Latinx High School Seniors Preparing for College: Ganas or Symbolic Violence?

Abstract

ABSTRACT The senior year is among the most important for students’ long-term academic success. Traditionally, seniors are assumed to be largely disengaged from school, enduring “senioritis” or a “senior slump.” For college-bound Latinx students, academic disengagement may be particularly troublesome given the well documented postsecondary struggles of these students. However, leveraging theories of ganas and symbolic violence, the findings here suggest that many Latinx students engage in academic rigor until the very end of their senior year. By leveraging their ganas – skills of self-reliance and social networks – and finding culturally relevant educational spaces free from symbolic violence, students were able to avoid bouts senioritis. However, not all succeeded in doing so. The students at one comprehensive school who disengaged academically in their final year of high school endured symbolic violence in the form of low expectations from teachers and culturally disconnected learning. The findings have important implications for how educators and school leaders might structure senior-year learning experiences to maintain academic rigor and focus.