Beyond Cultural Deficit Views of Low-Income Mexican-Descent Families: Exploring Variations in High School Students

1
Beyond Cultural Deficit Views of Low-Income
Mexican-Descent Families Exploring Variations
in High School Students and Parents Aspirations
and Expectations, Educational Involvement
Practices, and College Knowledge

• Dolores DeHaro Mena
• University of California, Santa Cruz
• July 13, 2005

2
Overview

• Overarching question
• Three complementary theoretical perspectives
• Four research questions
• Methods
• Results and discussion
• Research, policy, and practice implications

3
Overarching Question

• Why are Mexican-descent students not graduating
  from high school and attending college at the
  rates European American students are?
• Three issues that have been used to address
  Mexican-descent students low academic
  achievement are
• Low parent and student aspirations and
  expectations
• Low parental involvement, particularly at school
• Low knowledge of the U.S. schooling system,
  particularly college knowledge

4
Three Theoretical Perspectives

• Sociocultural theories
• Families goals (e.g., aspirations and
  expectations), values, beliefs, and knowledge
  systems vary and change to adapt to families
  realities (Goldenberg, Gallimore, Reese,
  Garnier, 2001 Rogoff, 2003 Vygotsky, 1978)
• Acknowledge non-traditional forms of parental
  involvement practices (e.g.,consejos) and
  practices that occur outside the school (e.g., at
  churches)
• Bridging Multiple Worlds theory
• Combines qualitative and quantitative methods to
  examine how youth actively navigate challenges
  and resources across their worlds (Cooper,
  1999)
• Adds a developmental perspective that traces
  students academic, career, and college identity
  pathways from the preschool years through
  adulthood
• Social Capital theories
• Point to how social class structure is reproduced
  from one generation to the next (Bourdieu, 1986
  Coleman, 1988)
• Parents lack knowledge Tornatsky et al. (2002) -
  low-income and 1st-generation Mexican-decent
  parents had less college knowledge than
  higher-income and 2nd and 3rd generation
  Mexican-descent parents
• More recent perspectives suggest low-income
  students can obtain resources from others besides
  parents (e.g., peers) (Stanton-Salazar, 2004)

5
Research Questions

• RQ1 Do Mexican-descent parents and students
  educational and career aspirations and
  expectations decline from junior high to
  high school?
• RQ2 What educational practices are
  Mexican-descent parents involved in within the
  school, home, and community contexts?
• RQ3 What college knowledge do Mexican-descent
  12th grade students and their parents have?
• RQ4 What is the relation between parents and
  students educational and career aspirations and
  expectations, parents educational involvement
  practices, parents and students college
  knowledge and students college-prep grades?

6
Methods

• Participants
• - 18 Mexican-descent 12th graders and their
  parents selected from larger sample
• Measures
• - Parent and student semi-structured home
  interviews
• - Demographics
• - Educational and career aspirations and
  expectations
• - Parent involvement at
• - School - 13 items (? .78)
• - Home - 13 items (? .69)
• - Community - 16 items (? .59)
• - College knowledge (Tornasky, Cutler, Lee,
  2002)
• - High school transcripts - College-prep grades

7
Quantitative and Qualitative Data Analyses

• Performed descriptive statistics on demographic
  questions
• Conducted inductive coding with educational and
  career aspirations and expectations questions
  (Cohens Kappas .90 and .86)
• Performed inferential statistics
• Paired samples t-tests
• Pearson and Spearman-Ranked correlations
• Used Yins (2003) pattern matching approach to
  compare predictions for high- and
  low-achieving students based on social
  reproduction and challenge hypotheses
• Developed longitudinal case studies of a high-
  and a low-achieving student

8
Results and Discussion

• HYP1 Parents and students educational and
  career aspirations and expectations (particularly
  expectations) would decline from 7th to 12th
  grade (Not supported)
• - There was no significant decline in parents or
  students
• educational and career aspirations and
  expectations from 7th
• to 12th grade
• BUT
• - Parents 12th grade educational and career
  aspirations
• were higher than their 12th grade educational
  and career
• expectations - Replicates 6th and 7th
  grade findings
• Parents 12th grade aspirations gt students 12th
  grade aspirations --
• - Student aspirations reflect reality

9
Results and Discussion Cont

• HYP2 Parent involvement would be higher at home
  than at school and in the community, and would
  decline as students got older (Supported)
• Home-based gt School-based gt Community-based
• Elementary school gt Junior high gt High school
• Biggest decrease was between elementary and
  junior high school
• High involvement at home and in community
  religious
• activities
• - Safe and comfortable environments
• - Supports Sociocultural research

10
Results and Discussion Cont

• HYP3 Students would have more college knowledge
  than parents (Not supported)
• Students (M 4.11, SD 1.32) and parents (M
  4.00, SD
• 2.25) answered about the same number of
  questions correctly
• - Replicates Tornatsky et al. (2002)
• Parents and students answered different
  questions correctly
• Parents cost of attending college U.S.
  residency
• Students college-prep classes
• Validity of Spanish version questions is
  questionable

11
Results and Discussion Cont

• HYP4 Positive relation between aspirations and
  expectations, parental involvement, college
  knowledge with students' college-prep grades
  (Partially supported)
• Positive relation between
• - Students college-prep grades and
• Students 12th grade career expectations
• rs(16) -.75, p lt .01
• Student reports of parental involvement in
  church- related activities during junior high
  rs(18) .48, p .05 and high school rs(18)
  .52, p .03
• Mothers occupation level rs(15) -.53, p
  .04
• - Parents college knowledge and family income
• r(18) .73, p lt .01

12
Yins (2003) Pattern-Matching Approach
Predicting College Plans

• Social reproduction predictions
• Parent(s) had college education-gtStudent would
  plan to attain college education
• Parents had less than college education-gtStudent
  would not plan to attain college education
• Challenge predictions
• Parent and student or student had high
  educational expectations, regardless of parental
  education level, -gtStudent would plan to attain
  college education
• Parent and student both had low educational
  expectations -gtStudent would not plan to attain
  college education

13
Challenge Hypothesis was Better at Predicting
Students Plans
14
Higher-Achieving vs Lower-Achieving Student
Patterns

• High-Achieving
• 8 students
• Higher
• had college plans
• Parent career
• expectations
• - Student 12th grade career aspirations and
  expectations

• Low-Achieving
• 10 students
• Lower
• had college plans
• Parent career
• expectations
• Student 12th grade career aspirations and
  expectations

15
Lourdes and José

• Lourdes
• 5-yrs-old when came to U.S.
• College-educated father
• Supportive and involved parents
• High navigation between worlds and utilized
  resources
• High and clear expectations

• José
• 5-yrs-old when came to U.S.
• College-educated father
• Supportive and involved parents
• Low navigation between
• worlds and did not utilize resources (AVID)
• Low and vague expectations

16
Conclusion

• Mexican-descent parents came to the U.S. so their
  children could have better lives than the ones
  they had in Mexico
• - Had high aspirations for their childrens
  future
• - Were highly involved in their childrens
  education, especially at home
• and through their churches
• - BUT, lacked college knowledge
• This study points to the importance of
• 1) Providing college knowledge early in multiple
  settings, multiple
• formats, and multiple languages
• 2) Listening to and supporting students own
  goals
• 3) Using culturally sensitive research designs,
  instruments, and
• measures, and
• 4) Conducting longitudinal research during the
  transition from high
• school to community college

17
Acknowledgements

• Catherine Cooper, Barbara Rogoff, Heather
  Bullock, and Patricia Gándara
• Undergraduate RAs
• The families in this study
• My family
• ASHE Dissertation Fellowship
• UC MEXUS Dissertation Grant

18
Educational Aspirations and Expectations
19
Career Aspirations and Expectations
20
School Involvement
21
Home Involvement
22
Community Involvement
23
Parental Involvement Decreased Over Time
24
Parents and Students Had Knowledge in Different
Topics