Familia, Honor y Talento: Harnessing Working-Class Critical Resilience Along the Community College Pathway

• In Event: Marx SIG Paper Session

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to understand lived struggles of Mexican American working-class students in a community college in Oregon. Moreover, how such realties are harnessed and transmitted onto their community college experience. Through testimonios the participants narrated their circumstances in relation to family struggle in pursuit for a higher education. Through a Marxist critique of immigration, labour and education, the author calls on community college faculty and staff to consider what can be learned from historically marginalized voices, such as the Mexican American experience in the United States. The findings in this article suggest that through a heightened critical consciousness educators can develop social class & cultural responsiveness through self-reflection of the human struggle for fomenting educational equity.

Author

• Jesus Jaime-Diaz, Colorado State University Pueblo