Contextualized College Choices: Examining Intersectionality Within College Conocimiento

• In Event: Division J Vice Presidential Session: Challenging Colonial College Access for Historically Marginalized Student Populations: Toward Decolonizing College Choice

Abstract

Objectives
This presentation challenges deficit ideologies traditionally present in the schooling experiences of Latinx students who attend under-resourced schools within a race-poverty nexus (Howard & Rodriguez-Scheel, 2016). In particular, this presentation builds on a conceptual model of college choice and provides empirical findings that exemplify how first-generation low-income Latinx students choose college if they attend schooling structures that provide limited educational opportunities.

Theoretical Framework
The paper used college-conocimiento (Acevedo-Gil, 2017) and multilevel model of intersectionality (Nuñez, 2014) as guiding frameworks. The conceptual framework envisions a serpentine process that aims for Latinx students to develop a reflective college consciousness, depicted through self-advocacy and supporting peers with the college choice process, despite continually encountering obstacles. The integration of both conceptual frameworks facilitates examining college choice within the organizational, representational, experiential, and intersubjective levels present in the multilevel model of intersectionality. Incorporating the organizational and representational levels allowed for the examination of college access and choice within the neoliberal and colonial schooling structures that are discussed as an overarching theme in this panel.

Methods and Data
Semi-structured oral history interviews with 77 Latinx students. Oral history interviews provided what students did, wanted to do, and believed they were doing (Portelli, 1991). Data was analyzed using inductive and deductive codes. Deductive codes aligned with the stages of college-conocimiento and areas within the multilevel model of intersectionality frameworks. I used process and causation coding (Saldaña, 2015) but conducted member checking as part of the analysis process.

Results
Findings provided empirical data that aligned with the seven stages of college-conocimiento. In particular, the findings supported the experiential dimension of the model of intersectionality because the participants considered various identities and knowledge of institutional resources to construct narratives about the likely obstacles they would experience in college. In particular, the model of intersectionality highlighted the experiences of undocumented Latinx students, which varied from documented Latinx students. Finally, findings highlighted the cyclical pathways fostered by inequitable access to educational opportunities, as experienced by participants.

Scholarly Significance
This paper challenges the traditional frameworks that do not establish educational opportunities as historically inequitable for Latinx students and Undocumented students (Cox, 2016; Hurtado & Carter, 1997; Nuñez, 2009; Rios-Aguilar & Kiyama, 2012). The use of two conceptual and interdisciplinary frameworks facilitates the examination of Latinx student college choices and includes the focus on undocumented student college choice. By integrating conceptual frameworks with empirical data, this presentation informs the field of higher education and centralizes the need to continue developing frameworks and models that contextualize the complexities present in college choices made by Students of Color.

Author

• Nancy Acevedo-Gil, California State University - San Bernardino