Thesis advisor: Leigh Patel / Despite the 1982 Plyler v. Doe court decision, which upheld the constitutionality of undocumented youth having access to public K-12 education in the United States, Latina students who are undocumented face unique educational and societal barriers. Material and psychological conditions of “illegality” permeate these young women’s social worlds (Muñoz, 2015). Latina students continue to lag behind their Latino and white peers as a result of historically built gendered and raced school structures of dispossession (Cammarota, 2004; Fine & Ruglis, 2009). This institutional ethnography used the lens of intersectionality theory (Crenshaw, 1991; Collins, 1998) to examine how ten Latina students navigated “illegality” in schools, the state house, and an immigrant youth-led organization. Intersectional analyses of the Latinas’ multiple experiences within and across institutional structures shed light on the specific ways that “illegality” and heteropatriarchy manifested, changed or remained stagnant, interconnected with race and class, and how these junctures were negotiated in undocumented spaces of resistance. Based on intersectional analysis of policies, interview, and observation data, it became apparent how nationalistic discourses of citizenship were embedded in structures of white racism and heteropatriarchy. The Latinas of color in the study predominantly endured interlocking forms of gendered and racialized oppression, including sexual violence, which became a dimension of intersectional disempowerment that men of color and white women seldom confronted. Based on findings from interview and observation data, this institutional ethnography challenges gendered and raced nativist conceptions of U.S. citizenship, reclaiming pathways for undocumented communities as well as action-oriented educational policies, theories, and pedagogies rooted in intersectional frames aimed at decentering heteropatriarchal whiteness in the construction of the nation state (Collins, 1998), and more in accordance with the fluid, complex realities of interlocked global economies, local cultures, and transnational citizenry. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

Thesis advisor: Sharlene Hesse-Biber / This study contributes to and expands upon the existing literature regarding the development of cultural, ethnic, and racial identities as it relates to societal beauty standards. Through conducting nine individual interviews, this qualitative research aims to gain subjugated knowledge regarding the lived experiences of Latina women attending a predominantly white university. Using an intersectional framework, I incorporate theories of social identification, self-categorization, acculturation, and beauty standards. I deploy feminist principles of praxis and utilize a grounded theory approach in my data collection and analysis. My analysis of the data revealed seven major themes: the role of the family, messages about beauty, feeling caught between two spheres, understanding larger social forces, external pressures to identify, creating space for oneself, and defining beauty. The study suggests that despite struggling with elements of ethnic, cultural, and racial identities, the women interviewed ultimately grow to accept and embrace difference, finding value and pride in their identities and experiences. The findings of this study may be of importance to university leaders who seek to better understand ways in which to support this demographic, as well as to other Latina undergraduates who feel isolated in their struggles with identity and beauty standards. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2021. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Scholar of the College. / Discipline: Sociology.

abstract: This action research study (a) explored how institutionally labeled “at-risk” Latina/o students described their experiences in an opportunity to learn environment within an academic intervention program, (b) examined how these students experienced caring relationships with their teachers in an opportunity to learn environment when compared to their other core academic classes, and (c) investigated how school leaders created conditions to further support these students’ academic success on a larger scale. This action research study utilized a sequential phenomenological qualitative approach. Critical Race Theory, Critical Pedagogy, and Care theory served as the theoretical frameworks for this study. The blending of these theories worked to push Latina/o students’ narrative reflections to emerge as constitutive and instructive voices speaking back against the inequalities in the educational setting, and offered counterstories about the caring dynamics of Latina/o students in the classroom. Participants included high school students identified as “at-risk” and in an academic intervention class / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Leadership and Innovation 2016

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