Pláticas With High School College Counselors

• In Event: Equipping School Counselors for Inclusive Postsecondary Transitions: Navigating Student Shifting Plans, Racial Injustice, and College Readiness Strategies

Abstract

Objectives or purposes
The purpose of this research is to shed light on strategies for college counselors to enter into diálogo with socioeconomically disadvantaged Latinx students and serve as a resource for college knowledge. The objective of this study identified the ways in which counselors seek to establish relationships and transmit resources to their students. Research has suggested that educators, including counselors, tend to espouse deficit thinking when it comes to their students (Cavazos et al., 2009; Martinez, 2003). However, Bishop and Noguera (2019) argued that the expectations for students of color and white students are very different. School counselors provide key resources for high school students to succeed in their educational careers and reverse the deficit thinking that exists. This includes understanding and navigating the complex decision space of planning postsecondary options such as whether to pursue further education at a 4-year or a 2-year higher education institution.

Perspective(s) or theoretical framework
Stanton-Salazar’s (2011) theoretical framework is built on Coleman’s (1988) and Bourdieu’s (1986) work on Social Capital Theory (Farr, 2004). Stanton-Salazar’s (2011) theoretical framework uses the term institutional agents, on which he has further built since 1997 (Stanton-Salazar, 1997; Stanton-Salazar & Spina, 2003). Stanton-Salazar (2011) defined an institutional agent as an individual in a position of relative higher status and authority, who, on behalf of an adolescent, transmits resources to the adolescent.

Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry
Pláticas are appropriate for research with the Latinx community as interviews tend to have a structure and rigid protocol (Fierros & Delgado Bernal, 2016). The plática is where the diálogo occurs. Having this counter storytelling or diálogo embedded in research creates more knowledge that has our cultural footprint. Diálogo allows for the development of a safe space that nurtures the relationship between the interviewer and the person disclosing their story (Mesa Vélez, 2019).

Data sources, evidence, objects, or materials
Researcher did plática interviews with three college counselors/advisers who run college centers at their high school in an urban area of California. You may find demographic information about the school counselors in Table 1 below.

Results and/or substantiated conclusions or warrants for arguments/point of view
First, College Counselor/advisers have similar college backgrounds as their students. Secondly, Counselor/adviser had a long term connection to the high school which helped create connection with students. Lastly, the college counselors/advisers used their college counseling programming to provide services to students.

Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work
This research contributes to a growing body of literature on college counselors as Social Capital Theory-Institutional Agents (Stanton Salazar, 2011). Prior studies have not specifically examined college counselors as social capital institutional agents (Stanton Salazar, 2011). In addition to the body of research, and focusing on college counselors as institutional agents, this study highlighted the experiences of college counselors in helping socioeconomically disadvantaged Latinx students realize their optimal postsecondary options, alongside the experiences of socioeconomically disadvantaged Latinx students in the college guidance process.

Author

• Maritza Azucena Salazar Cha, University of La Verne