"How Latine College Students Experience, Maneuver, and Navigate Within " by Jasmine Jetton-Gonzales

Graduation Term

Spring 2025

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Department of Educational Administration and Foundations: Educational Administration

Committee Chair

Lydia Kyei-Blankson

Committee Member

Gavin Weiser

Committee Member

Beth Hatt

Abstract

This study explores how Latine college students, particularly those who are the first in their family to attend college, navigate and maneuver within the dominating colonizing notion of smartness in academia. Rooted in an Anglo-centric educational framework, the American education system often marginalizes Latine students by devaluing their cultural and linguistic knowledge while upholding Eurocentric standards of intelligence. Using a qualitative critical research approach, this study employs testimonios to examine the lived experiences of Latine college graduates in Illinois. Findings reveal that Latine students frequently encounter systemic barriers that challenge their academic identity, including racialized perceptions of intelligence, institutionalized deficit perspectives, and pressure to conform to white-centered academic norms. The study applies Latino Critical Race Theory (LatCrit) to analyze these experiences, shedding light on the ways Latine students resist, redefine, and assert their own intellectual identities. This research contributes to the growing discourse on educational equity by advocating for a reimagined asset-based approach to academia’s notion of smartness that validates and uplifts Latine students' ways of knowing.

Access Type

Dissertation-Open Access

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