Exploring Possible Selves: The College and Career Aspirations of Gang-Associated Latino Male Youth

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 15
  In Roundtable Session: Exposing the Links Between Criminology and Education: Needed Conversations for Policy, Practice, and System Change

Abstract

Background: There are over 1 million youth actively involved in gangs across the US (National Gang Center, 2015; Pyrooz & Sweeten, 2014). The experiences of gang youth in schools varies from being over criminalized through discipline policies (Rios, 2011), fears and victimization of violence (Huerta, 2018), to being blocked from opportunities to participate in extracurricular activities and mistreatment from teachers and administrators (Flores-Gonzales, 2004; Vigil, 1999). The combination of these negative experiences contributes to gang-associated youth being less likely to graduate from high school compared to their non-gang peers (Pyrooz, 2014). Some argue that graduation rates decrease because youth leave gangs, but others argue lowered persistence rates in high school are directly tied to being “pushed out” from school (Noguera, 2003; Rios, 2017). What is often missing from the narratives of gang youth in schools is how youth conceptualize their lives after high school and what possible careers and college pathways they are interested in pursuing.

Theoretical framework: Using Markus and Nurius (1986) “possible selves” to understand how gang-associated youth visualize their futures after high school. This theory is informed by one’s current context and structures of opportunities but allows the individual to see past those attempting to undermine goals and aspirations. For these and other reasons, this theory allows the students to dream new realities for themselves.

Methods and Analysis: Based on in-depth qualitative interviews with 22 gang-associated Latino boys and young men attending two alternative schools. During data collection, students ranged from 14 to 19 years old and were enrolled from 7thgrade to 12thgrade. Each alternative school served between 100 to 250 students based on suspensions and expulsions from “feeder” schools in the school district. Interviews were transcribed by a third-party transcription service. Each interview was then thematically coded to capture items related to college and career aspirations. The parent and child codes that evolved were then peer-debriefed with university colleagues and an administrative assistant at one of the three schools. The administrative assistant has been an employee of the school district for over 20 years in multiple middle and high schools.

Preliminary Analysis: The 22 students shared visions of entering career fields ranging from auto-technicians to becoming video game designers. Gang-associated students did not allow past experiences of juvenile incarceration or active probation to limit their future opportunities in two or four-year colleges, where they can earn necessary degrees and credentials. Many expressed interests in either a career-technical field or general education curriculum that works towards transfer or advanced credentials.

Significance: The significance of this paper is to focus on how youth conceptualize and develop a new or “possible self” on what careers and college opportunities they envision for themselves in the future. This asset-based perspective is important to help reframe how the most vulnerable students in the educational pipeline are treated and how teachers, counselors, and administrators can and must see a that these youth do not want to live in poverty during adulthood, but are eager to enter into some form of postsecondary education.

Author

• Adrian H. Huerta, University of Southern California