The Missing Piece in Education: Latino Families' Perceptions and Involvement in the College Preparation Process from the Rio Grande Valley
Abstract
This study explored Latino families’ perceptions and involvement in preparing their children for college from the Rio Grande Valley. The Rio Grande Valley is a border region and contains a significant portion of the Latino population within the state of Texas. There has been a growing concern among scholars in education and policymakers to improve the educational outcomes for Latino students. In order to address this issue, much of the literature has focused on the experiences of students and educational agents. However, little is known about the experiences of Latino families’ and their involvement in preparing their children for college.
A qualitative case study methodology was used for this study. A single independent school district located in the Rio Grande Valley were nine families’ were interviewed to gather all data for this study. I utilized Yosso’s Community Cultural Wealth Model to guide this study and to examine the experiences of Latino families’ help their children prepare for college from this particular border region. These families’ valued and cared about their children going to college. It was evident these families’ defined their involvement differently from how it is defined in the educational research. The way these families’ perceived their involvement occurred outside of the school setting to help prepare their children for college. These families’ relied heavily on their personal educational experiences to help formulate their college aspirations for their children. In addition, these families’ showed no sign of concern about their children’s academic ability but had concerns about their children’s well-being (i.e., moral and financial support). Lastly, these families’ believed that it is a collective effort or the responsibility of both the families’ and school district personnel to help prepare their children for college. Based on the findings, I offer recommendations to improve policies, practices, and programs across regional P-16 educational pipeline to increase family involvement in the Rio Grande Valley.
Citation
Palomin, Leticia (2018). The Missing Piece in Education: Latino Families' Perceptions and Involvement in the College Preparation Process from the Rio Grande Valley. Doctoral dissertation, Texas A & M University. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /174624.