Combining Community Cultural Wealth With Social Network Analysis to Understand Students' College-to-Career Transition

• In Event: Mobilizing Students' Community Cultural Wealth in Transitions to College and Career: A Community Discussion

Abstract

This presentation examines topical and methodological gaps in the literature on Community Cultural Wealth (CCW) – reviewing the limited studies on the college-to-career transition and quantitative measures for CCW. Drawing from a mixed methods pilot study of Latina/o students attending a predominantly white university, we consider the benefits and challenges of combining quantitative measures of CCW with social network analysis (SNA) to document students’ career development.

Yosso’s (2005) original framework emphasizes that CCW is created in and passed through relationships between people. SNA, in turn, is a method that examines the resources individuals receive through their social networks and the network configurations that best support their goals (Lin, 2001). Creating quantitative measures of CCW and examining how they relate to various features of students’ networks (e.g. size, density, strength of ties) may yield important insights into how students use their resources to move into their early careers. However, it is critical that these new methodological approaches remain true to the original intent of the CCW framework.

We created and pilot tested quantitative methods of CCW through surveys with 129 Latina/o college students. These surveys also included “name generators” that asked respondents to list the first names or nicknames of alters they rely on for social support across academic and personal contexts. We were able to measure students CCW, map their ego networks, and document their career goals and interests. In addition to administering surveys, we also conducted follow-up interviews with 20 students.

These preliminary data revealed some relationships worth investigating further. For example, we found that students’ career and academic networks were composed heavily (44.9%) of family members, and that family provided students with more different kinds of support than other types of relationships. Similarly, we were able to identify connections between CCW and career outcomes. We found, for example, that students with more spiritual, resistant, and aspirational capital felt they had more choice and control over their future careers – a concept known as “work volition” (Duffy et al., 2012). Follow-up interviews also offered insights into ways to revise and improve the quantitative instruments and provided a way to center students’ voices.

We hope that this brief presentation of (a) the literature on quantitative measures of CCW, (b) some key findings from our pilot research, and (c) takeaways for improving survey and interview instruments may be useful to scholars who want to combine CCW with methodologies from other disciplines.

Authors

• Nidia Bañuelos, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  Presenting Author

• Kyoungjin Jang-Tucci, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ross J. Benbow, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  Non-Presenting Author