Investigating College-Going Familial Capital in the School Lives of Black and Latino Adolescent Boys

• In Event: 68.044 - Family Engagement During Transitions to Secondary and Postsecondary Educational Settings

Abstract

This qualitative study highlights two 11th grade participants, Black and Latino high school boys, attending one U.S. urban charter school. These boys were equipped with what the author conceptualizes as college going familial capital, or the rich knowledge, information, inspiration and resources students of color gain from their families (nuclear, extended, and fictive kin), transferred through lessons, values, practices, and beliefs, that serve as rationale, motivation, and support for securing postsecondary educational attainment. It was encompassed in the ways families valued college for economic betterment and expressed when participants compared the college experiences of family members when they considered their own futures. As educators support the collegiate plans of Black and Latino boys, they should harness students’ familial assets.

Author

• Roderick L. Carey, University of Delaware