First-Generation College Student Experiences of Intersecting Marginalities

First-Generation College
Student Experiences of
Intersecting Marginalities

Edited by Teresa Heinz Housel

PETER LANG

New York • Bern • Berlin
Brussels • Vienna • Oxford • Warsaw

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Housel, Teresa Heinz, editor.

Title: First-Generation College Student Experiences of Intersecting Marginalities / Edited by Teresa Heinz Housel.

Description: New York: Peter Lang, 2019.

Series: Equity in higher education theory, policy, & praxis; vol. 10

ISSN 2330-4502 (print) | ISSN 2330-4510 (online)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018028674 | ISBN 978-1-4331-5702-8 (hardback: alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-4331-5703-5 (paperback: alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-4331-5521-5 (ebook pdf) | ISBN 978-1-4331-5522-2 (epub) ISBN 978-1-4331-5523-9 (mobi)

Subjects: LCSH: First-generation college students—United States. Minorities—Education (Higher)—United States.

People with social disabilities—Education (Higher)—United States.

Classification: LCC LC4069.6 .F57 2019 | DDC 378.1/9820973—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018028674

DOI 10.3726/b14422

Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek. Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the “Deutsche Nationalbibliografie”; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de/.

© 2019 Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York

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All rights reserved.
Reprint or reproduction, even partially, in all forms such as microfilm, xerography, microfiche, microcard, and offset strictly prohibited.

About the editor

Teresa Heinz Housel is Lecturer at the School of Communication, Journalism and Marketing at Massey University in Wellington, New Zealand. She was previously Associate Professor of Communication at Hope College in the United States. Her research focuses on first-generation college students, news media coverage of housing and homelessness, and global media. Among her publications, she has co-edited (with Vickie L. Harvey) several books about first generation college students, including Faculty and First-Generation College Students: Bridging the Classroom Gap Together (2011) and The Invisibility Factor: Administrators and Faculty Reach Out to First-Generation College Students (2009). For more on Teresa Heinz Housel, visit her website: teresaheinzhousel.com.

About the book

First-Generation College Student Experiences of Intersecting Marginalities examines the intersecting relationships between a student’s identity as a first-generation college student (FGCS) and other identities such as race, class, LGBTQ+, and spiritual identity. This book breaks new ground by examining highly diverse populations of FGCS, rather than predominantly White undergraduates at four-year public universities. First-Generation College Student Experiences of Intersecting Marginalities explores the intersections of identities that may be marginalized in different ways across a student’s educational journey in research-grounded chapters that discuss real academic experiences of faculty, administrators, graduate students, and undergraduates.

Advance Praise for

First-Generation College Student

Experiences of Intersecting Marginalities

“This book is an important contribution to more than one field of inquiry: working-class studies, student affairs, and campus diversity. The essays complicate and enrich our understanding of who the first-gen student actually is, just as first-gen students also complicate and enrich our nation’s campuses. The book promises to help colleges and universities better understand first-gen students and support them in meaningful, effective ways, moving beyond discussion of ‘access’ alone and toward retention and graduation. The book is a valuable addition to the literature driving change to make higher education both more welcoming and more responsive to the needs and aspirations of all students.”

—Carolyn Leste Law, Thesis/Dissertation Advisor at Northern Illinois University and coeditor of This Fine Place So Far from Home: Voices of Academics from the Working Class

“Contributors to this volume reveal how demographics such as race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation intersect with first-generation college students, the book’s unifying theme, to hinder marginalized groups before, during, and after graduation. These authors’ writings demonstrate why every institution of higher education should sponsor an organization that addresses the disparate needs of its first-generation students.”

—Ken Oldfield, Emeritus Professor of Public Administration at the University of Illinois at Springfield

“The essays in this collection offer vivid and at times deeply moving insights into the class dynamics and intersectional politics of U.S. universities. In a corporatized culture that likes to talk a lot about the ‘student experience,’ the book should be read by any faculty, administrators and support workers who want to meaningfully understand the different life stories and dispositions that students bring to campus.”

—Sean Phelan, Associate Professor at Massey University (New Zealand)

This eBook can be cited

This edition of the eBook can be cited. To enable this we have marked the start and end of a page. In cases where a word straddles a page break, the marker is placed inside the word at exactly the same position as in the physical book. This means that occasionally a word might be bifurcated by this marker.

Contents

Preface

Carolyn Calloway-­Thomas

Acknowledgments

Teresa Heinz Housel

List of Abbreviations

Section One:The Weight of Intersecting Marginalized Identities

Chapter One: The Importance of Intersecting Marginalized Identities in Considering: What Is Known and Not Known About First-­Generation College Students

Teresa Heinz Housel

Chapter Two: “I Felt the Invisible Hand of Inequity Fall Firmly on My Shoulders, Holding Me Back”: Exploring the Intersectional Identities of First-­Generation College Student Women

Audra K. Nuru, Tiffany R. Wang, Jenna Abetz, and Paris Nelson

Chapter Three: From Invisible Trailblazers to Insurgent Leaders: An Intergenerational Narrative of Transcendence at the Intersection of Race, Class, Sexual Orientation, and Spirituality

Trott Nely Montina and Jonathan Mathias Lassiter

Chapter Four: The (Im)Possible Dream

Micaela Rodriguez, Sascha Hein, and Leslie A. Frankel

Chapter Five: Latinx First-­Generation College Students’ Career Decision Self-­Efficacy: The Role of Social Support, Cultural Identity, and Cultural Values Gap

Paulette D. Garcia Peraza and Angela-­MinhTu D. Nguyen←vii | viii→

Chapter Six: Academic (Im)Posturing: A Critical Autoethnography of Becoming a Latinx, First-­Generation College Student and Professor

Rebecca Mercado Jones

Section Two:Considering Invisible Marginalities

Chapter Seven: “If We Had Used Our Heads, We Would Be Set.” Intersections of Family, First-­in-­the-­Family Status, and Growing Up in Working-­Class America

Teresa Heinz Housel

Chapter Eight: Living With Anxiety as a First-­Generation College Student: Intersections of Mental Health and the First-­Generation College Student Experience

Andrea L. Meluch

Chapter Nine: Navigating Multiple Marginalized Identities: Experiences of an Emancipated First-­Generation Transgender Foster Care College Student

Jacob O. Okumu and Kay-­Anne P. Darlington

Chapter Ten: I Belong Here, Too

Danica A. Harris

Section Three:The Role of Intersecting Marginalized Identities in Institutional Socialization

Chapter Eleven: Outside/Inside (Higher) Education: Colonizing Oppression, Intersectional Struggles, and Transformative Opportunities for Marginalized First-­Generation College Students

Xamuel Bañales

Chapter Twelve: Supporting the Lived Experiences of First-­Generation College Students: Implications From the UNiLOA and DSDM Student Success Model

Gloria Aquino Sosa, Pietro A. Sasso, and Tracy Pascua Dea

Chapter Thirteen: Translating Knowledge Into Action: Making Intersecting Marginalized Identities Visible in the Classroom and Beyond

Teresa Heinz Housel

Contributors

Index←viii | ix→