Operating from Postcolonial theory and using Honneth (1994), and Taylor (1995) conception of Multicultural recognition, Yosso's (2005) Community Cultural Wealth, and studies on Culturally Responsive Leadership, this dissertation presents three empirical studies that evidence the necessity of a global decolonization towards multicultural recognition. The first study shed light of a recognized Indigenous school that struggles for recognition and counters colonial domination. Findings demonstrated how a culturally responsive shared leadership fosters academic achievement and cultural pride. The second study provides an example of resilience and community cultural wealth in a group of repatriated students from the United States to Mexico, at the same time presents a re-conceptualization of cultural capital concept (Bourdieu, 1997), as a guide for recognition of cultural wealth within migrant communities. The final study examines how Southern Arizona principals conceptualize and enact successful leadership in border schools with shifting demographics and high percentages of colonized populations. Findings indicate that, along with Leithwood and Riehl's leadership dimensions, all four principals demonstrate a sociocultural affect as part of successful practice in Arizona border contexts.

Latino males have come to be an “invisible” populace that is underrepresented in higher education (Saenz & Ponjuan, The vanishing Latino male in higher education, 2009). Previous research has addressed the causes for why Latino males are declining and not persisting in college (Harper, (Re)setting the agenda for college men of color: Lessons learned from a 15-year movement to improve Black male student success, 2014; Saenz & Ponjuan, The vanishing Latino male in higher education, 2009). However, scholars who have studied this subject concluded this is a multifaceted concern that needs to be understood in more depth. Latino males are struggling to keep up with their male and female peers at crucial transition points of the education pipeline (Saenz & Ponjuan, The vanishing Latino male in higher education, 2009). The plight of Latino males continues to be a challenging educational issue, which is magnified by the neglect of policy makers, educators, and leaders in higher education who continue to overlook the unique socioeconomic and cultural characteristics surrounding the Latino male experiences in postsecondary education (Noguera & Hurtado, 2012). The problem that this study addresses is the truncated college completion rates among Latino males of Mexican ancestry and the persistent problem of the increasing gender gap and underrepresentation of Latino male student’s graduation rates. This narrative inquiry examined the cultural concepts of familismo and the “good son dilemma” as they relate to the college experience of Latino students which thereby informs a deeper understanding of the experiences that facilitate successful academic achievement of Latino male students of Mexican ancestry. Secondly, this study aimed to highlight the voices of Latino male students of Mexican ancestry, who have navigated through the educational system and graduated from a four-year higher education institution.

Within the broader context of the representation of Latinas in higher education, the purpose of this study is to investigate the post-secondary aspirations of Latinas who were involved in a community-based folklórico program. In addition, this study seeks to understand how participating in folklórico programs can influence the college and career aspirations of Latinas, if at all. Finally, this study examines the skills developed by participating in folklórico programs that are transferable to education and career goals or life in general. The theoretical framework of this study was Yosso’s (2005) concept of community cultural wealth and included the expansion of community cultural wealth by Rendon, Nora, and Kanagala (2014). The method of this study was an instrumental case study using individual semi-structured interviews, a focus group, and document analysis to collect data. The findings of this study described the influence of participation in community-based folklórico programs for Latinas, and the development of transferable skills. This study informs educational leaders about the importance of developing pathways to college for folklórico participants that are equipped with the skills, qualities, and capital necessary to be successful in higher education.

This study employed narrative methods to explore how two Somali-Canadian women formed and understood their identities as first-generation university students. In conceptualizing identity, the study draws on sociological literature that frames identities as a collection of social roles that are performed. Within this framework, university student is a cultural object related to specific kinds of capital. The data are presented in narrative form, based in life history and life story approaches. Within their narratives, participants recounted the ways in which their attempts at developing a university student identity were complicated by their identities as Black, Muslim, economically marginalized individuals from refugee backgrounds. The tension at the heart of each participants’ narrative was not how to perform the university student role, but the cost of that performance on other parts of their identity. These findings reveal the narrow definition university student within the Canadian imagination and its consequence for the lives of marginalized communities.

More than 3 million refugees have resettled in the U.S. alone since 1948 (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees [UNHCR], 2018). Less than 10% of refugees resettled in the U.S. make educational advancements of any kind post-resettlement, and only six percent of refugees worldwide have entered postsecondary education (Capps and Fix, 2015; Ferede, 2018; Kerwin, 2012; Mendenhall, Russell and Buckner, 2017; U.S. Department of State, 2017; UNHCR, 2017, 2019, 2021). Despite these data, there is no lack of desire to attend college or university among refugees who have completed secondary school (Dryden-Peterson et al., 2010). This post-intentional phenomenological study sought to understand more deeply the lived experiences of resettled refugees accessing postsecondary education and how they utilize navigational and aspirational capital to negotiate exploration, application, and enrollment processes. Findings of this study surfaced barriers resettled refugees in the United States navigate at the meso-, macro-, and micro-levels of postsecondary educational access, the community cultural wealth that resettled refugees create, and how they utilize this capital to navigate the complexities of an educational system created without them in mind. This study has implications for secondary and postsecondary professionals, policymakers at the state and federal levels, and for researchers who are interested in postsecondary educational access for resettled refugees. / Doctor of Philosophy / Refugees have been resettled in the United States since 1948(United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees [UNHCR], 2018). Most of these resettled refugees have not made educational advancements after resettlement despite their desires for additional education. This study was designed to understand what it is like for resettled refugees when they attempt to purse education after graduating from high school and what are the barriers that can get in their way when they are learning about, applying to, and going to college. This study also sought to understand what helps resettled refugees successfully continue to make progress at each of these points in the college-going process. This research shows that resettled refugees have high aspirations for gaining education after high school and that their families and other members of their broader community also share these aspirations. It also shows that resettled refugees learn how to work through complex challenges by relying on both the information they collect about college-going and the information that others share with them. This study is useful for those who work in all areas of education and government in the United States and who are responsible for making decisions about how policies and rules can help or hinder resettled refugees as they attempt to learn about, apply to, and go to college.

Dominant education ideology focuses on the numerous challenges encountered by low-income Black youth in urban education settings. Although much of the research seeks to highlight structural challenges faced by these students, the general interpretation of these studies may reinforce the popular belief that academic underperformance by low-income Black students is the result of family structure and maladaptive familial behaviors. The implications of this ideology is that these family characteristics foster low achievement because students enter schools without normative skills and knowledge, in addition to adhering to beliefs that do not value education (Ogbu & Simmons, 1998). Some research argues that low-income Black students that demonstrate success in schools do so because they have adopted White middle-class normative capital (Hubbard, 1999). Yosso (2005) argues that the analysis of student narratives of success through the lens of Critical Race Theory offers a critique of deficit theorizing and shifts the perspective away from White middle-class culture to the cultural capital of minority communities. Yosso posits that low-income minority communities have cultural capital that is not widely recognized in research that she describes as community cultural wealth. This qualitative study explored if community-derived “capital” is utilized by high-achieving, low-income Black high school students in order to succeed academically in educational institutions. This inquiry privileged the narratives of high-achieving Black students from disadvantaged communities in order to understand the factors that contribute to their academic success, from their perspectives. Seven high achieving Black high school students from Philadelphia who were enrolled in a college access mentoring program were chosen for this study. Interviews and observations were conducted to allow the researcher to examine the experiences of study participants in a naturalistic setting while engaging with their life histories through narrative. Participants were selected and observed once a week at their mentor site, in addition to participating in three rounds of interviews during spring/summer 2015. Two of the seven participants were also observed in their high schools. Student-participants engaged in three rounds of interviews that focused on family background and dynamics, educational experiences, and aspirations. Additionally, one mentor for each student-participant was interviewed. This examination of community cultural wealth found that aspirational, familial, and navigational capital are vital in the academic success of the participants in this study. Linguistic capital and social capital only moderately apply to rationalizations for their high academic achievement, and resistant capital does not apply in the explication of their success. / Urban Education

This study sought to research and documents the experiences of a group of Mexican undocumented college graduates in the state of Texas. Mexican students were chosen for this study because they are the largest undocumented group residing not only in the United States, but also in the state of Texas. Furthermore, this study revealed perceived and real opportunities Mexican undocumented students have after college graduation. The study focused on college choice as aspirational capital, Latina/o critical race theory (LatCrit) through testimonios as counternarratives, social capital, and cultural wealth to frame a discussion on the post-college experiences of Mexican undocumented college graduates. Furthermore, the study provided a review of legislation and policies addressing the broader immigration context. Overall, this study concluded that for the participants in this study, social capital as well as cultural wealth played important roles in how critical connections and networks operated. After exposure to social capital, participants were able to build their own networks and by tailoring it to their unique needs, were able to help their community by providing access and information about the college admissions process and available options after college graduation. In doing so, they were able to adapt, thrive, and survive within racist and discriminatory societal structures. College choice played a pivotal part in this study, but given the participants’ immigration status, they were left to attend institutions in their home state of Texas. However, given the participants academic acumen, they were able to attend and graduate from the state’s premier public flagship institution. Through their testimonios, activism, and civic engagement the participants shared their experiences as undocumented college students as well as college graduates. In the process, participants dispelled myths about their intellectual abilities and their potential to succeed. Still, their options were limited given their lack of a social security number. This study contributed to the limited literature about opportunities and challenges Mexican undocumented college students face upon degree completion. / text

In Central Texas, one high school (hereafter referred to as Literacy High) has attempted to help bridge the literacy gap in immigrant populations so as to more easily facilitate their success in standard classroom settings. In this high school, recent immigrants can focus extensively on English language studies so that, upon completion of the program, they can return to their neighborhood high schools with the linguistic and cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1973, 1974, 1977) they need to succeed in a heterogeneous group setting. The following study focuses on second-year students from Mexico within this school. Basing itself upon Yosso's (2006a, 2006b, 2007) theory of “community cultural wealth”, this ethnographic study looks for evidence of cultural attributes held by Mexican tenth grade students that contribute positively to their English literacy development and performance in Literacy High's coursework. The study has found that, primarily, Mexican students at Literacy High are assisted in their coursework by their previously developed aspirational capital (i.e. their ability to maintain their hopes and dreams for a better future even when faced with real and perceived barriers) and navigational capital (i.e. their ability to maneuver through social institutions, in this case the educational system). These characteristics enable them to pass their classes both at Literacy High and the high schools they transfer to upon program completion. However, this high achievement in terms of grades does not necessarily translate into complete English literacy, especially oral literacy. Potential reasons for these results will be discussed, based upon observations of sampled students in Literacy High classes, interviews with these students, and interviews with all Literacy High teachers. This work will also discuss the relative merit of both formal school settings and nonprofit settings in teaching written and oral literacy. Positive exemplary case studies of nonprofit ESL programs will be compared and contrasted with the results from this case study to determine what skills are most effectively taught in either setting, and how particular practices from both nonprofit and formal school settings might be better incorporated in each to improve achievement. The work will end with recommendations for how English literacy might more effectively be taught in formal school settings like Literacy High. / text

Most research on low-income, racial minority students' access to higher education has been conducted in urban communities. Little research explores these students' experiences within rural settings. Using Ríos-Aguilar, Kiyama, Gravitt and Moll's framework (2011) that bridges Yosso's (2005) "community cultural wealth" with alternative forms of capital, this case study investigated how three alumni students from a low-income, rural, border community accessed information and resources for college within their school, homes and community. Narratives, one-on-one interviews, and a survey questionnaire helped determine multiple forms of capital participants leveraged towards higher education. Participants' college pursuits and choices were influenced by information from family members, teachers and guidance counselors, community scholarships, and emotional support of family, friends, and community members. Research must continue to follow the experiences of rural, low-income, minority students access to higher education and create better opportunities and connections for them to attend college.

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