Schooling and the University Plans of Immigrant Black Students from an Urban Neighborhood

Abstract

It is generally accepted that social class together with factors such as race, ethnicity, and generation status (i.e., immigrant, first, second, or third generation) of students affect their schooling experiences and educational outcomes. In fact, the social-class backgrounds of students, in terms of family income and parental education, play a significant role in determining the neighborhood in which they reside, the school they attend, and educational resources to which they have access (Brantlinger, 2003; Finn, 1999; Frenette, 2007; Lareau, 2002; López, 2002; Taylor & Dorsey-Gaines, 1998; Weis & Fine 2005). While middle-class students are more likely to do well in the middle-class school system of North American societies; in many cases, working-class students, especially those of immigrant backgrounds, struggle to do the same. However, there are some cases of students with immigrant parents who, despite the social and cultural differences that exist between them and the school system, capably negotiate the school system to attain their educational goals and those of their parents (Anisef, Axelrod, Baichman, James, & Turrittin, 2000; Boyd, 2002; Fuligni, 1998; James & Haig-Brown, 2001; Louie, 2001; Portes & Macleod, 1999; Rong, & Brown, 2001). In this chapter, I focus on the schooling situation and experiences of working-class students of immigrant parents, noting the complex and diverse ways in which social class combines with other factors to affect their educational aspirations and attainments.KeywordsCultural CapitalBlack MaleBlack StudentImmigrant ParentGuidance CounselorThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.