College Lab as Resource for Latina/o Students: Accessing Social Capital and Multicultural Navigators

• In Event: Organizing High Schools and Classrooms for Latina/o Student Educational Success: College-Going Cultures/Resources and Instructional Scaffolding

Abstract

Objectives
Research has documented how urban schools divest Latina/o students of social and cultural resources, relegating them to academic failure (Stanton-Salazar, 2001; Valenzuela, 1999). This paper seeks to identify a critical school organizational feature of a “college lab” that marshals social capital and multicultural navigators in service of Latina/o student success. The paper asks: What are the critical features of a college lab that promotes college-going success for Latina/o youth? What challenges arise in organizing for a college lab?

Perspective
This paper draws on a framework of social capital in organizations and the impact on Latina/o youth. Social capital involves relationships and community, sense of trust and collaboration, and ties to networks and community within and beyond the school (Bryk & Driscoll, 1988; Coleman, 1988; Spillane & Thompson, 1997). Studies reveal links between social capital and educational experiences of Latina/o youth, identifying how Latina/o students have been denied access to social capital that could promote educational attainment (Stanton-Salazar, 2001; Valenzuela, 1999). A critical form of social capital for nondominant youth takes the form of ties to “multicultural navigators.” Carter (2005) describes “multicultural navigators” who share their understandings of dominant and nondominant cultural communities, and support non-dominant youth in navigating institutions.

Methods
This paper draws from a two-year study of an innovating and successful high school in California supporting Latina/o student success. Data sources for this paper include: interviews with administrators and personnel of the college lab; parent and student focus groups; observations of College Lab activities; observations of parent meetings; and document analysis of college lab curriculum. Analysis focused on understanding unique features of the College Lab and complexities in practice.

Results
The organization and curriculum of the College Lab attends to the student and parent community of first generation college-going students. It is organized to promote a form of social capital that builds strong relations between Latino community and school/college community, including: (a) counseling students and families to navigate home and college experiences and attending to tensions (particularly “Latino guilt” of moving away from family); (b) accessing college-going information, applications, college visits and college admissions staff ; (c) developing “financial literacy” for students and families, and connecting to financial support, including students who are undocumented immigrants; and (d) providing ongoing support while in college through social networking. The College Lab also builds social capital between Latina/o youth and College Lab personnel who act as “multicultural navigators: who access dominant and non-dominant cultural resources (Carter, 2005). The College Lab personnel share linguistic, cultural, and immigrant backgrounds of the community it serves. However, the school faces challenges in integrating the College Lab into the rest of the academic structures of the school organization.

Significance
Given educational failure to support Latina/o students’ access to college, this paper holds implications for educators, school leaders, and researchers in discerning organizational factors to support college-going success for Latina/o youth.

Authors

• Rodney T. Ogawa, University of California - Santa Cruz

• Betty Achinstein, University of California - Santa Cruz

• Marnie Curry, University of California - Santa Cruz

• Ana Paulina Moreno, University of California - Santa Cruz