Grappling With Inequality: Neoliberal Meritocracy and the College Transition for Latinx Charter School Graduates

• In Event: Latinx Schooling Experiences

Abstract

Using grounded theory to analyze 31 interviews with 23 Latinx students, this study explores participants’ reflections on transitioning from a charter high school with majority Latinx students to universities with distinctly different racial/ethnic campus environments. The findings offer how students are socialized towards neoliberal meritocracy, partly based upon their shared charter high school experience. Neoliberal meritocracy fosters learning about inequality through individualism, encouraging students to work harder than their more privileged peers to achieve success in college for themselves and their families. The article concludes by encouraging secondary schools and postsecondary institutions to use collectivist approaches to teaching and learning that emphasize the influences of systemic inequality and the value of social justice advocacy in addition to navigational skills.

Author

• Liane I. Hypolite, California Polytechnic State University