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The Urban Review

, Volume 48, Issue 5, pp 718–742 | Cite as

“Keep that in mind…You’re Gonna go to College”: Family Influence on the College Going Processes of Black and Latino High School Boys

  • Roderick L. Carey
Article
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Abstract

This article highlights the voices of two 11th grade boys of color (one Black and one Latino), attending one U.S. urban charter school, as they describe the various ways their families supported their college going efforts. This study finds that these participants were equipped with what the author conceptualizes as college going familial capital, which describes the rich knowledge, information, inspiration and resources students of color gain from their families (nuclear, extended, and fictive kin), transferred through lessons, values, practices, and beliefs, that serve as rationale, motivation, and support for securing postsecondary educational attainment. College going familial capital was encompassed in the ways the families of participants valued college for economic betterment and emphasized its importance to participants from an early age. College going familial capital was gained when participants assessed the experiences of various family members when they considered the role of college in their own lives. Implications suggest that as educators support the collegiate aspirations of Black and Latino boys, they should consider and employ students’ already existing college going familial capital.

Keywords

College going College access Black and Latino adolescent boys Family involvement Community cultural wealth 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to extend his sincere appreciation to H. Richard Milner IV, Ashley N. Woodson, and Lori Delale-O’Connor for their generous and critical feedback on earlier drafts of this article.

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© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Center for Urban Education, School of EducationUniversity of PittsburghPittsburghUSA

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