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
Recommended Citation
Jetton-Gonzales, Jasmine, "How Latine College Students Experience, Maneuver, and Navigate Within the Colonizing Notion of Smartness" (2025). Theses and Dissertations. 2113.
https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/etd/2113
Included in
Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons, Curriculum and Instruction Commons, Educational Leadership Commons, Higher Education Commons, Higher Education Administration Commons, Higher Education and Teaching Commons