Educational Uplift as Civic Engagement in Contested Terrain

• In Event: 43.025 - Exploring Civic Engagement in Postsecondary Education: Multimodal Perspectives From Diverse Students' Experiences

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to explore how students educated in the borderlands traverse the contested terrain of their higher education experience to “give back” and their perceptions about their role in the community. The primary research question that guided this study was: What are the ways Mexican American college students from the borderlands are involved in the process of disseminating college knowledge and other forms of academic capital into their homes and communities? A secondary research question was: How do Mexican American college students from the borderlands perceive their role in their home and community?

This research is guided by Chicana feminist epistemologies. In educational research, Chicana feminist epistemologies (Delgado Bernal, 1998; Calderón, Delgado Bernal, Huber, Malagón, & Vélez, 2012) draw attention to the transformational resistance enacted by Mexican American women as they successfully navigate educational systems (Delgado Bernal, 1997). They center the pedagogies that are learned in the home; a cultural knowledge base that aids in the persistence of Chicana students (Delgado Bernal, 1997, 2001, 2008). Chicana feminist epistemologies are used in this study as a way to name and amplify the strategic acts of resistance that Mexican American college students deploy while navigating higher education (Delgado Bernal, 2001, 2008). These subtle behaviors--such as pushing against academic elitism by using the Spanish language--typically go unnamed as resistance. However, I assert that these tactics are critical to fostering a college-going culture in a bordertown community and serve as a form of civic engagement.

An ethnographic case study approach was used with data sources that included semi-structured interviews with Mexican American Scholars (N=17) from the Gates Millennium Scholars Program (GMSP), family members (N=23), and educators (N=9), as well as 153 hours of observation and a review of 106 materials including maps, community resources, personal artifacts, and public records. Data was subjected to inductive analysis using the cross-case analyses method (Yin, 2017) to generate and analyze classifications and pattern descriptions that emerged across participant groups and participant units.

By choosing to attend colleges and universities close to home, these students were able to maintain a complex web of relationships with high school and community partners to help at-risk and non-traditional student populations learn more about educational processes and pathways to higher education. While many of these students considered their actions in the community as normal everyday behavior, I argue that these everyday behaviors contribute to a college-going culture in the borderlands and serve as a form of resistance and civic engagement.

This research makes two main contributions to research theory, policy, and practice. First, this research illuminates the extent to which current college students, not only college graduates, influence the development of academic capital in their homes and communities. Second, this research highlights non-traditional forms of civic engagement. As more students from historically underrepresented communities enter higher education, institutions and organizations must be prepared to use culturally responsive methods to promote democratic outcomes.

Author

• Nydia C. Sánchez, The University of Texas at Austin