“The revolution begins at home:” exploring educational aspirations between Latino male collegians and their families through a reciprocity of relationships

Abstract

This article takes an assets-based approach to study the educational aspirations of Latino males and their families, including extended family. While research has underscored the influence that Latina/o families have on their children’s educational trajectories, this investigation demonstrates the reciprocity in relationships through the perspective of Latino males. Through funds of knowledge and familismo as guiding frameworks, the author highlights an optimistic and encouraging portrayal of Latinos and their families as rich information sources. Using a set of three in-depth interviews with each participant from a sample of 24 Latino collegians, the author presents four themes in the form of pairs to illuminate a two-sided transaction. The author offers a visual representation based on the findings to illustrate the cyclical and reciprocal relationship between Latino male college students and their families.

Keywords:

• Latino males
• Latina/o families
• funds of knowledge
• familismo
• educational aspirations

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

Notes

1 Latina/o is used to refer to Latina females and Latino males as a group, particularly people who have racial/ethnic roots in Mexico, and Central and South America. Latina is used when referring to women while Latino is used when referring to men.

2 (Un)conditional is used to indicate that such support is not always (un)conditional. Instead, it is contextual and at times dependent on particular social identities.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Oscar E. Patrón

Oscar E. Patrón is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Center for Research on Race and Ethnicity in Society and a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Indiana University.