Cultural Wealth
Community Cultural Wealth
How do we help increase educational opportunities and provide resources and improve educational outcomes for Black, Latinx, and other students of color, and girls, in particular? At Esperanza, we are creating a culture of achievement by learning how Latinx and other students of color have successfully attained educational success and degree attainment. If we, as educators, can highlight these students' experiences and the resources they are using to navigate school campuses, like their family's support, perhaps we can all - practitioners, families, researchers, and policy-makers - work to provide the adequate support to help them access and succeed in secondary and postsecondary educational institutions.
Understanding our students’ experiences means exploring the family's role within a cultural context and the school environments in which they develop as students. We practice a constant review of self, school, processes, and curriculum, enabling us to create a more just and inclusive environment.
Research Background
Scholar and professor Dr. Tara J. Yosso's framework, provides a counter-frame to the cultural deficit approach that has been often used in research, curriculum development, and narratives about students of color. Using Critical Race Theory's (CRT) five tenets as a guide to understanding communities of color, Yosso (2005) offers a model that acknowledges that the cultures of students of color do "nurture and empower them" to be academically successful and also persist and graduate (p. 76). Yosso argues that the racialized assumptions about communities of color lead school systems to acculturate and fill these students with the dominant society's socio-cultural knowledge. Indeed, often these assumptions lead to educators believing that the school works and the students, families, and communities should be forced to change to conform to this system that functions correctly (García & Guerra, 2004; Yosso, 2005).
Yosso (2005) states that there are six types of capital that students of color bring to higher education:
Aspirational Capital- We need to reinforce that academic success can be a part of an Esperanza student’s hopes and dreams. This possibility is a viable and motivating vision for any student.
Linguistic Capital- Numerous cultures include communication practices which are transferable and applicable in a successful academic or professional career. The traditional practice of storytelling relies on many skills including memorization, timing, and presentation skills. Therefore, their cultural traditions provide them with advantageous skills.
Familial Capital- It needs to be reinforced with students from a non-dominant culture that as they embark on new experiences, they retain access to the wisdom and role models of their families and community networks.
Social Capital- Even as our students feel separate from a college’s culture, they come from a network of peers who are experiencing similar circumstances. A critical role for Esperanza is to keep those networks robust and to provide more experienced mentors from which to learn.
Navigational Capital- Students should be aware of the skills they are developing as they encounter new situations, find their way, and feel comfortable. Acknowledging this ability gives them more confidence as they encounter new situations.
Resistance- All of the social justice gains that have been achieved in our society have come about after a long history of resisting the oppression. By recognizing these advances toward equality, our students can be emboldened that history is on the side of justice.
These all work not exclusively but together in a process to build a Community Cultural Wealth.
Valuing Our Students
At Esperanza we practice Community Cultural Wealth by centering our students' cultural backgrounds and valuing the whole student inside and outside the classroom. Yosso's framework provides us with a lens that we use when:
We develop curriculum and creative approaches in our advisory program.
Our faculty and staff build relationships with parents and families.
We advocate for students at their respective high schools and colleges.
We explore and establish community partnerships.
We work to better understand our students and our role as educators and as an institution.