The authors, literacy and language researchers, and teacher educators and their daughters, use narrative inquiry to story the "embodied digital literacy" practices of two girls of color as the girls played "Animal Crossing" online during the COVID-19 pandemic and communicated about their (game)play via text messaging. We…

Teacher retention is a global problem, and why individuals choose the teaching profession can help sustain teacher motivation. This study surveyed 29 predominately Mexican American female students enrolled in the College of Education at a border university in South Texas. The participants were selected using convenience sampling from two courses…

We used the psychosociocultural framework to conceptualize, analyze, and narrate the perceptions of 10 Latina women about their mothers' influence and role on their educational persistence in higher education. The Latina undergraduates were upper-division students who were of Mexican descent and sought educational success. To make meaning of the…

This transcendental phenomenological study will explore the lived experiences of Southern Texas Mexican American/Chicana women pursuing a doctorate. The Chicana's experience achieving a doctorate has been overlooked by the literature, with much of the research on Mexican American women being outdated or focusing on completing high school or…

Latinas holding doctoral degrees are few and far between in the academic world as compared to their White female counterparts (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2020). We explore a crucial topic of Chicana/Latina feminism, which resists traditional theoretical concepts and methodologies in the field of adult education. Chicana/Latina…

Recognizing that our preservice teachers are experiencing a euro-centered teacher preparation curriculum, this study aimed to explore Chicana preservice teachers' interactions with an array of criticalities focused on a bioregional context that highlighted critical and resistant resources. Chapter 1 surveyed the literature on growing critically…

This qualitative study highlights how the use of several interpretative-methods helps to better capture the journey of the participants' transition from low-income, immigrant households to first-generation college students of color at a top-tier research university. I examine a wide range of interpretive practices, from traditional to innovative…

Although the Latino population is exponentially increasing, the number of Latinas obtaining higher education degrees continues to be alarmingly low. It appears to be more difficult for Latinas, and more specifically, for Mexican American women, to pursue a higher education. For those who manage to beat the odds and become higher education…

This qualitative study examines how first-generation Latina undergraduate students perceive their Mexican immigrant parents' engagement in their college experiences. Employing a community cultural wealth framework (Yosso, 2005), this study challenges deficit views on Mexican immigrant parent engagement in higher education. Through semi-structured…

I explore my journey of creating my digital testimonios and how this intellectual, emotional, spiritual, and aesthetic process has aided in my healing journey. Throughout this process I illuminate the emotional labor that goes into creating these tools of healing by sharing personal experiences of trauma. Through my experiences, I demonstrate that…

The current study examines the role of ethnic-racial socialization (ERS) and maternal autonomy granting in predicting ethnic-racial identity (ERI) exploration, resolution, and affirmation trajectories in a sample of Mexican-origin girls (N = 338) in early and middle adolescence at Wave 1. Latent growth curve analyses showed significant growth in…

There is limited understanding of how women of Mexican heritage transform cultural and familial protective factors into strategies to help navigate their education. This study helps bridge the gap between students' cultural wealth and the ways they utilize this protective factor in college. I analyzed the strategies used by seven first-generation…

Objective: Suicide is the second leading cause of death among college-age students in the U.S., with disparities in suicide ideation and attempts among Latinas. The current study aims to examine if depression severity predicts suicide ideation and attempts and to examine if caregiver intergeneration acculturation conflict (IAC) moderates this…

This interdisciplinary case study research centers anticolonial theories and Chicana feminist epistemology (Bernal, 1998) to interrogate the experiences of Chicana maestras during their clinical teaching semester. The experiences of Chicana maestras is often silenced in educational research, especially in the research of prospective middle grades…

In this essay, I explore the concept of embodied knowledge that stems from the Brown female body grounded in the critical scholarship by Chicana Feminist Theorists. I share three testimonios of "momentos"--moments in my life--where my embodied knowledge, through emotions, feelings, and senses guided my practices. Through this…