Embracing Green Chile: An Exploratory Factor Analysis of Community Cultural Wealth

<p>Higher education trends marginalize Students of Color by promoting assimilation into a dominant culture. Faculty and practitioners in higher education deepen cultural dissociation by dismissing the cultural knowledge that many Students of Color hold from family and community. Following in the footsteps of settler colonialism, these practices uphold a deficit framing of Students of Color as inferior to their white peers. This dissertation blends the power of the Community Cultural Wealth model (Yosso, 2005) and QuantCrit (García et al, 2018; Gillborn et al., 2018) to define a Green Chile Epistemology that weaves cultural capital into the higher education experience. In chapter one, green chile is introduced as an artifact of survival amidst the backdrop of a white-centered educational environment. In chapter two, green chile evolves as an artifact of cultural capital. In chapter three, green chile becomes a metaphor that captures the importance of variance in measurement research as well as a symbol of subjectivity in an ever-evolving critical discourse. In chapter four, green chile is introduced as its own epistemology for understanding the dynamic nature of community cultural wealth. In chapter five, green chile represents the importance of embracing blended relationships where the whole of green chile is greater than the sum of its ingredients. To understand Community Cultural Wealth as a latent construct, I conduct an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) that illustrates the complexity of Community Cultural Wealth not as six separate forms of capital but rather as a dynamic blending of capital characterized by four factors that are represented in a Green Chile Epistemology Model: Socio-Familial Nourishment (the soil), Socio-Navigational Strength (the roots), Aspirational Persistence (the sun), and Reciprocal Collective Purpose (the cycle). I conduct analyses of variance and Scheffe post-hoc tests to explore racial group differences in scores. Ultimately, green chile epistemology informs practical applications for culturally inclusive curricular and co-curricular practices in higher education. The resulting four-factor model for Community Cultural Wealth deepens our understanding of cultural capital as a tool to nourish an asset-based discourse about Students of Color in higher education.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Year dc:date.available

2023

Author dc:creator

• Duran, Lynda

Contributors dc:contributor

• Christine A. Nelson
• Sarah Hurtado
• Lolita Tabron
• Denis Dumas
• Tom Romero

• Community cultural wealth
• Exploratory factor analysis
• Green chile epistemology
• QuantCrit
• Quantitative critical race theory
• Education
• Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research
• Higher Education

Statement dc:rights

• <p>Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.</p>

Language dc:language

en

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/2228

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.du.edu:etd-3219