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Journal ArticleDOI

Latino Students' Transitions to College: A Social and Intercultural Capital Perspective.

30 Mar 2009-Harvard Educational Review (Harvard Education Publishing Group)-Vol. 79, Iss: 1, pp 22-48
TL;DR: Nunez et al. as mentioned in this paper used data from a national longitudinal study of students enrolled in four-year public research universities to assess the effects of social capital and intercultural capital on Latino students' sense of belonging in college and on their perceptions of a hostile racial/ethnic climate.
Abstract: In this article, Anne-Marie Nunez uses data from a national longitudinal study of students enrolled in four-year public research universities to assess the effects of social capital and intercultural capital—the capacity to negotiate diverse racial/ ethnic environments—on Latino students' sense of belonging in college and on their perceptions of a hostile racial/ethnic climate. She finds that Latino students who are more familiar with diversity issues and who report more social and academic connection and engagement experience a greater sense of belonging even as they also experience a more hostile campus climate. Her findings provide a nuanced understanding of Latino students' college experiences, with implications for how access to intercultural capital through positive cross-racial interactions and diversity curricula may offer benefits that counterbalance the negative impact of marginalizing experiences and ultimately advance educational attainment.
Citations
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Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 2012
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a model to guide research and practice in creating the conditions for student success in diverse learning environments, and explore how different aspects of the institution, all of which are influenced by and contribute to the campus climate for diversity, play important roles in achieving student outcomes.
Abstract: Drawing from converging areas of scholarship in higher education on the diversity dynamics of an institution and its surrounding contexts, this chapter explores how different aspects of the institution—all of which are influenced by and contribute to the campus climate for diversity—play important roles in achieving student outcomes that also enhance social transformation for a just society. The authors present a model to guide research and practice in creating the conditions for student success in diverse learning environments.

282 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors examined the impact of a set of theoretically derived predictor variables on the persistence and transfer of Hispanic community college students, and used logistic regression analysis to test the hypothesized conceptual framework on an existing set of quantitative persistence data drawn from a national sample of Hispanic students.
Abstract: This study examined the impact of a set of theoretically-derived predictor variables on the persistence and transfer of Hispanic community college students. Early models of student persistence have been validated primarily among 4-year college students. While the constructs have been well-established, the relationships of those relevant factors remain unexamined among community college transfer students, and specifically, among Hispanic students enrolled in developmental coursework and planning to transfer from a community college to a 4-year institution. Logistic regression analysis was used to test the hypothesized conceptual framework on an existing set of quantitative persistence data drawn from a national sample of Hispanic students.

256 citations


Cites background from "Latino Students' Transitions to Col..."

  • ...For example, borrowing from Putnam’s (2000) notion that participation in civic activities represents a form of social capital, recent findings by Nunez (2009) demonstrate a direct relationship between students’ obligations to give back to the community and Latino/a students’ sense of belonging....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors argue that what inhibits ESL students' access to and participation in four-year college education is not simply their limited English proficiency but also the structural constraints unique to this population, their limited financial resources, and the students' own tendency to self-eliminate.
Abstract: Research on English as a second language (ESL) students in higher education has traditionally focused on their academic writing, leaving larger issues of their college access and success unexplored. This article examines the challenges that first-generation immigrant and refugee ESL students face in accessing four-year college education through a qualitative interview study at a U.S. public university. Drawing on Bourdieu's cultural reproduction theory, we argue that what inhibits ESL students' access to and participation in four-year college education is not simply their limited English proficiency but also the structural constraints unique to this population, their limited financial resources, and the students' own tendency to self-eliminate. Based on our results, we call for a shift in higher education policy from one focusing narrowly on remediating ESL students' limited English proficiency to a more comprehensive set of policies that address the structural and economic, as well as linguistic, factors...

192 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Results indicate positive relationships between two Facebook variables-the number of Facebook Friends students have at the college and their engagement in collaborative behaviors with classmates through the site-and measures of social support and social adjustment, as well as a positive relationship between social adjustment and persistence at the university.
Abstract: Social adjustment plays a critical role in student persistence at college. Social media such as Facebook, used widely by this population, have the potential to positively enhance students' transition to college by encouraging connection and interaction among peers. The present study examines the role Facebook plays in students' social adjustment during their first year of college using survey data (N = 338) collected from students at a private, liberal arts college in the Midwest. We develop and test a model that includes both traditional and Facebook-specific predictors of social support and social adjustment, as well as explore the role that these factors play in predicting students' enrollment status the following year. Results indicate positive relationships between two Facebook variables-the number of Facebook Friends students have at the college and their engagement in collaborative behaviors with classmates through the site-and measures of social support and social adjustment, as well as a positive relationship between social adjustment and persistence at the university.

184 citations


Cites background from "Latino Students' Transitions to Col..."

  • ...The extent to which new students are able to manage this transition and socially integrate into the institution is an important factor for determining future success, as measured through traditional academic markers, such as grades (Kuh, Cruce, Shoup, Kinzie, & Gonyea, 2008; Zins, Bloodworth,…...

    [...]

  • ...More recent research shows that Latino students who are socially and academically engaged at college and who are able to navigate diverse ethnic campus environments report a greater sense of connection with the university (Nuñez, 2009)....

    [...]

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined how belonging perceptions, academic motivation, and engagement might mediate the relationship between academic contextual characteristics and achievement using structural equation modeling and qualitative follow-up interviews with college students from a large, Midwestern university.
Abstract: This explanatory sequential mixed methods study examined how belonging perceptions, academic motivation, and engagement might mediate the relationship between academic contextual characteristics and achievement using structural equation modeling and qualitative follow-up interviews with college students from a large, Midwestern university. In the first, quantitative phase, two hypothesized models of student belonging and motivation were tested. In line with the Self-System Model of Classroom Support for Motivation (Connell and Wellborn, in: Gunnar and Sroufe (eds.) Minnesota Symposium on Child Psychology: Self-processes and Development, 1991), Model 1 hypothesized student belonging and motivation to be directly predicted by supportive classroom environment perceptions, and to directly predict engagement, which was hypothesized to predict achievement. Model 2 elaborated on the traditional self-system model and hypothesized student belonging to mediate the relationship between supportive classroom environment perceptions and student motivation. Quantitative findings revealed support for Model 2. Supportive classroom environment perceptions predicted students’ belonging beliefs, which in turn predicted students’ motivation, engagement, and achievement in the course. The second, follow-up qualitative phase suggested ways in which contextual characteristics might influence student belonging beliefs in the classroom. Taken together, the quantitative and qualitative data illustrate the influential role of classroom contextual characteristics on student outcomes, as well as the role student belonging plays in college student motivation and success.

171 citations


Cites background from "Latino Students' Transitions to Col..."

  • ...The majority of belonging research at the college level has focused on the campus community and promoting belongingness among minority students (e.g., Castellanos and Jones 2003; Hurtado and Carter 1997; Nunez 2009; Strayhorn 2008a, b, 2010; Strayhorn and Saddler 2009; Walton and Cohen 2007, 2011)....

    [...]

References
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Book
27 May 1998
TL;DR: The book aims to provide the skills necessary to begin to use SEM in research and to interpret and critique the use of method by others.
Abstract: Designed for students and researchers without an extensive quantitative background, this book offers an informative guide to the application, interpretation and pitfalls of structural equation modelling (SEM) in the social sciences. The book covers introductory techniques including path analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, and provides an overview of more advanced methods such as the evaluation of non-linear effects, the analysis of means in convariance structure models, and latent growth models for longitudinal data. Providing examples from various disciplines to illustrate all aspects of SEM, the book offers clear instructions on the preparation and screening of data, common mistakes to avoid and widely used software programs (Amos, EQS and LISREL). The book aims to provide the skills necessary to begin to use SEM in research and to interpret and critique the use of method by others.

42,102 citations


"Latino Students' Transitions to Col..." refers background in this paper

  • ...Alternative models that test different variables or pathways might also fit the data (Kline, 1998)....

    [...]

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the concept of social capital is introduced and illustrated, its forms are described, the social structural conditions under which it arises are examined, and it is used in an analys...
Abstract: In this paper, the concept of social capital is introduced and illustrated, its forms are described, the social structural conditions under which it arises are examined, and it is used in an analys...

31,693 citations

Book
01 Jan 2000
TL;DR: Putnam as mentioned in this paper showed that changes in work, family structure, age, suburban life, television, computers, women's roles and other factors are isolating Americans from each other in a trend whose reflection can clearly be seen in British society.
Abstract: BOWLING ALONE warns Americans that their stock of "social capital", the very fabric of their connections with each other, has been accelerating down. Putnam describes the resulting impoverishment of their lives and communities. Drawing on evidence that includes nearly half a million interviews conducted over a quarter of a century in America, Putnam shows how changes in work, family structure, age, suburban life, television, computers, women's roles and other factors are isolating Americans from each other in a trend whose reflection can clearly be seen in British society. We sign 30 percent fewer petitions than we did ten years ago. Membership in organisations- from the Boy Scouts to political parties and the Church is falling. Ties with friends and relatives are fraying: we're 35 percent less likely to visit our neighbours or have dinner with our families than we were thirty years ago. We watch sport alone instead of with our friends. A century ago, American citizens' means of connecting were at a low point after decades of urbanisation, industrialisation and immigration uprooted them from families and friends. That generation demonstrated a capacity for renewal by creating the organisations that pulled Americans together. Putnam shows how we can learn from them and reinvent common enterprises that will make us secure, productive, happy and hopeful.

24,532 citations

01 Jan 2011
TL;DR: The notion of capital is a force inscribed in objective or subjective structures, but it is also a lex insita, the principle underlying the immanent regularities of the social world as mentioned in this paper, which is what makes the games of society, not least the economic game, something other than simple simple games of chance offering at every moment the possibility of a miracle.
Abstract: The social world is accumulated history, and if it is not to be reduced to a discontinuous series of instantaneous mechanical equilibria between agents who are treated as interchangeable particles, one must reintroduce into it the notion of capital and with it, accumulation and all its effects. Capital is accumulated labor (in its materialized form or its ‘incorporated,’ embodied form) which, when appropriated on a private, i.e., exclusive, basis by agents or groups of agents, enables them to appropriate social energy in the form of reified or living labor. It is a vis insita, a force inscribed in objective or subjective structures, but it is also a lex insita, the principle underlying the immanent regularities of the social world. It is what makes the games of society – not least, the economic game – something other than simple games of chance offering at every moment the possibility of a miracle. Roulette, which holds out the opportunity of winning a lot of money in a short space of time, and therefore of changing one’s social status quasi-instantaneously, and in which the winning of the previous spin of the wheel can be staked and lost at every new spin, gives a fairly accurate image of this imaginary universe of perfect competition or perfect equality of opportunity, a world without inertia, without accumulation, without heredity or acquired properties, in which every moment is perfectly independent of the previous one, every soldier has a marshal’s baton in his knapsack, and every prize can be attained, instantaneously, by everyone, so that at each moment anyone can become anything. Capital, which, in its objectified or embodied forms, takes time to accumulate and which, as a potential capacity to produce profits and to reproduce itself in identical or expanded form, contains a tendency to persist in its being, is a force inscribed in the objectivity of things so that everything is not equally possible or impossible. And the structure of the distribution of the different types and subtypes of capital at a given moment in time represents the immanent structure of the social world, i.e. , the set of constraints, inscribed in the very reality of that world, which govern its functioning in a durable way, determining the chances of success for practices.

21,046 citations