In this article I examine the perceptions of third grade minoritized emergent bilinguals (Spanish/English) in a US classroom as they articulate how family members serve as a source of jocularity. By taking a sociocultural perspective on humor as a resource, I seek to render visible the relational and linguistic connections between these students…

Low degree completion rates are a critical problem at rural community colleges. In 2023, only 36% of students who enrolled at a community college in 2017 had earned a credential in the past six years (National Center for Education Statistics, 2023a). Academic advising is critical to help students navigate the confusing pathways of higher…

The educational experiences of Hispanic male college students have become an emerging issue in higher education among minority scholars. The problem addressed by this study is despite more Hispanic males attending colleges and universities, they do not acquire a credential compared to their female counterparts and other ethnic/racial groups.…

This qualitative study explored the challenges that Hispanic and African American students experience during their education in STEM fields at community colleges. Students from four community colleges across Texas participated in this study. Drawing from focus group interviews, three themes were identified as self-perceived challenges to degree…

Educators on the U.S.-Mexico border work with students' intricate lived experiences while striving to provide them with an equitable education. For Latinx immigrant students, school discipline is a significant component of the broader educational experience. Nonconformity to US schooling norms and policies may lead to students being sent to…

Few studies have considered bilingualism's impact on cognitive development within the sociolinguistic and cultural context of the immigrant communities where bilingualism is commonly practiced. In the United States, many Mexican-origin bilingual youth practice their bilingual skills by "brokering" (i.e. translating/interpreting between…

The current study investigates how and under what conditions family obligation benefits Mexican American adolescents' adjustment. The study used two waves of data from 604 Mexican American adolescents (54.3% female, Mage.wave1 = 12.41 years, SD = 0.97) and their parents. Structural equation modeling revealed that both adolescents' and parents'…

The University-Model school incorporates private school and homeschool methods within a Christian school experience. Parents receive the title of "co-instructors" as they partner with teachers in educating their child. This phenomenological study explored the elements that influenced parents' choice when selecting a school. Simon's 1955…

Going to college is an expectation for many students, but this is not always the norm for many minority families. The decision to leave the comfort of home for college includes many family discussions and literacy practices that greatly affect a student. Studying family literacy practices such as storytelling and "cuentos y consejos"…

The goal of this research was to explore Mexican American cultural elements through folklore as a way of addressing cultural competence. Content analysis of 21 stories, which were collected from Mexican American older adults, indicated that strong family ties, gender roles, and religiosity are central cultural elements in Mexican American culture.…

This study was conducted to investigate the possible influencing factors involved with the Hispanic female population that lives on the Texas and Mexico border and how those factors influence the completion of an Associate of Arts degree at a community college. "Presence in higher education is increasing by all minority groups, except for…

In this paper, we investigate the effect that parents' language use (English, Spanish-English or Spanish) had on self-perceived proficiency, frequency of use, language anxiety, code-switching and cultural orientation of 206 Spanish-English bilinguals and multilinguals who were students in Texas where there is a strong presence of Spanish, the…

In U.S. schools, educators are often regarded as knowledge producers and sole pedagogues, whereas parents (particularly of Color) are perceived as not engaged or interested in their child(ren)'s education (Colgrove, 2019; Nun~ez, 2019; Ramirez, 2020). These negative stereotypes and white-centered discourses sustain raciolinguistic perspectives…

This narrative inquiry highlights the experiences of three high school students labeled Long-term English learners (LTEL) in a North Texas high school. This narrative inquiry study uses semi-structured interviews to restory the students' lives, emphasizing the emergent themes of family (the strongest pillar) and the language of the home (Spanish).…

In Fall 2019 I taught the course "Race and Gender: The Politics of Intersection" and spent the semester to discussing how intersectionality functioned within the Asian Pacific American (APA) communities in the United States and in the larger global context. In the course, we discussed various aspects of intersectionality including how…