The Journey to Graduate School: An Exploration of First-Generation Latine/a/o Students’ Transmission of Knowledge to Capital

• In Event: Understanding Latinx/e Students' Pathways to and Through Higher Education

Abstract

Graduate education often serves as an opportunity for Latine/a/o/s to leverage their social, familial, and cultural capital as an avenue for increased economic prosperity. However, the journey to pursue a graduate degree can be challenging as students navigate multiple roles and identities and embody feelings of guilt, separation, and stress. It is imperative that we understand how Latine/a/o students develop graduate school aspirations to further our understanding of their graduate degree attainment. Utilizing platicas and educational journey mapping, I explore the role of five first-generation Latine/a/o students’ journey to graduate school examining the following research question: how do first-generation Latine/a/o students activate social networks and contexts as funds of knowledge and transmit them into aspirational, familial, and navigational capital?

Author

• Amanda Carrasco, University of California - Los Angeles