Migrant Farm Working Parents’ Roles in Rural Latinx Students’ Pursuit of Higher Education

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 1:30 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: Navigating Higher Education: Latina/o/x Student Experiences and Resilience (Table 3)

Abstract

This paper challenges decades of deficit depictions of Latinx parental engagement in educational research while also challenging the homogenization of Latinx parental identities and experiences. Specifically, we ask: What role do Latinx migrant farm working parents play in their children’s pursuit of higher education? Through this guiding research question, we seek to identify the unique ways that migrant farm working parents from California’s San Joaquin Valley agricultural region (in)directly engaged in rural Latinx students’ decisions to attend college. Through Chicana/Latina feminist pláticas with 16 rural Latinx high school seniors, we found that students’ parents engaged in their children’s pursuit of higher education in the following ways: (1) Teaching Through the Body, (2) Improving Socioeconomic Realities, and (3) Reciprocal Caretaking.

Authors

• Mayra Puente, University of California - Santa Barbara

• Diana Magana, University of California - Santa Barbara

• Daniel Rios, University of California - Santa Barbara

• Melissa Romero, University of California - Santa Barbara