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Chicano perceptions of self and school: A symbolic interactionist study
Abstract
The enrollment of Hispanics in higher education increased some 63 percent between 1978 and 1988. However, the gap widened between Anglo American and Hispanic American populations in terms of high school graduation rates and post-secondary participation rates. As noted in the "executive summary" of the Ninth Annual Status Report on Minorities in Higher Education (1990), "At every rung of the educational ladder, Hispanics are grossly underrepresented, and the degree of underrepresentation increases at each successive level" (p. v). Chicanos, or Mexican Americans, comprise about 60 percent of the Hispanic population and are currently the focus of much of the public concern about Hispanics and education. In Nebraska, Chicanos comprise nearly 80 percent of all Hispanics (Nebraska State Data Center, 1990). Such demographics have become well known among educators. Scholarly research, as suggested, also has advanced the quantitative understanding of "influences" related to the various dimensions of school/college participation by Chicano students. An important next step has been to explore in great detail the interactional processes related to these influences. Using a symbolic interactionist perspective, this researcher sought to examine various social interactions--in school, at home, and in the neighborhood--of select Chicano college students to explore how they may have interpreted the content of these interactions, ultimately to act upon their interpretations. Thus, the focus of this study included the Chicano college students who actually chose to go to college and how they came to interpret and act upon past social interactions related specifically to their ethnic selves and academic aspirations. This study was designed to take a qualitative approach, since efforts were concentrated on gathering as much descriptive data related to this topic as possible. The focus of the study was aimed at examining the meanings of social interactions that Chicano students attending a Midwest university attributed to past social interactions. Thus, a quasi-ethnographic study was conducted and evaluated from a symbolic interactionist perspective. Outcomes of this study were used to examine key themes and formulate vivid profiles based on Chicano college students' interviews. Implications for educators and others are offered.
Subject Area
Bilingual education|Multicultural education|Educational sociology|Social research
Recommended Citation
Valades, Joseph A, "Chicano perceptions of self and school: A symbolic interactionist study" (1994). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9430178.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9430178