Venimos de Raíces Fuertes: Urban Communities Shaping Pathways for Latino Educational Opportunity

• In Event: 16.061 - Roundtable Session 4
  In Roundtable Session: 16.061-18 - Latino Communities: Historical Perspectives

Abstract

This paper examines the role of urban communities in ensuring educational opportunity. Through academic resilience theory (Masten, 2011) and elements of the community cultural wealth model (Yosso, 2005), protective factors that note the values and practices in an urban community are uncovered. Through a qualitative longitudinal study, the role of community focused on the violence and loss that shaped the nine participants early understanding of legal injustices and inequity. The second focused on how communities protected them from risk factors. While the third focused on a shift from being protected to protectors of their communities which ultimately charted their pathway to law school. Findings challenge assumptions of urban communities and demonstrates how they are partners in ensuring Latino student success.

Author

• Daisy Denise Alfaro, California State University - Los Angeles