Identity and Resistance: Latino Males and Their Transition to College

Latina/os are currently the fastest growing population in the United States. It is expected that by 2025, one fourth of all U.S. public school students will be Latina/o (Gregory, 2003; Zalaquett, 2005) and by 2050 more than... [ view full abstract ]

Latina/os are currently the fastest growing population in the United States. It is expected that by 2025, one fourth of all U.S. public school students will be Latina/o (Gregory, 2003; Zalaquett, 2005) and by 2050 more than one third of the overall population will be Latina/o (Lane, 2001; Zalaquett, 2005). Although Latinos are the fastest growing ethnic population they are the least represented in higher education. Also coupled with the low enrollment rate is a noticeable gender difference between Latino males and females (Fry, 2002; Saenz & Ponjuan, 2009). Despite bleak statistics there are many Latino students who are successfully making the transition to college, but little is known about their experience and why they are able to make the transition successfully. This study intends to provide counter stories to the negative discourse concerning the transition of Latino males to college, and reveal strategies which students have utilized to make a successful transition.
Bourdieu’s (1990; 1992) theoretical framework for examining social practice to examine and comprehend the factors that are involved in the high school to college transition process for Latino male students will guide this study. Bourdieu’s (1990; 1992) theory of practice analyzes the dialectical relationship of each of his three “theoretical technologies” or “tools,” which he identifies as habitus, capital, and field in an attempt to investigate and explain an individual’s social practice. Bourdieu argued that these theoretical technologies simultaneously interact with and are in opposition to each other, producing an agent’s social practice. Bourdieu created this theory as an attempt to better understand an individual’s action or social practice or why people do what they do. His theoretical framework takes into account a person’s agency (habitus), the structures they function within (field), and the resources they have available to them (capital).
The research for this proposal is a part of a larger dissertation project, which followed a cohort of 10 Latino male students from various high schools in the Bronx as they transition from high school to college. Data collection took place over the period of a year and a half, from the beginning of the second semester of the students’ senior year in high school and continuing through the end of their first full year at their respective postsecondary institution and was gathered in the form of one-to-one interviews and focus groups, which followed a semi-structured format. Theoretical thematic analysis (Boyatzis, 1998) was utilized to produce codes and themes around habitus, capital and field. Students’ discussed the impact of Bronx, family, school, peers and gender and how it influenced their transition to college. The students discuss how attending college was a conscious attempt at resisting mainstream identity constructions of what a “Latino male from the Bronx” is supposed to be. They discussed instances when embodied gender construction was utilized/perceived as positive capital or a deficit. This project aims to expand the discourse concerning Latinos and higher education by focusing on Latino males whose ethnicity and geographical location are virtually absent from current literature.