The Chicana/o/x Dream: Hope Resistance and Educational Success (Race and Education)

About this book

2021 Senior Scholar Book of the Year American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE) Based on interview data life testimonios and Chicana feminist theories The Chicana/o/x Dream profiles first-generation Mexican-descent college students who have overcome adversity by utilizing various forms of cultural capital to power their academic success. While college enrollment rates for Chicana/o/x students have steadily increased over the last decade this cohort still faces significant barriers to academic achievement including minimal information about college and limited access to the kind of preparation and advising that will help them get there. As a result Chicana/o/x students maintain stubbornly low four-year completion rates. Against this backdrop Gilberto Q. Conchas and Nancy Acevedo address the mechanisms that shape the achievement aspirations and expectations of Chicana/o/x students who grew up in marginalized communities and unequal school contexts and share success stories about this growing population of students. Conchas and Acevedo elevate the voices of students at a research university and in the community college sector to reveal important issues and factors impacting and shaping the students academic journeys. The college-age men and women in the narratives evince hope resistance and empowerment in the face of marginalization anti-immigration sentiment poverty and an education system that too often reinforces deficit-minded stereotypes. The authors critique the educational policies and practices that systematically fail to champion Chicana/o/x success and examine the use of community cultural wealth that supports US-born and US immigrant students of Mexican descent to make their achievement possible. In so doing the authors look toward the future by highlighting the actions that Chicana/o/x students take in creating bridges between K12 to college and between their communities and higher education. The Chicana/o/x Dream helps define the heart and soul of tomorrows America and elucidates how Chicana/o/x college students maintain hope enact resistance and succeed against injustice. The book offers a call to action to K20 educators and administrators to develop better supports to foster the success of Mexican-descent students.