Abstract
There is limited discussion in the field of education on the topic of Latinx students’ higher educational goals and expectations. Even less attention has been paid to understanding students’ beliefs in their ability to fulfill their educational goals. This research aims to understand why Latinx students, including those with high educational aspirations, have a lower likelihood of graduating high school and attending college compared to other ethnic groups. This quantitative study examined 504 Latinx high school students’ (M=15.9 years) educational aspirations, confidence that they could reach their goals and their perceptions of teacher support. Results indicated the amount of teacher support a student perceived changed how much their educational aspirations predicted their confidence to achieve those goals. Gender differences were found between the types of perceived teacher support Latinx students receive. This study suggests that research should closer examine how Latinx students perceive support and how such support contributes to their future higher educational aspirations and actual confidence that they can achieve their dreams.
Highlights
Latinx students are the fastest growing ethnic population in American K-12 schools; they remain underrepresented in the population of individuals with a college degree (Krogstad, 2016; National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES, 2016)
The following are the results of the exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and Moderation Model
For Latinx students in particular, research shows that receiving emotional support and building relationships, especially from teachers, is critical for academic success (Valenzuela, 1999; Stanton-Salazar, 2001; Goyette and Conchas, 2002; Garcia-Reid et al, 2005; Conchas, 2006; Hudley and Daoud, 2008; Roshandel and Hudley, 2018). Building on this body of literature, this study suggests that communication and emotional support are essential in Latinx students’ confidence about higher educational achievement
Summary
Latinx students are the fastest growing ethnic population in American K-12 schools; they remain underrepresented in the population of individuals with a college degree (Krogstad, 2016; National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES, 2016). Latinx adolescents report high educational aspirations (Kao and Tienda, 1998; Mireles-Rios and Romo, 2014a), compared to adolescents from other ethnic groups, they tend to report low expectations of graduating from high school and even lower expectations of attending and graduating from college (Bohon et al, 2006; Zhang et al, 2011; McGlynn, 2015). It is imperative to examine factors associated with the development of Latinx high school students’ college aspirations in order to understand how to best support such students in their academic trajectories. Given that aspirations are thought to be the initial step in students’ college-going process (Hossler and Gallagher, 1987; Klasik, 2012), more research is needed to understand how Latinx adolescents’ aspirations are shaped by various factors in their lives, such as interaction with significant adults. Understanding perceptions of support from teachers is important as Stanton-Salazar (2001) argues that emotional connections
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