The author's reflexive account of what led to the construction of research grounded in Chicana Feminist Epistemology (CFE) and a new CFE approach coined "Mestiza Methodology" is presented. At the core of the methodology is the assertion that research processes must be decolonized in the image of Chicana relationships and sense-making to…

While increased college access is widely celebrated for racialized peoples, the end goal of inclusion maintains engagement with and desires for wellbeing within the U.S. white supremacist settler state. This paper examines a culturally relevant college preparation program designed primarily for Mexican-origin youth in California to consider the…

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…

Qualitative research is often overlooked in regards to policy development and practices. This is due to the critique that it lacks the capability to determine cause and effect in educational settings. The advent of qualitative metasynthesis has provided one route to such studies becoming more generalizable. This study implements such a study in…

Caregivers from racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds perceive and work to prevent challenging behavior exhibited by their children with disabilities in various ways. However, limited research has been conducted with caregivers across racially and ethnically diverse groups, to explore the parenting practices and preventative strategies used…

This qualitative case study pursued to describe the different strategies Mexican American adult students in a local community college used to graph function transformations. Participants in the study were purposefully selected using a criterion sampling to ensure participants were atypical, above average students between the ages 18-22, and had a…

This study was an autoethnography of the turnaround efforts of a Chicano leader in four low-performing schools in Texas. The U.S. Government and the State of Texas both impose sanctions on schools that fail to meet minimum standards on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) exams. The focus in the research was on how life…

Drawing on empirical data from two ethnographic studies on familial im/migration and education on both sides of the Mexico-U.S. border, in this article, we focus on critical incidents that resulted in listening realignment during data collection in which children deploy their politicized funds of knowledge (PFOK) (Gallo & Link) to shape the…

The COVID-19 pandemic devastated many communities and exacerbated existing inequities, particularly for Mexican American communities along the South Texas border. During this tumultuous time, many Mexican American college students balanced coursework, work, and familial responsibilities in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV), a Texas borderland region…

This study counters the popular assumption that Spanish Heritage Language Learners (SHLLs) on study abroad (SA) in a place of cultural origin can easily adapt and find acceptance due to the linguistic and cultural resources they bring with them. Our study builds on previous work to illustrate a more nuanced and complex story of desires for…

This qualitative phenomenological study aimed to explore the perspectives of Mexican American fathers with children diagnosed within the context of the public school's special education system and Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings. The study focused on understanding the experiences of ten Mexican American fathers to shed light on…

The purpose of this study is to highlight Mexican American Studies programs in community colleges, a sector where Ethnic Studies has largely gone unstudied. Drawing on interviews from 13 faculty members across Texas, this study describes these instructors' approach to teaching and the impact they feel this type of curriculum has on students'…

Although Latinx parents' perceptions of the climate of their children's schools may play a role in their children's academic adjustment, research examining this idea is sparse. Every 2 years beginning when children were in fifth grade (M[subscript age] = 10.86 years) until they were in 11th grade, Mexican-origin mothers (N = 674) reported on their…

After the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920), the Mexican government sought to establish a series of frontier schools along the United States-Mexico border in an attempt to keep what officials believed were its most economically valuable citizens from migrating to the United States in search of improved economic and educational opportunities. This…

In conducting qualitative research, scholars often grapple with positionality. Researcher positionality refers to how various social identities (i.e. gender, race, class, ethnicity, ability, geographical location) influence research methods. It examines the impact of researchers' social identities on their understanding of the research design,…