Shaping School Lives Within Story Lines of College-Bound Success

• In Event: Roundtable Session 9
  In Roundtable Session: Deconstructing College Readiness: Examining Stories and Ideologies in Higher Education

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine how students and educators in a low-income high school co-constructed what it meant to be a college-bound student, and in doing so, negotiated and responded to a high school’s efforts to support students in this endeavor. Three seniors who had once identified as “drop-outs” reinforced, questioned, contradicted, and ignored what their teachers, administrators, and other adults expected or desired from them as both graduates of their high school and soon-to-be college students. The analysis foregrounds the privileged assumptions and taken-for-granted theories about what it takes for seniors in a low-income district to be college-bound and, in doing so, prove themselves worthy of public recognition.

Author

• Karla Scornavacco, University of Colorado - Boulder