider information about college and careers (or “hot knowledge”) (Ball and Vincent 1998, 379) is a scarce but potentially trans- formative resource for Mexican American women, in particular (Stanton- Salazar 1997; De Jesús and Antrop- González 2006). Understanding the transmission of “hot knowledge” by institutional agents and the strate- gies of resistance invites an in- depth examination of the multiple and intersecting factors that influence the academic performance of Mexican American girls. Recent studies using an intersectional lens focus on insti- tutional factors, such as the poor quality of public educational systems in low- income Latino communities, low teacher expectations, and other forms of racism and discrimination, that undermine Mexican Ameri- can student success (Zambrana 1987; Maxwell- Jolly and Gándara 2006; Hyams 2006; M. H. Lopez 2009; Reyes 2006; Valencia 2010). We provide a brief overview of the bodies of knowledge that contextualize critical fac- tors in the educational trajectory of Mexican American girls.

The Effects of Gendered Schooling Experiences on the Pathway to College

A large body of research has examined poor educational performance and dropout rates as an individual issue, placing responsibility for student fail- ure with the student and his or her family. This perspective can be labeled epistemological racism, as the implicit assumptions driving the framework fail to take into account the central socializing role that schools, particu- larly public schools, play in the educational trajectories of racially and ethnically distinct low- income groups (Bowles and Gintis 1976; De Jesús 2005). Insufficient family economic resources, combined with inadequate school resources and lack of access to technological resources, is a major contributor to educational underperformance (Livingston, Park, and Fox 2009).

A strong emerging body of knowledge challenges individual attri- butions of failure and refocuses the educational discourse on structural issues, such as schooling practices and personnel. Several factors have

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been empirically documented as associated with educational underper- formance and dropout rates for Mexican American students; these in- clude academic tracking, teachers’ stereotypic perceptions of low ability, attendance in underresourced schools, limited family material resources (compelling children to work), cultural/ethnic stereotypes, and racism (Armendariz 2000; Conchas and Goyette 2001; Pérez Huber, Johnson, and Kohli 2006; Fuligni 2007). A considerable set of empirical findings has documented the role of teacher attitude and expectations of Mexi- can American students. For example, a U.S. Commission on Civil Rights study (1973) compared teachers’ communication patterns with Mexican American and Anglo elementary and secondary students and showed that teachers directed praise or encouragement at the Anglo students 36 percent more often than at the Mexican American students, built on the spoken contributions of Anglo students 40 percent more often, and asked Anglo students 20 percent more questions than they asked Mexi- can American students. These results weave together language, race, eth- nicity, and social class factors and suggest that teachers’ negative attitudes and low expectations contribute to a lower- quality classroom experience for the low- income Mexican American/Hispanic student (Ascher 1985; Aguilar 1996).

What we have learned in the last thirty years is that educational achievement is linked with access to social and cultural capital (Bour- dieu 1986; Coleman 1988; Putnam 2000). Due to the close interaction between social and cultural capital, they are merged into an integrative concept, social/cultural capital (Lopez and Stack 2001). In the social re- production theories of inequality, social capital generally refers to access to material and intangible resources, obtained through social networks that nurture intellectual and interpersonal development (Bourdieu 1986; Coleman 1988). Cultural capital can be defined as forms of knowledge, dialects, and dispositions that are valued by a society’s dominant culture. Within academic and economic markets, cultural capital is converted into academic and occupational rewards for those who are in possession of its most valued form. Bourdieu’s (1986) articulation of social capital as “the sum total of the resources, actual or virtual, that accrue to an individual by virtue of being enmeshed in a durable network of more or less insti- tutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition” (250) suggests that it is both interactive with and inclusive of cultural capital, and is a dynamic resource that can be acquired, developed, and refined in school settings.

This operationalization of social/cultural capital is especially relevant

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to our analysis of Mexican American women who are in need of bridging forms of social/cultural capital—which provides to individuals informa- tion not available within their own communities (Putnam 2000; Camras 2004). Teachers, principals, guidance counselors, school social workers, and other school- based personnel may serve as bridging agents who provide access to social networks and broker connections to institutions of higher education (Mehan 1996; Stanton- Salazar 2010). In essence, while playing roles as institutional gatekeepers, these institutional agents can also serve as bridges to information and role models, transmitting to students the skills of negotiating institutions, or using navigational capital (Yosso 2005). Further, as Stanton- Salazar (1997) observes, the nature of these relation- ships may be instrumental, or life- trajectory changing, as these adults may provide “regular, personalized, and soundly based evaluative feedback, advice and guidance that incorporate the thoughtful provision of institu- tional funds of knowledge, as well as genuine emotional and moral sup- port,” constituting a critical resource for student academic success (11). If school personnel educating Mexican American girls are ill equipped to generate bridging social capital for their students, they are likely to repro- duce inequality in the lives of these students. Often, the decision of insti- tutional agents to provide such support and access to social/cultural capi- tal is a political decision, and can be considered a form of active resistance against the forces that would otherwise maintain inequality in the lives of underserved racial/ethnic students (MacLeod 1995; De Jesús 2005).

Academic performance indicators have not changed significantly over time. Academic disparities between Latina students and other racial/ ethnic students begin as early as preschool and remain through age seven- teen (for review of the literature, see Zambrana and Zoppi 2002; Zam- brana and Morant 2009).

Latinas are underenrolled in gifted and talented education courses, are underrepresented in advanced placement (AP) courses (Ginorio and Hus- ton 2001), are less likely to take the SAT—and those who do score lower, on average, than their White and Asian counterparts (KewalRamani, Gil- bertson, Fox, and Provasnik 2007)—and have lower high school grade- point averages (HSGPA) than Black and White girls (Teranishi, Allen, and Solórzano 2004). Disparities in testing scores are often reflective of inadequate schooling experiences rather than actual academic poten- tial (Farkas 2003). In fact, HSGPA is strongly associated with school re- sources, geographic location, and the attitudes of high school personnel.

Practices that are intertwined in the school setting are important to

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understanding the multiple ways that young women come to understand themselves as Mexican Americans with limited options. The stereotype that Latinas are less capable and less intelligent is present in the class- rooms, where some teachers act on these false assumptions (Bender 2003; Rolón- Dow 2005), contributing to the high rates of high school dropout (Dance 2009; Y. Flores 2006). Further, low- income Latinas are more likely to be tracked into vocational courses (Marlino and Wilson 2006; Bettie 2003) and to experience sexual harassment in schools (Romo, Lefkowitz, Sigman, and Au 2002). Neighborhood effects, jointly with racist school- ing practices, produce a trajectory of accumulated disadvantage that be- gins with inadequate access to early schooling programs, few recreational spaces, and the depletion of psychosocial resources (Timberlake 2007; Acevedo- Garcia, Osypuk, McArdle, and Williams 2008).

Subtractive Schooling and Praxis of Critical Care

Persistent themes in educational performance and the school dropout crisis include parents’ low- income status and the attribution of stereo- types by teachers and other school agents that perpetuate low self- esteem and low expectations (Zayas, Lester, Cabassa, and Fortuna 2005; Pérez Huber, Johnson, and Kohli 2006), such as that some students have “low potential” (Marlino and Wilson 2006; National Women’s Law Center [NWLC] and Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund [MALDEF] 2009). From elementary to postsecondary education, teach- ers and other school agents often overlook, ignore, and avoid Latinas in the classroom, while privileging interaction with Anglo males (Solórzano and Delgado Bernal 2001; Ginorio and Huston 2001). Stereotypic atti- tudes of instructional school agents and limited access to mentors, pro- fessional women, and positive role models in the home, school, or com- munity are factors that greatly constrain educational achievement among Mexican American girls.

Chicana sociologist Angela Valenzuela elaborates on how forces of as- similation inform the ways in which non- Latina/o educators interpret the behavior of Mexican American students. In her now classic book Sub- tractive Schooling: U.S.- Mexican Youth and the Politics of Caring, Valenzuela (1999) describes how traditional comprehensive high schools are orga- nized formally and informally to divest Latina/o students of “important social and cultural resources, leaving them progressively vulnerable to

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academic failure” (3). Based on an ethnography of Mexican American and Mexican immigrant students in a Houston high school, Valenzuela observes that “rather than building on students’ cultural and linguistic knowledge and heritage to create bi- culturally and bilingually competent youth, schools subtract these identifications from them to their social and academic detriment” (25). Building on Noddings’s (1984) caring frame- work, Valenzuela (1999) analyzes competing notions of caring (aesthetic versus authentic) among teachers and students that are rooted in funda- mentally different cultural and class- based expectations about the nature of schooling. These expectations inevitably clash and, when they do, fuel conflict and power struggles between teachers and students, who see each other as not caring. As Valenzuela (1999) observes:

The predominantly non- Latino teaching staff sees students as not suffi- ciently caring about school, while students see teachers as not sufficiently caring for them. Teachers expect students to demonstrate caring about schooling with an abstract or aesthetic commitment to ideas or practices that purportedly lead to achievement. Immigrant and U.S.- born youth, on the other hand, are committed to an authentic form of caring that emphasizes relations of reciprocity between teachers and students. (61)

Valenzuela further argues that teachers who subscribe to aesthetic forms of caring confront debilitating institutional barriers that impede their abili- ties to connect effectively with youth. As a result, these teachers are prone to developing negative perceptions, including the disapproval of students’ self- representations that prevent them from ever viewing these students as serious learners. Valenzuela (1999) states: “From these adults’ perspec- tive, the way youth dress, talk and generally deport themselves ‘proves’ that they do not care about school” (61). Extending this framework to incorporating an analysis of gender stereotypes held by many dominant- culture teachers also reveals the ways in which school- based adults in- terpret the representations of Mexican American students. Rolón- Dow (2005), for example, theorizes the optimal relationship between teachers and Latina girls as one to be grounded in critical care praxis:

First, critical care is grounded in a historical and political understand- ing of the circumstances and conditions faced by minority communities. Second, critical care seeks to expose how racialized beliefs inform ideo- logical standpoints. Finally, critical care translates race- conscious his- torical and ideological understandings and insights from counter narra-

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tives into authentic relationships, pedagogical practices, and institutional structures that benefit Latino/a students. (104)

Building upon these ideas, Antrop- González and De Jesús (2006) ad- vanced an ethic of critical care, which is defined by an emphasis on high- quality (supportive and instrumental) relationships between teachers and students coupled with high academic expectations. In their analysis of critical care at two Latino community high schools, authentic caring on the part of teachers is linked to broader school missions that more fully embody the educational interests of Latino communities.

In summary, two- thirds of Latina/o students are enrolled in highly seg- regated minority school districts, compared to 9 percent of NHW chil- dren. One- ninth of Latina/o students attend schools where almost 100 percent of the student body is minority (Pew Hispanic Research Center 2004). The absence of high- quality educational resources negatively af- fects Mexican American students’ academic performance and access to higher education, while factors such as teacher encouragement, participa- tion in extracurricular activities, and role models in the family or commu- nity are positive forms of reinforcement. Our data capture the domains of subtractive schooling and the counterforce of the caring ethic, as well as the individual agency of the respondents in the form of resistance strate- gies as they overcame social and educational obstacles.

Methods

Data collection methods are described elsewhere (see chapter 5; Zam- brana, Dorrington, and Bell 1997; Zambrana and MacDonald 2009). For the purposes of this chapter, we employ survey and narrative data that describe the key educational experiences and practices that moti- vated these women to excel, successfully navigate K– 12 schooling, and pursue college. The following survey items elicited retrospective data on respondents’ perceptions of high school performance in particular sub- jects, preparation for college, and teachers’ discouragement or encourage- ment of their college attendance. In addition, information on ethnic back- ground, nativity, ethnic heritage and pride, and academic performance indicators (self- reported high school and college grade-point averages) was included. Four open- ended questions asked respondents the follow- ing: (1) What factors most significantly encouraged your educational per- formance? (2) Were there academic resources (that is, specific programs

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or organizations) that influenced your motivation to succeed in school? (3) In what ways did high school affect your later educational perfor- mance? (4) Why and when did you decide to go to college? Qualitative re- sponses on what factors most influenced their motivation in high school, including persons, events, and programs, provide a rich context for inter- preting the survey findings.

Results are organized to describe the following: (1) the demographic and ethnic identity characteristics of the study’s participants, followed by a description of their peer characteristics; (2) high schools’ characteris- tics and the role of teachers in encouraging college enrollment; (3) fac- tors associated with high academic performance, specifically early recog- nition and praise and encouragement from family members and teachers; (4) academic resources provided by high schools that shaped college as- pirations, such as scholarly competitions and student government; and (5) the role of academic course work, ethnic studies, and outreach pro- grams in the college decision- making process. Despite all of the factors that facilitated college access and success, our respondents also described the barriers they confronted, such as poor quality of education, a lack of college- readiness preparation, and discriminatory practices in schools.

Results and Discussion

Awareness of Ethnic Identity

As noted in chapter 5, 85 percent of respondents were U.S.- born, and close to 95 percent of the respondents spoke English and Spanish.2 When asked whether parents taught them about their ethnic background, such as the history of Mexico, about 75 percent reported “yes.” Interestingly, about 45 percent reported that they were aware of their ethnic identity from early on, while 8.8 percent reported that their awareness emerged in junior/senior high school and 16.6 percent reported initial awareness in college. In response to two additional questions asked about ethnic iden- tity awareness and pride, close to 80 percent reported being very/some- what consciously aware and 78 percent reported being extremely proud of their ethnic background. Many of the respondents also reported their par- ticipation in academic enrichment programs and organizations that were oriented around ethnic identity (e.g., MEChA, Chicano Club). These students attended school during “el movimiento,” with activism present in their schools and the media.

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Examining the Influence of K–12 School Experiences 131

Ethnic Characteristics and Academic Aspirations of Peers

Data suggest that respondents grew up in mainly working- class Mexican American neighborhoods (52 percent) and their network from K– 12 was mainly within the Mexican American community. Twenty-five percent of respondents lived in neighborhoods that were mostly non- Hispanic White. Respondents were least likely to live in Black and/or White/ Black integrated neighborhoods, and 12 percent resided in mixed White/ Latino/Asian neighborhoods. When families chose to move, respondents reported that 23.1 percent of parents moved to secure better schools.

For those respondents who reported that their peers were exclusively Latino (48.5 percent) prior to high school, the pattern remained similar through the educational pathway. Almost half of respondents had pre- dominantly Latino peers in high school, and about 20 percent had pre- dominantly White peers or a mix of White/Latino/Asian. Almost 70 percent of high school peers were perceived as lower-/working-/lower- middle- class, almost one- quarter were reported to be middle- income (22.5 percent), and 6.6 percent reported their peers as upper- class.

Questions were also asked about respondents’ perception of their high school peers’ motivation. Over 50 percent perceived their peers to be highly motivated and college- bound, while close to 40 percent per- ceived their peers to have moderate/low/no college aspirations. About 60 percent of respondents reported that friends were in the same college- bound tracking group, and 56.3 percent reported that their friends went to college.

High School Characteristics and Role of Teachers

The majority of these Mexican American women attended public schools during elementary (67 percent) and junior high/high school (68 percent). About 30 percent of respondents attended schools that were predomi- nantly Latino, while almost 40 percent attended schools that were pre- dominantly White. About 16 percent attended schools that were a mix (White/Latino/Asian), and only 3 percent attended predominantly Black schools. The majority of respondents (83.4 percent) reported that their school had a tracking system that included college versus lower academic tracks by subjects, coinciding with social class and ethnicity. Further, the majority of respondents (83.1 percent) reported that they were in a college- bound group, and 27.4 percent reported that it was not easy to access the college track.

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Overall, 90 percent of respondents perceived teachers to encourage education, but only 67 percent of respondents reported that teachers en- couraged them to attend college. Finally, 56.7 percent reported that they were close with teachers in high school, and among them, almost 90 per- cent stated that these teachers encouraged their education. Data reveal that respondents believed there was a strong link between the quality of relationships developed with teachers and the perception that teachers were encouraging of their academic development and engagement. These data suggest that despite teachers’ gatekeeping function, students experi- enced authentically caring and instrumental relationships with them and benefited from the social/cultural capital provided in these relationships.

Factors Associated with Academic Performance

Approximately 90 percent of respondents reported performing well in school. Interestingly, only about one- quarter (27.4 percent) of respon- dents reported doing well in all subjects, while 44.5 percent reported doing well in two or more subjects. Students were most likely to excel in English language (20.3 percent), social studies (12.5 percent), math (11.7 percent), and science (9.4 percent), with an average HSGPA of 3.37. The majority of respondents (73 percent) perceived their academic abilities as above average, and about one- quarter perceived average academic ability. Notably, close to 50 percent did not feel well prepared for college, and 77.3 percent reported that inadequate high school preparation affected their later educational achievement.

Eighty percent of respondents reported that they were rewarded for high academic performance and received special achievement awards. Several factors were critically important in nurturing the educational per- formance of the respondents: recognition by school personnel beginning in the elementary grades, acknowledgment and praise from family, and encouragement from teachers.

Respondents consistently reported that academic recognition and praise by teachers for their achievement played an important role in their development of an achievement orientation. The following statements are illustrative of what the respondents reported helped them to succeed:

Achievements—elementary school, won awards, liked being in the lime- light, working on a project and being rewarded; [a] special relationship with fifth grade teacher, single woman, role model.

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Yes—family/school recognized academic achievement; elementary school—loved my teachers—first they were sweet and loving toward me.

In first grade I was the first to memorize things to win prizes; I was very motivated by things like that.

These relationships and forms of recognition played important roles for the respondents in their development as confident learners, as well as re- inforcing achievement as a goal within their families.

In contrast, a number of respondents indicated that experiences with teacher prejudice or racism also motivated them to demonstrate achieve- ment and go to college. One respondent referred to being called “the smartest Mexican” in her class for several years. Another stated: “I had a fourth grade teacher who put our pictures on a bulletin board with a little saying next to each child; next to my picture she put ‘an ordinary girl.’ Those stupid nuns didn’t understand my culture!” Another respon- dent observed: “Issues concerning discrimination motivated me to pur- sue higher education. So I became the top student to show them that we could perform just as well as they.” These respondents point to strate- gies of resistance in their response to racial microaggressions (Sue 2010; Solórzano, Allen, and Carroll 2002). As Nieto (1999) notes, “Negative expectations can prove to be a motivating source to succeed” or “prove them wrong” (43).

While many respondents acknowledge the supportive role of some White teachers in nurturing their academic skills, the scarcity of Mexi- can and African American teachers led to the few available role models of these ethnicities playing considerable roles in acknowledging respon- dents’ abilities and supporting their achievement. For example, one re- spondent observed: “I had a good relationship with a Black teacher. She encouraged me to pursue a college education.” Another stated: “My first Mexican teacher in the seventh grade told me that I wasn’t stupid. I just liked to talk.” The role of encouraging and caring teachers was a compel- ling theme throughout the responses. Perceptions of teacher caring, assis- tance, and praise were powerful forces in motivating these respondents toward academic excellence. Several illustrative quotes capture the senti- ments of the respondents:

Teacher in fifth grade gifted class. She took special interest, encouraged me and other children (Black). I was a gold seal bearer.

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During fourth grade my teacher encouraged education. This caused me to fantasize about education.

The sixth grade teacher explained that I needed to improve my grades— it made me feel like he cared and I turned my grades around.

I had a close relationship with principal and teacher in fourth and fifth grade. Sixth grade teacher had high expectations of me and was very encouraging and provided a lot of positive praise.

These statements reveal that many respondents were supported by par- ents, and engaged in reciprocal and authentically caring relationships with teachers, who were thereby acting as bridging institutional agents (Stanton- Salazar 2010). These were key factors that informed respon- dents’ decisions to prepare for and enter college. Supportive teachers and other school- based agents made a difference in the education of these re- spondents by forming authentic, reciprocal relationships that conveyed to respondents that they were cared for as capable individuals. As Valenzuela (1999) observes, “Their pre- condition to caring about school was that they be engaged in a caring relationship with an adult in school” (79). The role of encouraging and caring teachers was a compelling theme through- out the responses, as such educators are often capable of transmitting social and cultural capital to their students (Espino 2014).

Perceiving teachers as caring, and receiving assistance and praise, helped respondents develop a sense of confidence and possibility, which diminished the impact of discouraging messages. An important impli- cation of this finding is the necessity for educators to be knowledgeable about their students’ identities (Hurtado, Alvarez, et al. 2012). While data describing in more detail the nature of these student- teacher relationships are not available, respondents’ statements suggest that teachers served as bridging institutional agents and provided respondents with access to social/ cultural capital that assisted their development of skills and informational networks, and informed their decisions to prepare for and enter college. In these cases, students likely experienced educational pivotal moments, which, according to Roberta Espinoza (2011), occur when a college- educated adult “intentionally reaches out to a student to provide the student with guidance and support to reach an educational goal” (33). To be sure, these supportive relationships existed within schools where Mexican American girls also found adults who were hostile toward them and their nascent identities as achievers. These data confirm the importance of adopting a

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life course perspective on accumulating social and aspirational capital in the K– 12 pathway.

Access to Academic Resources: Fuel for College Aspirations

Six items were questions regarding availability and types of academic re- sources/programs in high school specifically designed to encourage mi- nority participation in higher education. Only 16.4 percent of respondents stated that such programs—including, among others, cultural enrichment programs, special advancement programs, counseling, and recruitment— were available. Only about one- half of respondents who had access to these resources participated, with slightly over one- third (35.7 percent) of respondents reporting participation in Latino student organizations such as MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán).3

Many of the respondents had a history of active involvement and par- ticipation in spelling bees, writing contests, honor roll, and leadership positions in student government. They were then able to seek out and be- come involved in other programs that recruited for college and/or they formed social clubs. The majority of respondents were able to access aca- demic resources outside of school in programs that recruited and helped to prepare students for entry to college, such as Upward Bound, New Horizons, and Expanded Horizons. These programs provided them with experiences that were not readily available in schools or neighborhoods. Several responses capture the essence of what participation in these pro- grams meant to the respondents:

MEChA motivated me to go to college by not making the university foreign. One counselor guided me to taking the appropriate classes that would prepare me for college.

If I wouldn’t have belonged to Upward Bound, I wouldn’t have known about higher education, for example, summer school on UC Berkeley campus. Special scholarships were available and then one counselor was set aside for Latinos.

Several respondents commented on the importance of ethnic- specific courses and exposure to professional Mexican Americans’ lectures/pre- sentations. In addition, many were part of, or helped to form, ethnic- specific clubs, such as Maya Club, Spanish Club, Mexican American Club, Chicano Club, and MEChA:

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Chicanos would come in and talk about college requirements.

Special courses were offered for Hispanics and Black Americans.

One course offered an opportunity to view Mexican American women being educated rather than barefoot and pregnant.

[The] outdoor camping program was a motivational program geared toward ethnic students.

I was involved in [the] Maya Club that was very positive and enriching because I met various professionals.

Emphasis on ethnic- identity- based support programs and scholarships speaks to the significance these programs (often founded and staffed by Chicanos) had in generating social/cultural capital, which provided re- spondents with academic support, role models, and motivation. These programs, while associated with bonding forms of social/cultural capi- tal, are also reflective of bounded solidarity, which links individual student achievement to a broader goal of community development (Putnam 2000). As Portes (1998) observes, identification with one’s own group, sect, or community can be a powerful motivational force. Furthermore, through exposure to role models who were Latino, respondents were supported in developing a bicultural network orientation—“a consciousness which facili- tates the crossing of cultural borders, the overcoming of institutional bar- riers, and thereby facilitates entrée into multiple community and insti- tutional settings” (Stanton- Salazar 1997, 25). Recognition by Chicana/o or Mexican American organizations was especially important in that it enabled respondents to link achievement to family and ethnic identity, as respondents were also aware that for most of their teachers, academic suc- cess and Mexican identity were not synonymous.

The Role of High School in Decision to Attend College

When respondents were asked how their high school experiences affected their subsequent educational trajectory, they mentioned a number of key academic resources that prepared them for college. These resources in- cluded college preparatory courses, such as science and math courses that enabled study participants to perform well in required courses in col-

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Examining the Influence of K–12 School Experiences 137

lege. Respondents also spoke of the significance of Mexican American and Black Studies courses, ESL classes, and tutoring for English language learners.

In addition, respondents indicated that exposure to different cultural and social activities—such as museums and other cultural institutions, beaches, boat rides, and restaurants—was an important learning and community- building opportunity. Finally, they identified the provision of caring and critical feedback as very important in the development of their writing and analytical thinking skills. Despite these important academic and social re- sources, most respondents also identified many barriers to their academic success in high school and discussed how they overcame them.

Barriers in College Decision- Making: Strategies of Resistance

While respondents identified many resources that prepared them for col- lege entry and success, they also described numerous barriers they had to overcome in order to succeed and complete college. These responses can be categorized into three major areas: (1) poor quality of education, par- ticularly in major skill- building areas, such as essay writing; (2) lack of college- readiness preparation; and (3) discriminatory practices associated with stereotypic attitudes and beliefs about a particular ethnic group. The following responses present powerful and representative narratives of many of the respondents’ experiences:

I was not in a good school. [The] quality [of schooling] was poor and the result was that I didn’t know English grammar enough to write an essay. No college prep classes. Only one college counselor for six hundred stu- dents in my class; set ideas for “what kinds” of people go to college while in high school. Counselor tracked me into junior college. Counselor told me that I didn’t have high enough grades or SAT scores to go to college. It was all a lie—I found out later.

[I] never learned how to think. No clue how to study. Expectation was to do homework in [the] hallway—writing papers/research. No sense of independence [in high school] to handle expectations in UC system.

I was in an Upward Bound program—my close association with one of the counselors got me into AP classes—only the cheerleaders and drill team could get [into AP classes].

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138 The Magic Key

[I was] not adequately prepared for college. Advanced courses did not compare to what other high schools in more affluent areas had. Racial remarks also made me doubt myself but I still worked for A’s.

English teacher gave me an F or D and told me I didn’t know any English. A counselor also saw my SAT scores and told me to forget it and go get married and attend a vocational school.

I had to go through special admissions. Even though I had the grades, I didn’t have college- prep classes. I wanted to take an algebra class—they said what are you doing here and put me in a business math class; [I was] judged by my appearance.

Despite these adverse experiences, the respondents exhibited powerful resilience, resistance, and agency, and tremendous motivation to persist and attend college.

College Decision- Making: Strategies of Resistance

Interestingly, 38.6 percent of respondents decided by age fourteen to at- tend college, while 50.5 percent made their decision during high school (ages fifteen through eighteen). The majority entered college directly after high school. They attributed their decision to attend college to family expectations and parental encouragement (36.1 percent), learn- ing achievement needs (19.3 percent), teachers (8.6 percent) and peers (5.6 percent).

Narrative data provide insight into the fabric and meaning of their rea- sons for deciding to attend college. As demonstrated by the quotes below, the majority of respondents had compelling aspirations and approaches of resistance. Five major themes emerged: (1) some had a hunger to learn; (2) some to prove themselves; (3) some a desire to achieve upward mo- bility; (4) others did not want to experience their parents’ challenges; and (5) many wanted to follow in the footsteps of siblings or received special encouragement from a sibling.

I wanted an interesting profession and I always loved school.

Didn’t want to get married or be a secretary.

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I had a yearning to know. I was told about programs and scholarships— which made college accessible to me.

I knew I didn’t want to work in the fields.

Desire to better myself as a person and to counter the stereotype that people have of Mexicans.

At age fourteen, [a] key interaction with [my] sister. She told me, “You’re really smart, if you study hard, you can get a scholarship and get a PhD.” At age fourteen, I decided to get my PhD. My sister mapped out my next twelve years. I want a PhD.

Although respondents achieved a higher level of academic success than their parents (defined as having completed college), most indicated that they accomplished these goals despite numerous barriers confronted in their K– 12 schooling. Study participants reported enduring many bar- riers that included limited family material conditions and the low expec- tations (often informed by stereotypes) of their teachers. These barriers were mediated by caring racial/ethnic and White teachers who made the effort to be instrumental bridging agents activating their social/cultural capital and likely manifesting praxes of critical care. Siblings and extended family members also played a pivotal role in assisting these respondents in overcoming barriers, as observed in chapter 5. Respondents’ decision to pursue college was strongly associated with the role of supportive par- ents, older siblings, and teachers. Notably, some respondents reported a strong desire to learn, having access to information about higher educa- tion (likely provided by bridging institutional agents), and being moti- vated by the desire to counter negative stereotypes of Mexicans. These themes were persistent and speak to a form of resistance by the women, their parents, and school- and community- based institutional agents—all motivated to prove that a generation of Chicanas, previously denied access to higher education, could achieve and make considerable contributions to their communities and the larger society.

Conclusions and Recommendations

The Mexican American study participants represent the first significant cohort of Chicanas to attend college after the civil rights era victories of

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140 The Magic Key

the 1960s (Zambrana and MacDonald 2009). They entered upon a K– 12 pathway that was not designed to see them succeed, but rather maintained unequal racial, ethnic, linguistic, and gender relations by default. Institu- tional arrangements and structures have not changed significantly over the past several decades, and obtaining the right combination of quality in- struction and social support appears to have become more challenging in recent years (e.g., a growing number of states singularly emphasize high- stakes tests as graduation requirements). While there are some promising trends, especially with regard to increased levels of Mexican American enrollment in higher education, these have not resulted in widespread change in the opportunity structure. As a result, U.S. public schools con- tinue to play an important role in reproducing inequality for low- income Mexican American men and women.

The data describe several key factors in the achievement of Chicanas that transcend decades of social and educational policies. Many factors converged to facilitate the achievement of these women. The opportu- nity to form positive relationships with teachers was a compelling theme across the participants’ responses. We theorize that instrumental support provided by bridging institutional agents (Stanton- Salazar 2010) allows for the transmission of social/cultural capital to students and its activation in their lives (Lopez and Stack 2001), developing among them a social net- work orientation and increased chances of attaining academic and occu- pational success (De Jesús 2005; Stanton- Salazar 2010). In addition, the support of teachers and other nonfamilial agents assisted them in navigat- ing adverse institutional environments, and developed within them strong motivation to pursue higher education despite discouragement from other teachers and formidable social and economic forces.

Chicanas resisted assumptions by teachers that they did “not care” about academic achievement. Indeed, their resistance strategy was to focus on achievement as a way of overcoming pernicious stereotypes and racialized microaggressions—such as being called “ordinary” or “the smartest Mexican” (implying somehow the status of being the smartest of the nonsmart). This is a reaction similar to college students’ desire to prove them wrong, as documented in previous research on racial micro- aggressions (Solórzano, Allen, and Carroll 2002; Yosso, Smith, Ceja, and Solórzano 2009). Likewise, our study shows that proving them wrong was a motivating force that ensured participant success.

Strikingly, academic enrichment and support programs external to the respondents’ schools, especially those tied to ethnic identity, exposed the

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Examining the Influence of K–12 School Experiences 141

respondents to “hot knowledge” (Ball and Vincent 1998) about the nature of higher education and the role it could play in transforming their trajecto- ries. Gilda Ochoa (2013) found MEChA to be a transformative space for Mexican American high school students, as it “provides a space for stu- dents to systematically understand the differences in course placement, disrupt the assumptions, and change the patterns” of educational inequity (225). The ethnic- identity- oriented programs in particular appear to have been infused with a political clarity expressing an understanding that an individual Chicana’s achievement was tied to the broader community’s de- velopment. This suggests an important form of bounded solidarity, and bonding social/cultural capital also served as bridging capital in what were likely more affirming and protective cultural spaces that supported the academic achievement of these Chicanas. These study findings are in- structive to practitioners seeking avenues to promote success and institu- tional integration for Mexican American students. Respondents strongly suggest that educational pivotal moments (Espinoza 2011) can enable col- lege and professional success.

The findings have yielded important practice recommendations:

• Teachers and other school agents served as bridging institutional agents, activating their social/cultural capital and transmitting it to respondents; they should support their students in developing ethnic pride and social networks.

• While many students confronted barriers in their schools, these high- achieving Chicanas resisted stereotypic assumptions. Educators must recognize the persistent stereotypes that Chicanas face in their educa- tional pursuits and incorporate efforts in their work to dismantle such pervasive attitudes in schools.

• Chicano and ethnic identity academic enrichment programs pro- vided considerable support to respondents and linked the success of individual students to broader goals of community and ethnic group progress. Schools should increase the number of such programs and integrate them into the curriculum.

• Parents who lacked sufficient knowledge of course work subject con- tent nonetheless supported and transmitted an achievement orien- tation and supported respondents’ decisions to attend college in the form of familial and aspirational capital. Educators should engage in outreach to parents (and siblings) to provide intergenerational family education regarding college and career opportunities.

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142 The Magic Key

Although a number of successful and high- profile Chicanas (e.g., Susana Martinez, Lucille Roybal- Allard, Loretta Sanchez, and Janet Murguía) have emerged on the national landscape and have disrupted the stereo- typical narrative regarding Chicana academic and professional achieve- ment, the first generation of college- educated Chicanas, represented by our sample, were pioneras. They confronted and overcame a U.S. school system oriented toward their failure rather than their success. The ad- verse conditions that these pioneras confronted have scarcely improved in the intervening decades. In fact, they have worsened as a result of educa- tional policies characterized by standardization and diminished autonomy for educators, who might otherwise be able to form instrumental rela- tionships that engage marginalized students. Nevertheless, committed teachers, parents, social workers, tutors, and countless other institutional agents continue to advocate for improved educational outcomes for Chi- canas on micro and macro levels, ensuring a future cohort who will over- come institutional and interpersonal obstacles and continue to “prove them wrong.”

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