This study addresses the perspective and experiences of parents who are undocumented and who have undocumented children. Research suggests that parents are often left out of studies that are about undocumented students and their education. However, when parents are mentioned, they are portrayed as either being the inspiration for educational ambitions (“doing this for my parents’) or curtailing them (“my mom does not want me to leave for university”). Parents are also included in research in terms of their deportability and the impact on youth. I want to center the voices of undocumented parents. I will be conducting participant observation of a parent group that will consist of immigrant parents. Preliminary findings will be shared based on the analysis of the experiences and roles that parents play in their children’s educational trajectory, especially as it pertains to pursuing higher education.

Since the election of President Trump in 2017, conversations of immigration policy quickly escalated. Most conversations have stigmatized the notion of migration, specifically targeting our southern border and families. This project aims to understand the experiences of undocumented high school students in San Diego County, CA under the Trump Administration, through structure qualitative interviews. The backdrop for this study is the current anti-immigrant climate, specifically targeting Latinx undocumented immigrants. We grounded our study in a humanizing framework, where collective efforts based on dignity, care, and respect are pushing forward our work. Currently, we have conducted structure qualitative interviews with 15 undocumented high school students, ten females and five males. From these numbers, 3 identified as Central American and 12 as Mexican and ages ranged from 16-19 years of age. Through these structured interviews, some preliminary findings have been the following: (1) undocumented students struggle with identity issues, (2) they lack educational opportunities and support from their institutions, and (3) deal with many mental health issues. Overall, this research shows that educational preparation for undocumented high school students is deficient, perceived college affordability discourages college aspirations and most notably, legal status affects every aspect of their lives. This latter finding has an especially negative impact on schooling and mental health. This work is intended to bring awareness to the distressed emotions and experiences of current high school students. Implications for practice includes motivational support and training for school personnel in order to develop resources that will support undocumented students to succeed in higher education and society.

 As the number of American students who identify as mixed race or biracial continues to grow, the American education system still has yet to make the necessary changes that are responsive to the needs of this shifting demographic. While identifying students on their own terms is important for all students, for mixed-race students, the questions and potential disconnect between racial labelling and how one defines themselves is fundamental. This study examines the roles biracial categorization plays in today’s classrooms through lived experiences as remembered by college students. Many classrooms still struggle to incorporate the achievements of minorities, and, in some cases, the mixed identity of a historical figure is overlooked entirely. The inability to see themselves in the curriculum may be causing mixed-race students to feel invisible in the classroom and disconnected from their education (Joseph-Salisbury, 2017). Drawing on findings from survey results, focus groups, and individual interviews, this research project contributes to studies focusing on the schooling experiences of mixed-race students. Maria Root (1996) and Kristen Renn’s (2003) models of biracial categorization are used as a framework for the study, as the project re-assesses the inclusivity and adequacy of the biracial categories introduced. In the classroom, seemingly small interactions and events may be forcing students to choose one aspect of their identity, rather than celebrating both. Focusing on how the classroom setting impacts identity has the potential to make the classroom a more inclusive space that is responsive to the myriad of ways biracial students may or may not choose to identify.

Emerging adulthood, the period between adolescence and young adulthood, is the prime developmental period when individuals are actively exploring their identity. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine ethnic-racial identity understanding among Indigenous Oaxacan emerging adults, an understudied population with a strong presence in Oregon. This study will use a narrative approach to conduct a qualitative analysis of Identity Salient Experiences (ISEs) of Indigenous Oaxacans to understand ethnic-racial identity development during emerging adulthood. Participants, between the ages of 18 and 30, will be recruited from Portland State University in Oregon. Narrative interview questions will be asked to assess ISEs, which include: (a) “Describe a time, either positive or negative, that made you particularly aware of your Oaxaqueño heritage” (b) “What was your age at the time of the event?” (c) “Did this event affect what you think about or how you view your own ethnicity or ethnicity in general?” Digital voice recorders will be used to record the narrative interviews, which I will subsequently transcribe and code. Findings from the study will help inform theory of Indigenous Oaxaqueño emerging adults’ ethnic-racial heritage experiences in the United States.

Race is a social construct that was originally developed to differentiate between superior and inferior human beings. Race has been primarily studied from a monoracial perspective, which prohibits multiracial individuals to express themselves because their racial identity does not fit into the neatly, pre-established monoracial categories. Multiracial is used as an umbrella term to describe an individual whose identity is comprised of multiple races or ethnicities (multi-ethnic). Previous research has found that multiracial students experience life in ways that are unique compared to their monoracial peers. Multiracial students are often required to conform to socially constructed monoracial boxes, and often have negative experiences from microaggressions, monoracial family member comments, and lack of demographic categorization. Additional studies have found that the denial of multiracial identities have the potential to cause lower levels of self-esteem along with decreased motivation. The multiracial population in America is steadily growing and, if current trends continue, will only continue to do so. As a result, an increased number of multiracial students on college campuses are expected. This paper explores multiracial student identities within higher education at a public university in the Pacific Northwest and aims to learn about racial identity beyond a monoracial paradigm. The knowledge gained from this research will contribute to higher education administration, faculty, and staff to inform them of the ways in which they can validate multiracial students’ identities on their college campuses.

This is a decolonized narrative based on a three year body of collaborative work as a Native Student Advocate in community college and university student leadership programs. This paper will allow for Native American and Alaska Native students/faculty/staff (community members) to speak for themselves and to indigenize the way that Indigenous “research” is presented. The research question is more of a statement that has surfaced from the community, and so space is created for naming and documenting institutional racism, bias, and self-protective practices. Many Administrators, Department Chairs, Faculty, and Staff continue to cling to a one-sided narrative formulated by white cis-male society that has best suited the US federal and state governments and its institutions for centuries. Textbooks written, approved, and published by white cis-male faculty are allowed to dictate classroom conversations that are white-sided in perspective and perpetuate assaultive language on Indigenous lives and continue to create a dangerous environment for Native community members. This paper will speak to “decolonization” as a buzzword for work in diversity, equity and inclusion mission statements without disembedding settler logic so ingrained in higher education institutions. As a performative act of equity, Native community members are often called upon to speak for over 560+ tribes with different languages, cultural protocols, and cosmologies--only to be bullied or “corrected” when their truth does not suit the ideations of the institution. Decolonized writings and presentation styles by Indigenous scholars and authors will be invoked to support the body of work. It is my hope and utmost intention to create space to allow Indigenous voices to be heard by stating plainly our/their experiences without worry of dominant society conventions and opinions and to collaboratively claim self-determination on presentation of an Indigenized Research narrative that is respectful, relational, and responsible to the Indigenous community it engages.

For many high schoolers having a mentor can significantly alter their life course. For marginalized youth, research has shown that quality mentoring increases the likelihood for high school graduation, addresses socio-emotional needs, and improves mentee’s behavioral skills. Mentoring is one of many interventions schools might use to address students with multiple risk factors such as poverty, housing instability, food insecurity, and discrimination. These many risk factors, in turn, lead to a disproportionately negative high school experience and higher rates of socio-emotional and behavioral issues than students with fewer risk factors. However, increasingly schools have turned to more punitive carceral approaches to manage these negative behaviors by increasing the presence of police officers, security guards, or school resource officers into public school settings. One Portland program works to address this issue by implementing a community care based mentoring program. This study seeks to understand the experiences of both policing and community care mentoring for freshman and sophomore students at three urban public high schools. This study will take on a mixed-methods approach. A survey will be composed to collect quantitative self-report data, as well as semi-structured interview guide to collect qualitative data in the form of open ended questions. The findings from this study will inform the power of community care in high school in relation to mentoring students of color vulnerable to the school-to-prison pipeline, which can be used to inform the argument to remove police from schools and for the continuation of mentoring programs and the allocation of increased federal funding to provide further support for this program and ones similar.