The Chicana college graduate : community college learning experiences, coping strategies and cultural conflicts /
This study examines the life histories and higher education learning experiences of 10 Mexican-American women who began their education in a community college and transferred to a university or four-year college to complete a bachelor'sdegree. The nature and meaning of these experiences were e...
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| Format: | Thesis Book |
| Language: | English |
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[Place of publication not identified] :
[publisher not identified] ;
1998.
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| Online Access: | http://proxy.library.tamu.edu/login?url=http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=737688721&sid=1&Fmt=2&clientId=2945&RQT=309&VName=PQD |
| Summary: | This study examines the life histories and higher education learning experiences of 10 Mexican-American women who began their education in a community college and transferred to a university or four-year college to complete a bachelor'sdegree. The nature and meaning of these experiences were explored through in-depth interviews with these recent college graduates. The purpose of the study was to identify the obstacles these women have overcome, the means they used to overcome them, and the salience of their ethnicity to their experience. Utilizing a worldview construct, findings are presented which demonstrate how these women are able to succeed educationally. First, they construct a sense of themselves as different in order to avert the cultural and gender stereotypes that would pull them away from education. Central to this identity is the need for independence which is used to help them overcome obstacles. Second, learning from their mother's experience, they construct a belief system that emphasizes resiliency, sacrifice and therefraining of negative attitudes into positive ones as a self-motivating device in the absence of family, mentors and other people to support them. The third finding focuses on how these women constructed their sense of ethnic identity. Four modes of experiencing ethnicity were identified: two placed ethnicity at the center of awareness, and two placed it at the margins. This presented a nuanced picture of how these women resolved cultural conflicts encountered in their educational experiences. Unlike previous studies which have focused on cultural deficit explanations, this study presents the use of feminist and heuristic research as an innovative way of conducting research that is not only culturally sensitive but that also taps into the knowledge base of "cultural insiders" in order to illuminate the phenomenon under study. This methodology is suggested as a means by which women of color who seek to study their own culture can contribute their own experiences and voice to the research endeavor. |
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| Item Description: | Vita. "Major Subject: Educational Human Resource Development". |
| Physical Description: | xi, 189 leaves ; 28 cm. Issued also on microfiche from University Microfilms Inc. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references: pages 170-179. |