Now You See Me: Unforgetting Exclusionary Histories While Imagining Equitable Postsecondary Futures

• In Event: Storying Intersectionality for Collective Thriving: Dignity and Wisdom Across Cultures, Generations, Space and Time

Abstract

This qualitative study examined college and career counseling for Black and Latinx students at a suburban public high school near a major mid-Atlantic city. As an African American woman of Caribbean heritage and a first-generation American whose parents were unfamiliar with the college process, I recognized systemic deficiencies in my high school experience that motivated this research. Drawing from 24 semi-structured interviews with alumni (2020-2024), parents, school counselors, and building leaders at this school that transformed to majority Latinx and Black, this research centers participants' epistemologies as sites of wisdom and dignity, challenging traditional binary and traditional power structures in a suburban public school district.
Despite demographic shifts making the school more diverse, organizational systems remain rooted in historically less diverse practices, leading to inequitable experiences for Black and Latinx students and their families. The study highlights how students and families navigated as they moved through educational environments shaped by what Turner (2020) termed "colorblind managerialism." Participants' narratives revealed tensions, challenges, and wisdom that emerged when navigating systems designed around insider/outsider dynamics, with families sharing stories of confronting a problematic "two-tiered system" where AP/Honors students received comprehensive guidance while ELL students, those with IEPs, and Black and Latinx male athletes "fell through the cracks."
This research positions participants across generations—from recent high school alumni to their parents and current school professionals—as knowledge holders whose intersectional stories illuminate pathways toward collective thriving. Students and families described drawing on aspirational, navigational, and resistant capital to overcome social barriers never meant to be overcome, revealing powerful sources of agency that challenge deficit-based models and center their cultural wealth as essential knowledge.
Through reflective dialogues as methodological tools, participants generated wisdom about organizational transformation needed in suburban contexts. These reflection spaces allowed families to share their experiences of affirming cultural connections—such as students leveraging linguistic capital through Spanish-speaking teachers—while confronting non-affirming institutional contexts. Their stories revealed how intersectional identities, institutional power, and emotional labor intersect in the daily navigation of suburban school systems.
From these intergenerational stories emerged the "Dream-Achieve Postsecondary Planning Framework" I created, grounded in Critical Race Theory (Bell, 1980; Delgado & Stefancic, 2001), Community Cultural Wealth (Yosso, 2005), Ray's (2019) Theory of Racialized Organizations, and Gholdy Muhammad's work (2020, 2023). This framework promotes systemic change toward equitable and culturally sensitive college and career planning practices that honor dignity and knowledge across generations, operationalizing joy-centered learning and transformative leadership.
My work intertwines with fellow researchers through space and time, demonstrating how centering participants' epistemologies—rather than imposing external expertise—generates collective wisdom for educational transformation. The methodological approach of unpacking reflections reveals how schools can move from individual achievement models to community-centered approaches that honor family knowledge across cultures and generations.
This work illuminates pathways toward collective thriving where student and family voice drives institutional change, demonstrating how suburban demographic transitions require approaches that honor the full humanity and boundless potential of students through transformative partnerships centering dignity and wisdom across generations.

Author

• Margot Todman-Mack, University of Pennsylvania