Resilience In Education

Eduardo Castillo

3/3/16

Title

Community colleges play an important role in providing students access to higher education, and serve as an entryway of opportunity for many minority students (Boswell, 2004; Suarez, 2003; Trujillo & Diaz, 1999). Latinos currently account for 12.5% of the U.S. population and are the fastest growing component of the population (U.S. Census Bureau, 2001). Community colleges enroll approximately 50% of Latino students in higher education, a number that continues to grow each year (Fry, 2002; Suarez, 2003). Scholars report that Latinos are more likely than any other racial or ethnic group to enroll in community colleges (Fry, 2002; Kurlaender, 2006; Martinez & Fernández, 2004; Suarez, 2003). These demographics show

that, for Latinos, these institutions occupy a prominent position in higher education “as sites for mining the social and cultural capital needed for upward social and economic mobility in the United States” (Martinez & Fernández, 2004, p. 52).
For Mexican American students, who overwhelmingly chose to begin their studies at 2-year colleges, these institutions often represent a steppingstone to a baccalaureate degree (Martinez & Fernández, 2004; Suarez, 2003). Even though these institutions attract large numbers of minority students and have gained popularity among traditional students, they continue to be poorly understood (Boswell, 2004; McGrath & Van Buskirk, 1999). In an effort to learn about the complexity of community colleges, and how they influence the lives of Latino students, it is necessary to learn how this group of students uses resilience to survive semester after semester in a community college culture.
Research indicates that many students, particularly those from minority groups, are overwhelmed by the college process (Trujillo & Diaz, 1999). This is illustrated by the fact that the national transfer rate for the general population from a 2-year community college to a 4-year college or university is about 22% but only about 12% for minority students (Castañeda, 2002). Latino students must transcend many obstacles as raced, classed, sexed, and linguicized people. They often work long hours, have family responsibilities beyond those of traditional college students, have been provided with a poor academic preparation, are unfamiliar with the culture of college, and face other structural barriers (Cabrera & Padilla, 2004; Rendón, 2002; Trujillo & Diaz, 1999). Consequently, they begin to fall behind in their school work, stop attending classes, and eventually drop out. This cycle repeats itself over and over. This article discusses important lessons learned from five Mexican American working class students who attend a local community college in the southwestern region of the United States. While there are many precepts, I will specifically focus on one, cultivating a larger purpose, because it enables the participants to excel at Camino Real Community College.
Resilience is described by Wayman (2002) “as a complex phenomenon that enables an individual to succeed despite adverse conditions or outcomes” (p.

168). He explains that studies from this area identify individuals who experience severe stress such as poverty or substance abuse and then examine how they achieve success despite these circumstances. This knowledge has provided the framework for the study of educational resilience. Wang, Haertel, and Walberg (1994) explain that educational resilience focuses on the success of those individuals who experience personal hardship caused by environmental conditions. The community college students chosen for this study are educationally resilient because they are in the process of obtaining their college degrees despite the difficult circumstances that they face on a daily basis. For most of these participants, every day is a struggle, and yet they continue to beat the odds. Researchers who study educational resilience note that these community college students travel on a journey that is marked by protective factors (Benard, 2004; Morales, 2000). These factors, which are often divided into personal and environmental categories, protect the students against the adverse conditions that they face on a daily basis (Morales, 2000; Wayman,

2002).
Even though the research on resilience has provided a new direction from which to understand student success, there are many concerns associated with its definition.

First, it tends to place the responsibility of achieving success primarily on the effort of the individual without considering the cultural, economic, historical, and political contexts of schooling. This implies that students who drop out of school simply chose to do so, thus relieving educational institutions of responsibility. This leaves the dynamics of power embedded in these schooling systems unexamined. Second, this perspective presents the attributes that contribute to resilience as static: Individuals either have these or they do not. However, this is not the case, because these attributes are fluid and negotiated throughout one’s life, vary from individual to individual, and are influenced by cultural values and circumstances. In other words, there is complexity in meaning and coherence in individuals’ experiences (Calderon, 1998). Reese, Kroesen, and Gallimore (2000) note that personal attributes are better understood when situated within a sociocultural context because their resilience is then a combination of “both product and process” (p.

297)
Data collection included participant interviews, observations, and focus groups. Semistructured interviews were conducted in order to gain a deeper understanding of the participants’ perspectives, and a protocol consisting of themes related to resilience, academic success, schooling practices, family, culture, and language was used during the interviews. The protocol was created in order to build conversation, “explore, probe and ask questions” in an effort to “elucidate and illuminate” those subject areas (Patton, 1990). All the participants in the study were interviewed at least three times in a location of their choosing and were audio recorded. The length of time varied with each participant. These ranged from 1 to 4 hours. After the interviews were completed, classroom observations took place. The researcher visited the participants’ classes throughout the semester and took extensive notes. Guided by Merriam’s (1998) suggestions on observations, the researcher focused on the interactions between the participants, classmates, and professors. She listened very closely to their conversations and looked for nonverbal clues such as facial expressions, gestures, tone of voice, and body posture that helped her to learn more about the participants. The last data collecting technique consisted of focus groups. Two focus groups that lasted approximately 2 hours were conducted in order to bring the five participants together and learn from their interactions. Because the goal of this study was to learn more about the lives of these participants within their sociocultural contexts to gain understanding that sheds light on issues of critical resilience, schooling processes, and the academic success of Mexican Americans who attend community colleges, multiple forms of data collecting techniques were necessary.
These community college students acknowledged that their parents had limited knowledge about the educational process. Even though most of these parents could not help their children with the specifics of how to obtain their educational goals, they provided other forms of support (Ceballo, 2004). Jerry is a 29-year-old Mexican American student who was, along with his sister, raised by his mother in a Mexican border town. He notes that his mother, Ms. Galindo, is a very hard worker and that when growing up she had two jobs in order to support him and his sister. Jerry recalls that his mother worked very long hours at a manufacturing plant and at a plastic injection molding factory. As a result, Ms. Galindo did not have the time or the knowledge about the school system to get involved in his academic pursuits in conventional, mainstream ways. Instead, Ms. Galindo demonstrated her commitment to his education in other forms. For example, when Jerry enrolled at CRCC, his mother bolstered his enthusiasm for college by purchasing his textbooks, allowing him to borrow her car, and encouraging him to stay focused.
The participants also spoke about other types of support provided by their parents and members of the family. They posited that an important fund of knowledge was the many consejos provided by their families about their educational aspirations that served as motivational strategies that built on their critical resilience. Delgado-Gaitan (1994) describes consejos as nurturing advice “that implies a cultural dimension of communication sparked with emotional empathy and compassion, as well as familial expectation and inspiration” (p. 300). She believes that this concept is profound and not possible to convey with English vocabulary. Consejos are subjective forms of knowledge that are often conveyed through oral tradition. These have been passed on through generations and are verbal forms of education. Consejos are premodern, and they span over long periods of time in traditional rural Mexican villages. An example of a consejo that was common among these families was the reminder to their children of the value of acquiring a formal education. They often spoke of the sacrifices made on an ongoing basis in order to secure a better future for them. The reasons that these families had for encouraging and supporting the education of their children was based on the few opportunities they had to complete a formal education. Amanda, a 19-year-old student who identifies herself as Mexican American recalled one of the consejos imparted by her mother.
Other familial factors associated with higher educational achievement among women include parental educational expectations, involvement during grade school, such as meetings with teachers and monitoring homework, and encourage- ment and support, whether emotional or financial (McKenna and Ortiz, 1988). Among Latino grade school students, some research points to evidence of low school attainment being influenced by low educational expectations within families (Durán, 1994). However, the evidence is far from conclusive. Other studies clearly point to Mexican American families placing a strong emphasis on the educational achievement of their children (Sanchez and Cardoza, 1984; 1985). High educa- tional expectations of parents however, may not necessarily correspond to greater parental involvement in their children's education during elementary or secondary school. Multiple factors influence parental involvement in the schooling of their children, including socioeconomic and language factors, and institutional barriers, policies and practices. Among Mexican Americans, earlier research tended to equate limited school involvement with low parental expectations. More recent evidence refutes this assumption and points to the barriers parents face when interacting with the school system. Parents with limited English language skills, combined with limited educational attainment, may feel at a disadvantage in their encounters with teachers (Segura, 1993; Delgado-Gaitan, 1990). Furthermore, some evidence suggests that educational expectations and attainment may be influenced as much, or more, by economic opportunities available to families within their reference group as by individual or cultural factors (Romo, 1984; Romo and Romo, 1985; Ogbu and Matute-Bianchi, 1986; Ogbu, 1987).
In regards to parental support during college, fathers' encouragement of their daughters' educational goals and provision of financial and emotional assistance have been found to be strong predictors of educational aspirations among women in general (Betz and Fitzgerald, 1987; Carroll, 1982). However, for Mexican American women, available research suggests that mothers' support may have a greater influence on their daughters' attaining higher education (Alonzo Bell, 1991; Cardoza, 1991; McKenna and Ortiz, 1988; Solarzano 1986; Vasquez, 1982; Gandara, 1982). Data show that Mexican American parents are actively involved emotionally with their children well beyond their childhood years (Segura, 1993; Zapata and Jaramillo, 1981). A study by Chacón, Cohen and Strover (1986) of Mexican American college students found that parental support for attending college was generally high. The women, however, were significantly more likely than the men to report that their mothers and fathers discouraged college attendance. In general, the literature suggests that the Mexican American family may serve to buffer the effects of institutional discrimination in educational environments (Ramirez and Arce, 1981; Fleming, 1982; Gandara, 1982; Chacón et al., 1983; Achor and Morales, 1990).
Being married and/or having children is linked to the rate of progress and degree of academic difficulty experienced by women in higher education. For example, among Mexican American women college students, being married, having children and/or living at home have been associated with carrying out many more hours of domestic labor, than their male counterparts, resulting in reduced time to devote to studies and paid work. This, in turn, is associated with impeded progress and increased academic difficulty in college (Chacón, Cohen and Strover, 1986). Mexican American women also tend to report higher levels of perceived stress in college than non- Hispanic white women. In part, the greater stress is related to familial factors, such as not being able to help the family in the way they would like (Chacón, Cohen and Strover, 1986; Olivas, 1986). In summary, evidence suggests that among other factors, family of origin support and marriage and childbearing decisions, do appear to play a role in predicting completion of higher education. A comparative study that explores these factors among Mexican American women with higher education and comparable women in other racial/ethnic groups, lays some of the groundwork for future research, and may also assist in designing strategies to decrease the under- representation of Mexican American women in higher education.
Personality variables including self-esteem, locus of control, and efficacy of coping resources have been reported to moderate the relationship between acculturative stress and mental health in various cultural groups (Lazarus & Opton, 1966) including Mexican Americans (Cervantes & Castro, 1985; Mena et al., 1987; Miranda & Matheny, 2000; Padilla, Alvarez, & Lindholm, 1986; Pearlin & Schooler, 1978). It is possible that, in some high-risk individuals, neuroticism is a personality factor that leads to more subjective reports of acculturative stress and/or greater reactivity to acculturative stressors. These high-risk individuals would be at particularly high risk for increased allostatic load, development of HPA axis abnormalities, and therefore more vulnerable to the development of some mood and anxiety disorders. In this manner, neuroticism may be an important risk factor moderating the potential psychological effects of acculturative stress among certain Mexican Americans.
The end.