ERIC Number: ED635418
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2023
Pages: 257
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: 979-8-3797-5407-5
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Composing Borderlands: The Lives and Literacies of First-Generation, Latinx Youth Transitioning to College Writing
Monea, Bethany
ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Pennsylvania
This dissertation is motivated by the limits of current conceptualizations of college transition-- the metaphorical bridges, pathways, and tracks to college that represent a linear trajectory upheld by normative educational progress narratives often oriented toward Eurocentric, English-dominant, text-based standards for academic writing and research. Guided by Latina Feminist theories, I offer a reconceptualization of college transition as a dynamic, expansive, and liminal "borderland" space by tracing the composing practices of eight first-generation (first-gen), Latinx students whose living and learning in boundary-crossing spaces position them as epistemically privileged guides for such an inquiry. In this study, I asked: How did a group of first-gen, Latinx students navigate and research the transition from high school to college? To investigate this question, I conducted 18 months of ethnographic and participatory research while facilitating participants' production of YouTube videos about their college transition experiences. Through qualitative and collaborative analysis, I identified ways that participants engaged in writing, art, and media-making practices to negotiate, resist, and transform the limiting, narrow standards of "academic" writing and research on the "college track." More specifically, I explored how participants engaged in composing at the nexus of high school and college to assert their bilingual, bicultural identities through multiliteracies; to navigate unexpected pathways to college through autobiographical writing; and to expand the boundaries of academic writing and research through participatory methodologies. I conclude by suggesting how participatory research and students' nepantla literacies (Lizarraga & Gutierrez, 2018) can expand and transform the borders that currently constrain academic knowledge production--and, by extension, "college-level" writing and "college-track" curriculum--by centering the literacies, epistemologies, and identities historically relegated to the margins. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]
Descriptors: First Generation College Students, Hispanic American Students, College Freshmen, Freshman Composition, Ethnography, Participatory Research, Literacy, Epistemology, Minority Group Students, Multiple Literacies
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Publication Type: Dissertations/Theses - Doctoral Dissertations
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A