Beyond Homelessness: An Asset-Based Analysis of High School Persistence and Career Aspirations for Youth Impacted by Homelessness

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session Thirteen
  In Roundtable Session: Resisting the Web of Carcerality: Counternarratives of Youth Impacted by Foster Care, Homelessness, and the Criminal Justice System (Table 10)

Abstract

Problem Statement
In the United States, a high school diploma, or its equivalent, is an important milestone for securing institutional access to higher education, housing options, and employment. In the 2018-19 academic year, one third of all high school 12th graders identified as experiencing homelessness did not receive their high school diploma in four years (National Center for Homeless Education, 2021). The inability of U.S. public institutions to adequately support youth impacted by homelessness in the public education system (and thereafter) means that many young people are excluded from fully contributing to and thriving in U.S. society.

This inquiry employed community cultural wealth (Yosso, 2005) to analyze motivating factors that helped youth experiencing homelessness in high school stay in school and graduate. Examining high school persistence among youth experiencing homelessness with an anti-deficit approach, offers insight on effective practices for supporting their ability to navigate flawed institutions and graduate high school.

Theoretical Framework
Yosso’s Community Cultural Wealth Framework (CCW) outlines “six forms of capital that comprise community cultural wealth and most often go unacknowledged or unrecognized” (Yosso, 2005, p. 70), particularly as they pertain to marginalized people. This inquiry used CCW to understand the role that aspirational and resistant capital played in motivating youth experiencing homelessness to stay in school while experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity. Similarly, this study analyzed the role that aspirational and resistance capital played in their future career goals and aspirations.

Methodology
The study used semi-structured interviews with 9 current high school students experiencing homelessness and 14 recent high school graduates who experienced homelessness in Southern California. The interviews were conducted between 2018-2022. The study deployed three cycles of coding and analysis using CCW’s aspirational and resistance capital, to identify common themes within each participant’s narrative (Saldana, 2015).

Preliminary Findings
For many participants the drive to graduate high school was fueled by the aspirational capital from adults in their educational and community networks. Students were also motivated to graduate high school despite their housing insecurity to counter the negative stereotypes on youth experiencing homelessness. Several youths aspired to pursue careers in law, medicine, social work, college access, and education as a form of resistance capital to help other young people impacted by the same structural inequities they endured.

Discussion and Implications
This paper expands the use of CCW to youth experiencing homelessness and provides researchers another anti-deficit framework with which to explore the assets and contributions of youth impacted by homelessness. Moreover, the study provides a counter-frame to problem-centric propositions for why we need to help student homelessness. Study findings support the argument that we do not need to support youth impacted by homelessness to avoid future negative outcomes, but rather, we need to support youth impacted by homelessness to ensure that we are building a community of skilled, empathetic professionals with lived experience who are motivated to end inequity.

Author

• Earl J. Edwards, Boston College
  Presenting Author