Exploring College Knowledge: Diálogo Between College Counselors and Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Latinx Public High School Students

<p>The purpose of this study was to explore college counselors’ experiences establishing relationships, engaging, and sharing college knowledge with socioeconomically disadvantaged Latinx students. Framed by Social Capital Theory-Institutional Agents and Lat Crit, and employing plática methodology, this study aimed to understand the experiences of both college counselors and Latinx high school students as they enter in diálogo around the college guidance process. This research sheds light on the constraints and opportunities in the college guidance process, contributing to research and practice for a critical group of high school students. Twenty-one students and three college counselors/advisers from three high schools in a large urban district in Southern California were interviewed in the form of “pláticas” and “diálogo.” Interviews were analyzed through hand coding. I used the elemental coding method (Saldaña, 2021) which was in vivo coding and descriptive coding (e.g., in line with the frameworks of Social Capital Theory-Institutional Agents and LatCrit). The counselor interviews revealed the following themes: college counselors/advisers created diálogo with students because all three college counselors/advisers were teachers at their site prior to becoming college counselors/advisers; college counselors/advisers felt they had similar backgrounds as their students; and college counselors/advisers understood that promotion was part of maintaining the diálogo between them and the students. The student interviews revealed the following themes: the pandemic delayed the diálogo between socioeconomically disadvantaged Latinx students and their college counselors/advisers; differences existed between a true first-generation student and a first-generation student who had siblings or family members who had attended college before; and nonprofits and teachers played a role in maintaining and entering in diálogo with the college counselor/adviser. This dissertation offered implications for research, policy, and practice for college counselors and increasing college access for socioeconomically disadvantaged Latinx students.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Education, PhD

Level thesis:degree_level

Open Access Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

School of Educational Studies

Year dc:date.available

2023

Author dc:creator

• Cha, Maritza Azucena Salazar

Contributors dc:contributor

• Claudia Bermudez
• Frances Gipson

• College Adviser
• College and Career Center
• College Counselor
• Latinx
• Pláticas
• Socioeconomically Disadvantaged
• Education

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/580

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarship.claremont.edu:cgu_etd-1602