How School Administrators Can More Equitably Distribute Capital Among Students by Understanding Their Power

• In Event: Forces Beyond the Classroom Shaping and Impacting Underrepresented Low-Income Students

Abstract

High school internships provide students with work experience and in-demand professional skills. In assessing internships, researchers often use program-level and academic outcome data, but narrative-based research is also critical to understand the broad effects of these programs on students. Via focus groups conducted with high school interns and interviews conducted with principals and internship coordinators, we highlight connections between adults who implement internship programs in schools and the underrepresented students participating in them. Our findings suggest that given opportunity-focused goals of these programs, stakeholders would more equitably distribute social and cultural capital among students by reckoning with their own roles and power in these processes. This allows adults to better approach the work from community-centric, asset-based, and equity lenses.

Authors

• Anindya Kundu, Florida International University

• Yuly V. Piedrahita Guzman, Florida International University