Higher Education as a Turning Point in the Lives of Former Gang-Involved Individuals: A Qualitative Analysis

• In Event: Research Dangerously: A Scholarship of Consequence and Pushing Barriers in Educational Research and Praxis

Abstract

Purpose: Throughout the US, gang-involved people are often labeled “delinquents” and “street terrorists,” and the popular belief is that these people will end up in jail (Klein & Maxson, 2010). However, the complexity of their lives warrants humanistic and asset-based perspectives to help unpack the pain and trauma accumulated across their lives (Huerta & Rios-Aguilar, 2018; Moje, 2000). Social science scholars often focus on the “missing variables” that contribute to gang involvement or highlight the damage-centered research that exploits trauma within marginalized communities (Tuck, 2009). I push back and against current gang scholars to highlight the hopes and aspirations of 20 former gang-involved people to illuminate moments that transformed their trajectories to reach higher education.

Theoretical framework: I use Oyserman and Markus (1990) possible selves to understand how former gang members conceptualize, view, reflect and construct their transitions into higher education. Possible selves can be viewed as an internal motivational tool that enables individuals to build pathways and resources for their futures and possess some type of control over their behaviors. They proposed three dimensions of possible selves’ theory that inform the views of individuals: 1) Hoped-for selves are dreams or future professions that individuals would like to pursue. 2) Expected selves are either positive or negative expectations of oneself. 3) Feared-selves is when individuals are afraid of being trapped in an undesired state such as poverty, death, or being in jail for the rest of one’s life. Oyserman and Saltz (1993) stress that individuals’ ability to foster and use their social competencies in conjunction with possible selves matters in negotiating and building trust with adults to access successful experiences during adolescence.

Methods & Data Sources: For this paper, I use data collected in 2020-2021 academic year from in-depth two-part semi-structured interviews with 20 former gang-involved people and reflexive interview notes. The purpose of the two-part interviews was to learn about their k-12 experiences, reasons for joining and leaving the gang, and transition into higher education. After each interview, I wrote reflexive interview notes to process the pain, anger, and hopelessness shared with participants. Each discussion ranged from 60 to 150 minutes. All data has been collected, transcribed, and in the data analysis stage. I am using Oyserman and Markus (1990) and Dane (2000) secondary trauma to inform my data analysis and coding strategy. I am triangulating data analysis and preliminary results with two study participants.

Preliminary Results: Two emerging findings emerged. 1) The moment that higher education became a realistic and achievable goal. 2) College degree completion created new possibilities for how they envision the future.

Scholarly significance: As research on justice-impacted populations connected to higher education grows, this paper centers and honors the voices of gang-involved people who have successfully enrolled in college. The theory helps to understand critical moments that shape their trajectory and the challenges to reach new goals.

Author

• Adrian H. Huerta, University of Southern California