"Neighborhood Cultural Heterogeneity and the College Aspirations of Low-Income Students of Color"

Assistant Professor Constance Iloh has published in Children, Youth, and Environments: "Neighborhood Cultural Heterogeneity and the College Aspirations of Low-Income Students of Color."

Description

The discourse around low-income youth of color is often framed by the same deficit and problematic urban poverty tropes: deteriorating neighborhoods and schools, lack of family support, deviant influences, and bleak futures. A growing body of research, however, disputes homogenous and oppositional theories that presuppose anti-school/college stances as well as a culture of poverty are features of low-income neighborhoods predominately occupied by Black and Brown residents.  

In this ethnographic case study, Constance Iloh applies the concept of cultural heterogeneity, the diverse and fluid interpretations, values, and actions within a specific context/community, to explore college aspirations and enrollment among several low-income Black and Latinx high school seniors living in the same inner-city Los Angeles neighborhood. Analysis of individual interviews, focus groups, neighborhood fieldwork, and time spent with participants’ families, highlight positive and negative intersectional messaging about college and college-going. Iloh also provides new directions for addressing the complex decisions and trajectories of students who encounter an assortment of pathways and interpretations about college in their neighborhoods; while navigating the inequitable distribution of college resources and information in educational contexts.

Iloh, C. (2018). Neighborhood cultural heterogeneity and the college aspirations of low-income students of color. Children, Youth and Environments, 28(1), 9-29.