School Structures and the Dynamics of Power: Postsecondary Opportunities for Bilingual English Learner Students

• In Event: Into, Through, and Beyond Community College: Pathways for English Learners and Language Minority Students

Abstract

Bilingual English Learner (EL) high school graduates are significantly less likely to either enroll in or complete college than other students not identified for ESL services during high school (Callahan & Humphries, 2016; Kanno & Cromley, 2015). Despite ample scholarship examining power dynamics that have alternately constrained and expanded bilingual ELs’ academic achievement and preparation at the K-12 level (Gándara & Hopkins, 2010; Rumberger & Tran, 2010), scant research examines how such dynamics have affected these students’ opportunities to pursue postsecondary pathways (Nuñez, et al., 2016). Accordingly, we undertook a critical synthesis of the literature to understand how organizational power dynamics in Pre-K-12 schooling, including factors such as school climate (Muller, 2015), shape bilingual EL students’ postsecondary pathways.

Research has identified mechanisms that produce inequitable postsecondary preparation related to leadership and power dynamics in high schools (Gándara & Hopkins, 2010; Hopkins, Lowenhaupt, & Sweet, 2015). Among these mechanisms, we propose that a lack of P20 convergence (Loss & McGuinn, 2016) to link college-going processes across the PreK-12 and postsecondary educational systems perpetuates inequities in bilingual EL students’ opportunities to pursue postsecondary pathways. Thus, we employ a P20 convergence perspective (Pre-school through “Grade 20” graduate degrees) to examine how organizational power dynamics shape bilingual EL students’ postsecondary preparedness. We focus in particular on the outcome of undermatching, the pursuit of a postsecondary option for which a high school graduate is academically overqualified (Bowen, et al., 2009). Specifically, we ask: How do school-level power dynamics affect the extent to which bilingual EL students are eligible to apply to, be admitted to, and enroll in different postsecondary institutions?

College-going is strongly predicated on students’ high school academic preparation (Adelman, 2006); however, high schools’ organizational climates also shape students’ access to academic, cultural, and social capital necessary for college going and their perceptions of postsecondary opportunities (McDonough, 1997). Together, these dimensions form the college culture (Jarsky, et al., 2009; McClafferty, et al., 2002; Oakes, et al., 2006) that exposes students to a sense of postsecondary options that, ideally, align with their academic preparedness. While the development of a college culture shapes high school to college transitions, it also occurs as an expression of power dynamics within a school community, informed by the extent to which bilingual EL students’ sociocultural and linguistic assets are recognized and cultivated. For example, college counselors, who are critical in informing students about postsecondary pathways, may be less likely to encourage bilingual EL students to pursue selective postsecondary education, or any postsecondary education at all (Oakes et al., 2009).

Understanding how college culture is enacted in high schools is essential to informing and reframing bilingual EL students’ postsecondary pathways (Callahan & Humphries, 2016; Nuñez & Sparks, 2012). Identifying school level factors that constrain or enhance opportunities for bilingual EL students can reveal actionable dimensions of school climate (Muller, 2015) to facilitate pathways to postsecondary education for bilingual EL students. Such research can also inform policies and practices toward P-20 convergence, to address leakages across critical junctures in educational pipelines.

Authors

• Rebecca M. Callahan, The University of Texas - Austin

• Anne-Marie Nunez, The Ohio State University