The Journey to Graduate School: An Exploration of First-Generation Latine Students’ Transmission of Knowledge to Capital

Abstract

Graduate education often serves as an opportunity for Latine students to leverage their social, familial, and cultural capital as an avenue for increased economic prosperity. However, the journey to pursue a graduate education can be challenging as students often have to navigate multiple roles and identities that lead to feelings of guilt, separation, and stress. Therefore, this study expands our understanding of the familial role in Latine students’ development of graduate school aspirations through the following research question: how do first-generation Latine students (FGLSs) activate funds of knowledge within familial contexts and transmit them into capital as tools to develop their graduate school aspirations? Utilizing plática methodology and educational journey mapping, I explore how five FGLSs draw upon their funds of knowledge from familial contexts and activate it into linguistic, aspirational, and familial capital on their journey to graduate school. The findings highlight FGLSs’ motivations to attend graduate school with a focus on the activation of funds of knowledge from familial contexts to capital as primary contributors in their development of graduate school aspirations.

1. Introduction

Latines are a growing population in the U.S. and higher education [1,2]. In 2023, the Latine population reached approximately 64 million, accounting for 19.1 percent of the total U.S. population, representing a 6-percentage point increase since 2000 [3,4]. National education data also demonstrate an upward trend in graduate degree attainment for Latine students. The National Center for Education Statistics reported a 3.2 percentage point increase for master’s degrees and a 4.7 percentage point increase for doctoral degrees conferred to Hispanic students between 2012 and 2022 [5]. An investment in Latine education would mean positive impacts on the social, economic, cultural, and health outcomes for the Latine population and the U.S. population at large [6]. Latines have had the largest gains in degree attainment at the graduate degree level within the past five years [5]. Of the top 25 institutions where Latines earned graduate degrees, Florida (6) and California (6) where among the states that had the most institutions that awarded master’s and doctoral degrees, respectively. However, while pursuing a graduate education typically leads to higher earnings where you can bypass entry-level roles [7], Floridian and Californian Latines continue to be more likely to live below the poverty line [8,9]. Previous research also tells us that Latines have higher workforce participation compared to other groups and will represent 91% of new workers by 2031 [10]; however, they remain overrepresented in lower-paying occupations and are less likely to be employed in higher-earning occupations [10]. Beyond contributing to the important goal of diversifying graduate education, pursuing a graduate education provides Latines with avenues for social and economic mobility to increase their lifetime earnings. This contributes to decreasing income disparities and increasing representation in professional and academic settings.

Although national data demonstrate upward trends in Latine students’ graduate degree attainment, there are no national data that account for intersecting social identities, impacting our understanding of how Latine students navigate the pathway to graduate school. One key intersecting identity impacting Latine student’s educational experiences is their first-generation status. Latines are more likely than any racial or ethnic group to identify as first-generation college students, with almost half of all Latino students (44%) being first-generation students [11]. First-generation Latine students (FGLSs) have been previously cited as encountering challenges throughout their educational journey, including negotiating multiple roles and identities, often resulting in a subconscious separation between academic and familial demands when pursuing graduate school [12,13]. However, there is growing scholarship documenting how FGLSs leverage identity-based strengths. This scholarship is critical to deepen our understanding of the role first-generation status has on Latine students navigating the pathway to graduate education. The previous literature has documented the college choice process for FGLSs, citing responsibility toward family, support from college counselors or other institutional agents, and financial concerns as key influencing factors [14,15,16]. Additionally, there is a growing body of scholarship documenting the extensive benefits and challenges students experience in their pursuit of graduate studies [13,17,18,19,20]. However, this is often conducted through a retroactive lens where students reflect on the factors that influenced their decision to pursue graduate studies after as current graduate students or post program completion. This study adds to this previous scholarship by highlighting the factors FGLSs contemplate when considering a post-baccalaureate education. Furthermore, I explore how FGLSs make sense of their graduate school choice process before applying, highlighting that they negotiate competing roles and responsibilities in real time. While pursuing a graduate education poses extensive benefits, for Latine students in particular, it also serves as an opportunity to learn how to leverage their social, familial, and cultural capital as an avenue for increased economic prosperity. I draw upon Bourdieu’s theory of cultural capital [21] and Tara Yosso’s community cultural wealth model [22] to conceptualize how FGLSs activate knowledge to capital. Bourdieu’s conceptualization of cultural capital stems from a class-based lens, arguing that the knowledge exhibited in upper- and middle-class homes is highly valued and required for social mobility and to navigate elite spaces, including higher education institutions [21]. Yosso expands upon Bourdieu’s conceptualization of capital for underrepresented students by outlining six dynamic forms of capital (aspirational, familial, social, linguistic, resistant, and navigational) through the critical race theory approach. These forms of capital leverage the knowledge, skills, and abilities gained from the lived experiences of communities of color [22]. As such, this study explores how FGLSs draw upon their familial knowledge and translate it to capital as a tool to navigate the pathway to graduate education. It is imperative to deepen our understanding of student’s influences in undergraduate education for graduate degree aspirations given the growing number of FGLSs pursuing graduate education and the significant social and economic advantages associated with pursuing a graduate education. Furthermore, this study expands our understanding of FGLS educational pursuits by examining the role and contributions of family to FGLSs’ graduate school pathways.

1.1. Defining First-Generation Students

Defining who qualifies as a first-generation student has been a persistent challenge when examining the first-generation student experience. A systematic review of the literature on first-generation college students reveals there is a pervasive limited and deficit view of first-generation students, often defining them by who they are not [23]. This presents a limited intersectional understanding of who first-generation students are beyond their generational status. Contextualizing this within the present study, the limited intersectional approach reveals gaps in the literature that frame an intersectional understanding of the FGLS profile. Considering an intersectional approach allows scholars to reconceptualize who is included as an FGLS through an expansive viewpoint.

While there are still many challenges in defining first-generation students, there is a growing set of literature conceptualizing first-generation students as learners, which is shaped by sociocultural and critical learning science approaches. This scholarship highlights how students’ backgrounds as first-generation students positively contribute to their educational experiences [23]. Yet, the most common definition references parental educational attainment to determine first-generation status, where students with parents who have not completed a college degree are considered first-generation college students [24]. Applying an expansive approach to defining first-generation students allows researchers to capture the differences in their intersectional experiences. One way to apply an expansive approach is by considering students with parents who received a college education outside of the U.S. as first-generation students. This is because these parents may hold jobs that do not match a foreign-earned college degree [25]. Although this knowledge is not honored as legitimate within Western education standards, these parents possess knowledge they can share with their children who then activate it in their educational pursuits. Another way to expand this definition is by including FGLSs with parents who attended college but did not complete the degree requirements, as they too possess knowledge about the U.S higher education system that their children utilize to navigate college. Furthermore, including students with siblings who obtained a college degree as first-generation students furthers the expansive approach, as many programs often consider them first-generation students since they belong to the same generational cohort. This allows students to capitalize on familial knowledge from various members in their family (e.g., parents and siblings) as they navigate the complexities of pursuing higher education.

The inconsistencies in defining first-generation students across higher education scholars and practitioners alike has implications for who is included and accounted for in research, policy, and praxis. A systematic literature review examining how researchers examine and conceptualize first-generation students as learners highlights the range of criteria to define first-generation students from narrow definitions where neither parent has any post-secondary experience to broad definitions where parents have not received a bachelor’s degree [23,26]. Additionally, there are varying definitions of first-generation students across institutions. The NASPA’s Center for First-Generation Student Success surveyed 273 institutions across the U.S. and found that 73% of the surveyed institutions had a formal definition of “first-generation student” and 56% of institutions used “neither parent or guardian earned a four-year college degree” as their formal definition, whereas only 15% of institutions used “neither parent earned a four-year college degree from an institution in the U.S.” [27]. I adopted the latter definition for this study because it and allows for an expansive understanding of the intersectional lived experiences of FGLSs and centers the ways they draw upon their familial knowledge.

1.2. Countering Deficit Models for FGLS

Although there are no national data sets identifying FGLSs, previous scholarship indicates that Latines are more likely than any other racial group to be first-generation college students [11,28,29,30]. Additionally, first-generation and Latine students are pursuing higher education at increasing rates. First-generation students represent 65 and 14 percent of master’s and doctoral level enrollments, respectively, and Latines represent four and one percent of master’s and doctoral level enrollment [10,31]. Previous research has focused on deficit lenses to examine both first-generation and Latine pathways to graduate education, comparing them to their White and continuing-generation counterparts. Scholars often cite characteristics such as low socio-economic background, lower critical thinking skills, longer time to degree completion, a higher need for remedial courses upon entering college, a higher likelihood of attending two-year institutions, and less likelihood of attending highly selective institutions as reasons for having low degree aspirations [29,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42]. However, comparing the academic achievements of first-generation and Latine students to non-Latine White measures of success frames their educational aspirations through deficit lenses, placing the onus of not pursuing advanced degrees solely on the student rather than considering the oppressive and systemic barriers embedded in higher education institutions as grounds for why students encounter challenges in pursuit of a graduate education.

Tinto’s student integration model [43] and the theory of student departure [43] serve as two of the most utilized theoretical frameworks that examine student persistence. The student integration model argues that student’s integration to the campus is positively related to their persistence and degree completion. Ultimately, the theory of student departure argues that a student’s decision to leave an institution of higher education is voluntary and represents their own decision to leave. While these frameworks have shaped higher education scholars’ understanding of student persistence and attrition, they have also been highly critiqued, especially among scholars utilizing race-conscious approaches, due to their lack of consideration in naming structural and institutional racism as reasons for the differences in educational attainment between underrepresented and White students [44]. There is a countering set of the literature which frames FGLSs’ persistence and educational experiences through asset-based approaches. Nolan and colleagues highlight parental approval as a positive contributor for persistence [45]. Hurtado and Carter linked a sense of belonging, defined as an affiliation or identification with the broader campus community, with persistence for Latino college students to highlight the importance of supportive environments as contributors to persistence [46]. In recent years, scholars have explored additional factors, including students’ financial stability, academic preparation, and parental education levels, as influencing FGLSs’ sense of belonging and persistence [33,47]. However, much of the persistence literature highlighting the experiences of FGLSs focuses on students’ transition to four-year institutions and students’ undergraduate experiences. Therefore, persistence for FGLSs to pursue graduate education remains an understudied topic.

1.3. Familial Role in FGLSs’ Pursuit of Higher Education

Many Latine students learn to navigate between familial and academic contexts. However, this constant shift can bring about challenges navigating multiple roles and responsibilities, creating a subconscious separation between academic and familial demands and causing feelings of guilt, separation, and stress [48,49,50]. Previous scholarship has indicated that the parents of Latine students pursuing bachelor’s degrees strongly support their decision to pursue a bachelor’s degree [12,13]. However, there is less scholarship describing the influence of family on FGLSs’ decision to pursue a graduate education. The role of family for Latine students in the degree aspiration literature differs in some key ways for undergraduate and graduate degree attainment. When seeking a post-secondary degree, family is identified as a socialization agent that is key to developing and maintaining students’ degree aspirations [51,52,53,54] among other socialization agents such faculty and peers. Family, including extended family members, play a critical role in developing educational aspirations for students. Furthermore, previous studies have cited the impact of parental social capital and socioeconomic status as contributors to student degree aspirations [55,56,57,58,59].

When examining the degree aspiration literature at the graduate level, the role of family shifts, especially for Latinas [49,60,61,62]. Women are faced with navigating the pressures of their familial roles, such as caring for relatives, getting married, and having children, while balancing the demands of academia. However, there is also an emerging set of literature that outlines the strengths students pull from their families in pursuit of graduate education and frames it through asset-based frameworks as activating their community cultural wealth [48,51,63]. Much of this scholarship focuses on the role of the family while students are enrolled in graduate school or after they have completed their program. Still, there is minimal scholarship examining the role of family during the transition period for students from undergrad to graduate school.

1.4. FGLSs Pursuing Graduate Education

There is extensive scholarship documenting the experiences of FGLSs from high school to college [14,64,65] and their experiences navigating college as undergraduate students [66,67,68]. However, less is known about their experiences during the transition between undergraduate and graduate education. This can partly be attributed to the varying pathways students take to pursue graduate education, where some students take a gap year(s) to gain professional work experience, expand upon their research skills, take time to rest and reflect on their academic goals, or simply attend to other familial or life matters. FGLSs who pursue graduate education encounter a myriad of challenges along the way, including academic, financial, socio-cultural, and institutional barriers that stem from the embedded nature of systemic barriers in higher education institutions. One such challenge stems from the (re)negotiation of familial roles and expectations [48]. FGLSs often develop a strong sense of familismo, a cultural value that highly values family connection, support, and the prioritization of collective familial needs over individual needs [69]. Familismo is a contributor to Latine persistence because students believe pursuing a college degree is a collective benefit for themselves and their family, granting them social mobility. However, previous research has demonstrated that the impact of familismo on academic motivation differs between gender and generation status [70]. Familismo is a predictor of academic motivation for first-generation Latinos and second-generation Latinas, demonstrating the gendered and generational differences in how family impacts FGLSs’ educational pursuits [70].

While there are limited data outlining the time it takes Latine students between completing their bachelor’s degree and starting their graduate degree, previous research demonstrates that the majority of Latines have non-traditional educational pathways, enrolling part-time, serving as caregivers for family members, and transferring between two- to four-year institutions [10]. However, this often delays their time to degree and adds stop-out points. FGLSs already experience multiple stop-out points in their academic journey prior to pursuing a graduate education due to increases in familial responsibilities, inadequate counseling, and financial barriers [71]. When FGLSs overcome these barriers and make enough progress to pursue graduate education, they are often treated as the exception. Yet, many FGLSs do not individualize their successes. In fact, they feel a commitment to their family and community, viewing education as a pathway to repay their sacrifices. Rather, individualization is a product of institutions pushing a narrative of isolation that causes feeling of guilt and sadness for pursuing education away from family as a support system, ultimately contributing to high attrition rates [48,61].

It is imperative that we continue exploring when and how FGLSs develop graduate education aspirations, not only to continue diversifying the graduate educational pipeline but to deepen our understanding of how FGLSs activate familial knowledge to develop graduate school aspirations.

1.5. Purpose of the Study

We know that graduate school poses extensive benefits for students to improve their social and economic outcomes. For FGLSs, graduate education can also serve as an opportunity to learn how to leverage their social, familial, and cultural capital and as an avenue for increased economic prosperity [63,72]. Therefore, we must understand graduate school aspirations developed in undergraduate education as a first step towards furthering FGLS graduate degree aspirations and attainment. Additionally, it is critical to understand and interrogate the role of family in a student’s development of graduate school aspirations. Given the gaps in previous scholarship regarding the transition period to graduate education for FGLS, this study highlights five FGLS narratives to explore the various types of knowledge students draw upon stemming from their familial backgrounds to develop graduate school aspirations, calling attention to familial knowledge as a strength in the process. Furthermore, I highlight students’ abilities to activate knowledge to capital as a legitimate skill to navigate their pursuit of graduate education, demonstrating the embedded nature of personal and educational experiences as influences in developing graduate school aspirations and underscoring the importance of FGLSs’ capacity to draw upon their lived experiences as assets in their educational journey. I explore this through the following research question: how do first-generation Latine students (FGLS) activate funds of knowledge within familial contexts and transmit them into capital as tools to develop their graduate school aspirations?

1.6. Theoretical Framework

I draw upon theoretical foundations in critical race theory and education research to expand upon Rios-Aguilar et al.’s [73] proposed framework to bridge funds of knowledge and capital to advance our theoretical understanding of first-generation Latine students’ educational experiences. Rios-Aguilar et al. argue that social and cultural capital frameworks expand upon capital perspectives through an understanding of power which emphasizes key processes of recognition, transmission, conversion, and activation. Ultimately, these processes contribute to helping underrepresented students reach their academic goals. Given the emphasis Rios-Aguilar et al. place on activation and mobilization as the key mechanisms, this study explores first-generation Latine student’s educational experiences through the combined conceptualization of funds of knowledge (F.K.) [74] and community cultural wealth (CCW) [22] frameworks to understand the mechanisms of the activation of knowledge to capital in their journey to graduate school.

1.7. Funds of Knowledge

F.K. and CCW are both asset-based frameworks that highlight the various skills, values, and resources students bring with them into academic settings. F.K. theoretical underpinnings were introduced in the early 1990s when Moll and colleagues positioned F.K. as historically accumulated and culturally developed bodies of knowledge and skills essential for household functioning and well-being [75]. In 2011, Rios-Aguilar and colleagues argued F.K. should be examined through a capital perspective and introduced the key process of the activation/mobilization of knowledge to capital. They conceptualized activation/mobilization as “the process in which individuals engage to take an investment to achieve a certain goal”. Furthermore, they argue for the need to examine which types of funds of knowledge are activated to capital and for whom. Then, in 2021, Ramos and Kiyama [74] developed six core tenets for F.K. that honor the knowledge embedded in home and community contexts, which is often embedded in the values of working-class families, as tools to navigate educational settings. Of the six core tenets of F.K. in higher education [74], this study focuses on knowledge that stems from familial, household, neighborhood, institutional, and community contexts and confianza as a response to uncertainty and scarce resources to understand what previous knowledge students utilize to inform their decision to pursue graduate school.

1.8. Community Cultural Wealth

Similar to F.K., CCW centers the experiences of communities of color and highlights their various forms of capital through dynamic, asset-based processes that build on one another. In the seminal text, “Whose Culture Has Capital? A Critical Race Theory Discussion of Community Cultural Wealth”, Yosso [22] traces the genealogy of community cultural wealth (CCW) back to critical legal studies, critical race theory [76,77,78], and critical race theory in education [77,79,80,81,82,83] to construct six forms of capital that students of color use to resist micro and macro forms of oppression. This study highlights how students utilize F.K. to activate familial and linguistic capital to develop their graduate school aspirations. Familial capital refers to the cultural knowledge nurtured among familia (kin) that carry a sense of community history, memory, and cultural intuition and linguistic capital includes the intellectual and social skills attained through communication experiences in multiple languages or styles.

1.9. A Complementary Approach

Through the combined use of FK and CCW, I contribute to deepening our understanding of how first-generation Latine students mobilize knowledge gained through a variety of contexts and translate it into familial and linguistic capital on their journey to graduate school to challenge deficit perspectives. This combined framework is necessary to understand FGLS experiences on the pathway to graduate school because it counters the deficit literature about capital and underscores the importance of power structures contributing to student experiences [73].

2. Embedded Methodological Design

This study draws from plática methodology [84] and educational journey mapping [85] to understand how students’ past educational and personal experiences contribute to their journey to graduate school. The complementary theoretical approach of F.K. and CCW guides the embedded methodological design. I utilize pláticas because they actively involve co-constructors in the theorization process of their lived experiences as FGLSs pursuing graduate education. Through the act of pláticando, we (the researcher and co-constructors) co-create a theorization space where we (re)frame, (re)shape, and (re)define how familial knowledge is an asset to their educational pursuits. Furthermore, pláticas advance Chicanx intellectual knowledge by centering culturally relevant practices that draw upon pedagogies of the home. Pedagogies of the home extend Chicana feminista pedagogies by employing lessons and knowledge learned in home and community-based spaces [86]. As such, pláticas build upon the knowledge that is shared and exchanged within familial contexts, a central component to an F.K. framework which leads to a richer understanding of FGLSs’ life experiences.

The growing scholarship on pláticas demonstrates the beauty in a flexible and adaptative methodological approach, wherein researchers leverage their cultural intuition to fit the needs of the population they are working with [87]. Therefore, it was essential to capture a holistic understanding of students’ previous personal and educational experiences to further engage them in the theorization process of their educational journey and consciously engage myself as the researcher in understanding how this impacted their graduate school aspirations. Therefore, I embedded educational journey mapping into our pláticas. This helped students visualize the key actors, events, and experiences in their educational journey. Additionally, student’s maps served as a tangible reminder of the various strengths and challenges in their educational journey throughout the duration of the plática, revealing how they developed and activated different forms of knowledge to capital over time. Finally, the maps allowed students to recall salient memories that shaped their educational pathways. Chicana feminista pedagogies draw upon “collective experiences and community memory” [86], and the educational journey maps facilitated the recollection of these experiences, memories, and knowledge from multiple community contexts, another central component of the complementary approach to F.K. and CCW.

2.1. Plática Methodology and Educational Journey Mapping

Fierros and Delgado Bernal [84] conceptualized pláticas as a method grounded in Chicana/Latina feminist epistemologies. This conceptualization bridges Chicana/Latina scholarship with education research to construct an understanding of how students draw upon their embodied knowledge. Embodied knowledge often starts in the home through family pláticas [84,86]. The tradition of pláticando has transcended from the home into academic spaces, enabling Latina scholars to “engage the personal in the classroom while continuing to engage the academic in our more intimate spaces away from work” [84]. I draw upon my positionality as a first-generation Chicana doctoral student and my cultural intuition as ways of knowing to inform all aspects of the study design. This methodologic design is an embodiment of my commitment to theorizing and embracing alternative ways of knowing how to deepen our understanding of FGLS experiences in the pursuit of a graduate education. I utilize these tools to guide how I “perform” research, guiding my development of confianza with students to co-create an asset-based understanding of the FGLS journey to graduate school.

Educational journey mapping [85,88] is a practice that draws from critical race theory [78,89,90,91] and DisCrit [92] as a way of understanding students’ educational trajectories across time and space. Educational journey mapping empowers students to “interrogate the space between individuals and social structures” to understand how systemic and social inequities impact them and their embodied experiences [85].

Embedding educational journey mapping into the practice of pláticas served a dual purpose. First, it allowed me to construct a creative and space to build confianza with students through the co-construction of our individual educational journey maps. My positionality as a first-generation Chicana doctoral student was a strength in this process, as many co-constructors shared their desire to engage in conversation with a current doctoral student as a way of gaining exposure to the FGL graduate student experience. Secondly, the student collaborators and I stepped into a transformative third space [93,94,95] where we experienced a weaving of our personal and educational experiences in discussing our aspirations of pursuing graduate education in order to make sense of our graduate school aspirations and experiences.

2.2. Co-Constructors and Site Description

Fierros and Delgado Bernal [84] constructed five principles of pláticas as a Chicana/Latina feminist methodology from their synthesis of the literature depicting plática methodology. They posit participants as co-constructors in the meaning-making process, honoring their knowledge as an integral component of the theory-building process. In line with this principle, I honor participants as co-constructors and collaborators in the meaning-making process and are henceforth referred to as co-constructors in this paper.

Given that this study explores the experiences of FGLSs, it was critical to recruit co-constructors from an institution with high first-generation and Latine student enrollment. Western University (pseudonym) is a west-coast institution representing around 30 percent first-generation and 20 percent Hispanic student enrollment. A second critical recruitment criterion pertains to the exposure of graduate education as a viable option for students. Given the focus of the study on graduate school aspirations, Western University (WU) fits the requirement as a research-intensive institution. At R1 institutions like WU, students are more likely to be exposed to the benefits of pursuing graduate education and can participate in activities that help them develop an interest in and prepare them to pursue graduate studies, such as undergraduate research programs, faculty and student mentorship opportunities, and academic skill development through coursework.

2.3. Sampling and Recruitment

I utilized purposeful and snowball sampling techniques [96] to recruit students. To participate in the study, students had to 1. self-identify as a first-generation college student (defined as neither one of their parents/guardians receiving a bachelor’s degree in the U.S.), 2. self-identify as Latine/a/o, 3. have applied to or planned to apply to at least one social science graduate program by fall of 2025, and 4. be a current WU student. Students interested in participating were invited to complete a five-minute questionnaire to determine their eligibility. I focused on recruiting students who were pursuing or wanted to pursue graduate degrees in the social sciences because Latines remain underrepresented in social science fields relative to other racial minority groups [97,98]. It is critical to expand upon our understanding of first-generation Latine students pursuing doctoral degrees because social science disciplines prepare students to engage in scholarly and policy-driven work regarding issues that directly affect the Latine community. Recruitment strategies included emailing a recruitment email request to administrative assistants from WU social science and humanities majors and undergraduate research programs to distribute the eligibility questionnaire. Additionally, I attended undergraduate classes focused on college access to discuss the study and distribute my survey flyer to students to begin building rapport with potential participants.

2.4. Data Sources

The main data corpus stems from in-person and virtual pláticas with five FGLSs from WU. See

Table 1. Co-constructor overview.

Name (Pseudonym)	Ethnic Identity	Gender Identity	Graduate School Focus	Academic Year	Graduate School Start Date	Degree Type	Pláticas Description
Alexander	Yaqui and Chicano	Man	American Studies/History	2nd year transfer (Senior)	Fall 2023	PhD	90 min
Sebastian	Mexican American/Chicano	Man	Education	Senior	Fall 2025	MA	90 min
Belén	Chicano and Mixteca	Man	Education	1st-year transfer (Junior)	Fall 2025	MA with PhD in the future	180 min
Xiomara	Mexican American/Chicana	Woman	Uncertain with interest in Education	Sophomore	Fall 2025	PhD	90 min
Diego	Puerto Rican and Mexican	Man	Education	1st-year transfer (Junior)	Fall 2025	MA/PhD	120 min

for an overview of the co-constructors. Although each plática was scheduled for 60 min, most ranged between one hour and up to three hours per student. This speaks to our mutual level of engagement in the plática and overall purpose of the study, which many students verbalized feeling deeply connected to. Students expressed gratitude for the chance to share their story, something they typically have not had in an academic setting. I created a new map with each of the co-constructors to engage in the practice of researcher reflexivity and establish confianza with each co-constructor. Creating the map was a creative process where the co-constructors and I took time at the beginning of our conversation to listen to music and draw images or write words of key people, organizations, or memories that influenced our educational journey utilizing colored pencils, crayons, and construction paper. We then took turns sharing our completed maps with each other, talking through our thought process, sharing anecdotes from our experiences, and asking clarifying questions to one another. I collected the co-constructor’s maps at the end of the plática as part of the data corpus; however, two students chose to keep their maps, so the final data corpus only includes three co-constructor journey maps. The maps were utilized as part of a larger study examining FGLS motivation to pursue graduate studies. However, they are referenced throughout the pláticas and are an important component of the students’ theorization process.

2.5. Pláticas Protocol

The pláticas protocol was guided by the F.K. and CCW frameworks. It broadly gathers information on students’ past educational and personal experiences to understand how they developed graduate school aspirations. The protocol is modeled after Valle and Mendoza’s threefold approach to pláticas [99]. First is la entrada, which allows space for me as the researcher to connect my experiences with the larger work and share my positionality as a step to establish confianza with each co-constructor. Since I had no connection to students prior to conducting the plática, I focused la entrada as an introduction to get to know more about the student’s background, introducing the study, and disclosing my positionality to the study. I offered to meet with students on Zoom before the actual plática so we could get to know each other and help alleviate any concerns before participating. The second main component of la entrada consisted of co-constructing and discussing our educational journey maps. Four of the five pláticas were conducted in person at students’ home institution, and one was conducted online, due to health concerns with meeting in person. Constructing our educational journey maps allowed me to understand their academic trajectory and identify people, identities, and social locations that were essential to students’ educational experiences. We also utilized this time to connect by sharing music and off-the-record conversations as we created our maps, further contributing to fostering confianza and a creative space.

The Amistad interview followed, representing my primary conversation with co-constructors. I asked questions in line with the F.K. and CCW framework that generated conversations on the following three themes: social identities, family background and experiences, and school influence and experiences. These themes served as a guide to theorize which home- and school-related factors influenced their development of graduate school aspirations. Given the fluid nature of pláticas and the extended time students took discussing their educational journeys, they often organically brought up the three themes during their explanation of their educational journey maps. Therefore, the amistad interview served as an opportunity to clarify and expand on their previous explanations.

Finally, la despedida allowed for displays of formal gratitude and appreciation for sharing their willingness to share stories with me and engaging in vulnerability. Additionally, I allowed space for larger conversations about the research process, emphasizing their vital role as co-constructors of knowledge. La despedida included my practice of reciprocity to students by offering my insight, networks, and resources as guidance in their graduate school process as a first-generation Latina Ph.D. student. Relationship building beyond the formal research process is an essential component of plática methodology which often blurs the line between researcher and participant [28,100,101,102]. Many participants shared that one of the motivations to participate in this study stemmed from the opportunity to speak with a current graduate student with shared identities or backgrounds who “made it” to graduate school. Therefore, I extended the invitation to continue to go beyond the participant–researcher relationship as students moved through their decision-making process for graduate school to help guide them and provide resources as they navigated potential moves, finances, and familial-/academic-related questions.

2.6. Biographical Narrative Inquiry Analysis

I employed biographical narrative inquiry as the primary form of data analysis. Narrative inquiry is a “storytelling methodology through which we study narratives and stories of experience” [85]. As such, my entry point into the data corpus is focused on the co-constructor’s narratives to make sense of their lived experiences as FGLSs navigating their journey to graduate school. All pláticas were audio recorded, transcribed, and de-identified in preparation for analysis. I wrote researcher memos after each plática I conducted to summarize and reflect on the conversation that took place [103]. After reading the interview transcripts, I utilized deductive and inductive coding techniques to develop my codebook. I constructed a priori codes through deductive techniques, drawing from concepts central to the theoretical framework and literature to answer the research questions and emergent codes through inductive techniques to allow for data-driven themes to emerge [103]. Guided by the F.K. and CCW lens, I coded for instances where students indicated the use of knowledge, centered around the six tenets of F.K. (F.K. as strategic resources, included in a variety of contexts, developed through social networks, dynamic cultural practices, generating confianza, and as oral tradition) and the six forms of capital (aspirational, familial, social, linguistic, navigational, and resistant). I also coded for additional topics students indicated as salient in guiding their decision to pursue graduate school including the role of family and identity, mental health, challenges, and supportive structures along their educational journey. After an iterative process of multiple rounds of coding, I constructed narrative portraitures to guide the search for each co-constructor’s story that emerged from our plática [103,104,105] These portraitures were anchored in paradox and researcher positionality as I explored existing insights and tensions that shaped each narrative [104]. Engaging in this recursive analytical process, central to qualitative research, allowed me to engage in the meaning-making process to construct the findings through highlighting FGLSs’ narratives.

The data for this study draw upon a larger data corpus from an exploratory study examining FGLSs’ motivation to pursue a graduate education. However, this study focuses on exploring the familial contexts of FGLSs and how they can activate the knowledge stemming from these contexts and transmit it into capital as a tool to help them navigate their pathway to graduate school.

3. Findings

This study addresses one of three themes revealed from the larger study focused on student motivations to attend graduate school. The findings from this study explore how FGLSs activate funds of knowledge from familial contexts to linguistic, aspirational, and familial capital, contributing to the overall development of their graduate school aspirations. I highlight Alexander and Sebastian’s narratives as two examples of how linguistic capital can lead students to the development of their research agenda, in turn motivating their graduate school aspirations. Then, I highlight Diego, Xiomara, and Belén’s narratives to demonstrate the varied ways familial capital shapes students’ graduate school aspirations. Overall, the findings highlight students drawing upon code-switching and bilingualism to develop linguistic capital and previous familial education, work force, and immigrant background as key contributors to developing familial and aspirational capital.

3.1. From the Hood to Academia: Code-Switching as Linguistic Capital

Alexander is a second-year transfer student at WU majoring in Chicanx Studies with a Central American Studies minor. He identifies as a fifth-generation Chicano and first-generation college student “from the hood”. I met Alexander in February 2023 when he was receiving admission notices from the twenty-three doctoral programs he applied to during the fall of 2022. Throughout our plática, Alexander greatly emphasized the influence his family had on his research interests and ultimately his aspirations to pursue graduate studies. Alexander has autism and explains that one of the symptoms of being on the spectrum is having a niche interest in something. For him, this is history. When Alexander pursued his associate degree, his love for history propelled him to trace his family’s genealogy as a way of deepening his understanding of their migration to Central City (pseudonym).

I do history of Mexican Americans in 20th century Central City and, by a broader extension, Central Americans, other Latin American people as well. I do so because my family has a very deep roots in Central City…My family has lived here for 150 years, so it’s a very deep history. And that’s not counting my family being Yaqui from Sun State (pseudonym) and it doesn’t count my family in Bright State (pseudonym) who has lived there since the late 1500s. I questioned a lot growing up, like, why are things the way they are in my neighborhood? Why do I exist as somebody that’s so fundamentally different from other Latinos and Latinas? And what can history tell me about this?

Alexander demonstrates how his family history serves as a driving force for his research agenda. As a fifth-generation Chicano, he grew up hearing how his family endured “extreme cycles of assimilation”. These stories were coupled with negative experiences in the classroom, having teachers stigmatize him due to his disability. However, Alexander draws upon knowledge from his family’s historical context as an opportunity to tap into his niche interest in history to trace his family background. This sends him toward many questions that ultimately lead him to his research question.

After transferring to WU, Alexander continued exploring the history of Latino/a migration through the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship (MMUF). Interviews are a central component of the research process for Alexander, and he greatly relies on his connections with family and community members to recruit participants for his studies. Alexander and his family have lived in the same neighborhood for many years. The relationships he has built as an active member of his community transcend academic boundaries and his code-switching between environments serves as a great benefit to his work, stating,

I’m able to go into these spaces knowing that people know me or that I know how to communicate with them…I also have the ability to code-switch in environments where it’s beneficial to me. So I can speak in a polite and formal, and kind of pedantic way. But then I can also just speak like an absolute foo’…I have family members that served, or because I have family members [in] small little hoods like this. Everybody knows each other so it’s like, ‘oh, you know, so and so’s nephew is doing this project for Western?’ ‘Oh, yeah, tell him to hit me up. He can come over to the house and do an interview’. I think that’s a beneficial part of my graduate school journey.

Alexander’s current research focuses on the experiences of Mexican American former gang members that served in the military and their transition into jobs in defense industries. He demonstrates an ability to code-switch between academic and community settings to call upon the community’s memory of his family and neighbors as capital for his research endeavors. Yet, this is not an extractive process. Rather, it is Alexander’s activation of community knowledge through the trusted relationships built on confianza that helps him conduct interviews for his research. He knows how to discuss his research with community members to garner support for his research which he then activates his linguistic capital in an academic setting to speak in polite, formal, and pedantic ways to obtain buy-in from institutional agents to access resources such as funding from research programs like MUUF to support his academic endeavors. For Alexander, there is a clear connection between his familial and academic interests, mutually informing how he traverses between each space and directly guiding his research interests. His family and community’s knowledge served as an entry point into research and contributed to his decision to apply to History and American Studies doctoral programs.

3.2. Bilingualism: Bridging Language between Home and Professional Contexts

Sebastian, a senior at Western, draws upon his cultural and familial backgrounds through his knowledge as a bilingual student, which serves as an entry point to his research interests. Sebastian shared his plans to pursue a master’s in education after completing a two-year fellowship program to support high school students and their parents from Spanish-speaking homes apply to college. This fellowship program would allow him to continue working within his local community and further develop his research interests in preparation for his graduate school endeavors. These aspirations stemmed from his first-hand experiences receiving inadequate college counseling as a result of attending an under-resourced high school. His college counselor, Ms. Perez, had an unmanageable case load with hundreds of senior students assigned to her, making it impossible to provide adequate college guidance to every senior. Sebastian knew he had to be persistent to get Ms. Perez to know about him and help him apply to college, so he was constantly in the college center seeking information. Ms. Perez taught him about the college application process, and shortly after, Sebastian mobilized this knowledge as a strategic resource to teach and disseminate information to his peers, informally counseling other students about the college application process due to scarce resources. Although this experience was a direct result of the understaffed conditions of the high school, Sebastian speaks of this experience as fulfilling, helping him find a passion for building confianza with students to help them navigate the college application process.

As a WU student, Sebastian continued working with high school students, helping them complete their college applications through an internship program. He emphasized the importance of having culturally competent counselors working with underrepresented communities, saying,

I was essentially doing what their college advisors were doing. I was helping students fill out their college applications, reaching out to parents, and letting them know if [they] have any questions, we’re here to help. And I was doing that in Spanish too. The interesting thing is that the advisor they have doesn’t speak Spanish. So because of the internship course I took last quarter where I got paired with the community school, I was able to provide that Spanish support… talking to them and being like, “¿Hola comó están? Estamos hablando de aquí del centro de colegio” (Hi, how are you? We’re calling from the college center), they’re like, “Muchas gracias” (thank you very much). For most of them, it was the first time they had spoken with a college counselor in Spanish.

Sebastian understood first-hand that being a first-generation college student from a Spanish-speaking household often meant limited parental involvement in the college application process due to language barriers. However, Sebastian was passionate about sharing the college knowledge he gained through his personal experiences and professional development opportunities to ensure students and their parents felt informed and empowered making their decision about pursuing a college education. He was able to activate his college knowledge and bilingual background and transform it into linguistic capital as a skill to communicate with students and parents in the college decision-making process. Furthermore, his familial context informed his positive perception of involving family in student’s educational pursuits and drove his professional interests in student affairs work.

As we collectively engaged in a theorizing space during our plática, Sebastian and I often switched from Spanish, to English, to Spanglish, especially when retelling familial conversations as this was the way we speak with family members, demonstrating in real time how our familial background was a helpful tool in the research process. Sebastian expanded on his bilingual knowledge as a strength through a conversation with his mom regarding his graduation, telling her,

I’m graduating soon, and you better know what I’m studying. So she was like, ‘a ver pues dime que titulo vas a agarrar’ [okay then tell me what your bachelor’s degree is in]. And I was like, okay, so it’s education and social transformation and Chicanx Studies. And she was like ‘okay pues’. And I was like, ‘yeah, so you can put it on your Facebook post. Make sure it’s accurate (laughing together) make sure you get it right’.

Sebastian takes great pride in sharing knowledge with his family and members of his community, stating that the collective success of his community is a driving factor for his pursuit of graduate studies. Additionally, Sebastian’s social mobility, due to pursuing higher education, extends to his parents. This demonstrates that the activation of knowledge to capital is a mutual exchange between students and their families. The first exchange occurs from Sebastian’s activation of bilingual knowledge gained from his parents raising him as a Spanish speaker, into navigational capital to navigate professional settings in his internship and ultimately his research agenda, exploring how accessible language, or the lack thereof, in the college application process impacts a Spanish-speaking family’s perception of pursuing post-secondary education. The second exchange occurs from Sebastian’s parents gaining college knowledge from his higher education pursuits and building upon their familial capital through the completion of his college degrees.

3.3. Parental Experiences Shaping Education as Opportunity

Alexander and Sebastian demonstrate how the knowledge gained through familial and community backgrounds serve as an entry points into research, affording them capital to explore and develop their graduate school aspirations. For other students, family members offer their knowledge through verbal and emotional support by offering words of encouragement and offering their experiences as a model for students. Diego, a first-generation Puerto Rican and Mexican American college student, was a first-year transfer student at WU when we met for our plática in the spring of 2023. He strongly identifies as an “underdog”, feeling as though the odds have always been stacked against him in his education pursuits but persisting nonetheless. He recounts how proud his family was when he transferred to WU after completing his associate degree to further his education. He is the first in his immediate family to attend WU, outside of an aunt who attended WU but did not complete her degree, so his entire family has rallied behind him and offered their knowledge to help him in his transition. His older sister, a graduate student then studying to take the Law School Admission Test (LSAT), helped him write his statements as part of the application to transfer. Diego was able to activate his sister’s previous knowledge of the college application process to social capital to aid him in the application process, stating, “my sister is like my personal writing center. She was happy about [helping me apply]”. While Diego’s parents did not have the same knowledge of logistical procedures as his sister, they offered verbal encouragement to Diego and his sister to further their education from an early age to improve their life outcomes.

My family, my mom, was like ‘don’t stop at your B.A. You need a stop maybe at a master’s but you cannot stop with one [degree]. It won’t get you anywhere for jobs’. Now they’re looking for a master’s for basic jobs and you have to compete’. My mom and my dad we’re like ‘you cannot just stop, you need to get your master’s’.

Diego’s parents had first-hand experience seeing how your economic situation is impacted due to a lack of education credentials. Diego recounts his dad experiencing rejection from multiple jobs due to the minimum degree requirements, saying,

My dad coming [to the U.S.] didn’t know a lick of English so he had to teach himself everything. From those experiences, coming to America and all that, that’s why they forced education very heavily on my sister and I, because they’re like, ‘without an education, you can’t do multiple things’. And my dad is very known for that because all the jobs he applied to they’re like, ‘oh, you need a bachelor’s’ or ‘oh, you need a high school degree’ and my dad didn’t even have a high school degree so it was more like you need to have something, you need to have at least a bachelor’s to open up the workforce to get paid more.

Therefore, Diego’s parents wanted to better prepare their children to face a tough job market by increasing their credentials and expertise to be competitive applicants for a career of their choosing. His parent’s retelling of their hardships was a story Diego knew well, and it impacted his perception of education and career outcomes to foster a graduate-going culture at home. Diego also grew up around gang violence and remembers hearing his parent’s voice in the back of his head telling him not to get involved with gangs and instead stay in school. His parents were adamant about instilling these lessons in their children, as they too had experienced violence, family separation, and job instability after immigrating from Mexico at 18 years old and Puerto Rico at age 11. Their lack of education heavily framed their understanding of education as an opportunity for their children and they passed these family memories and experiential knowledge as lessons to their children to emphasize the importance of pursuing an education. This translated to resistant capital for Diego as he challenged deficit expectations of his educational outcomes by building graduate school aspirations.

3.4. Succeeding under Pressure: Fostering the Value of Education

Motivation to further one’s education does not always stem from a perfectly packaged form of encouragement. Families are complex, and motivation can sometimes stem from pressures rooted in the layered roles and responsibilities within familial dynamics. For Xiomara, a sophomore at WU majoring in education and social transformation, her identity as the eldest daughter from a single-parent, immigrant household contributes to the pressure she feels to succeed academically. While this pressure impacts the way she approaches her multiple roles and responsibilities as a student, daughter, and sister, it also serves as a source of motivation for her to improve her and her family’s economic outcomes by pursuing graduate school.

Xiomara experienced a high level of independence and responsibility within her family dynamic at an early age. She draws upon these memories and experiences to develop her educational aspirations, saying, “The thing I remember most is the idea that higher education was going to help our family out the most, and being first gen, I think I felt the pressure even as a young child. So in elementary school, I got a lot of awards, recognition, and it motivated me to actually take school seriously”. Like Diego’s parents, Xiomara’s mom did not always understand how education would provide opportunities. However, she always encouraged Xiomara to participate in college preparation activities as ways to receive gain exposure to resources that could provide her with guidance. Xiomara’s mom enrolled her in a college preparation program as early as fourth grade and supported her decision to join a college awareness program as a high school student, two pivotal experiences that led Xiomara to build a network of support with professionals that helped her apply and be admitted to WU. Xiomara and her mom had built mutual trust in their relationship as mother and daughter. They relied on one another to keep their family afloat. Xiomara translated this established level of trust into aspirational capital, leading her to take risks in her academic career, including applying to WU for her bachelor’s degree. Initially, Xiomara initially did not think she would get admitted to a university like WU. However, after receiving her admission, she and her mom visited the campus to soak in the reward of a shared accomplishment. Xiomara recounts the highly emotional experience, saying,

The next day [after receiving my admission], we went to the WU campus for the first time and my mom was taking pictures and she cried a lot because it was just an opportunity that I didn’t think I could get and she was really proud of me. That felt nice because she always told me ‘Get to college’. I feel like it’s like a cultural thing or parents don’t show their emotions like that [or] validate things just because they don’t understand things. But her saying that she was proud was really impactful for me and it influenced my decision to go to WU.

Xiomara took on the role of caretaker to her younger sister at an early age so her mom could work and earn a living to support the three of them. Xiomara’s responsibilities included cooking for her younger sister, paying bills, and managing communication between her mom’s cleaning business and customers. However, despite her familial roles, Xiomara’s mom emphasized the importance of attending college and prioritized her daughter’s educational efforts. While this support was not always verbalized, Xiomara’s mom demonstrated a commitment to her daughter’s educational pursuits by enrolling her in college preparatory programs and providing emotional support.

While her mom provided emotional support and motivation, Xiomara turned to her older cousin as a source of inspiration to further her education, stating,

My cousin is a DACA recipient, and she’s currently pursuing her master’s degree… and she’s really passionate about criminology… when she explains it to me, I understand… and we have similar backgrounds, similar stories growing up, so seeing that she can do it pushes me that I can do it.

Xiomara sees herself represented through her cousin’s educational aspirations and sees her as a trusted source in her direct network that she can turn to for advice. Xiomara shares the experience of having a family member who pursued a graduate education as a resource with Diego. Having a family member in one’s generational cohort further develops one’s aspirational capital, as this is someone who has a strong understanding and tie to their familial background. Still, although Xiomara and Diego were able to gather information about navigating graduate school as FGLSs from family members, this is not always the case for other FGLSs, given that many are the first person in their generational cohort to pursue this educational endeavor.

3.5. Navigating Power Dynamics: Balancing Parental Expectations with Academic Aspirations

Many FGLSs experience changes in their family dynamics during their pursuit of graduate studies. Belén, a Latine and Mixteca first-year transfer student at WU and the middle child of his family, discussed at length how his family’s view of pursuing higher education has impacted his graduate school aspirations and educational trajectory at large. Belén’s older sister dropped out after her first semester of community college, which scared him into thinking he might face a similar fate while pursuing his associate’s degree. However, Belén thrived at community college, building connections with his co-workers and supervisors at his work study position in a first-year student experience office. Recounting these experiences, he says,

I got heavily involved with meeting faculty and staff and in my last year, being the Co- President of an undocumented [student] club and being a senator for [student government]. [Describing his educational journey map] I put a circle and inner circles within it to represent the support I did have [in community college]…That’s where I also met my coworkers who helped me a lot with my growth, personally, and academically. Then I met the president of my CC who I’m still in contact with and truly is an inspiration to me. Someone who I idolized because she’s first generation too, she grew up with a single mom, and she was able to get a master’s on top of the bachelor’s and then a PhD and now she’s the president of the community college that she was also alumni of. I really like her story and I would hope one day to have that story.

Belén mobilized the knowledge from his social networks and transmitted it into aspirational capital to foster graduate school aspirations. After completing his associate’s degree, he began the transfer process to WU. During this time, Belén’s parents did not understand his motivations to pursue higher education and were confused as to why he wanted to attend a university over 100 miles away from them. However, these were not baseless concerns. Belén grew up in a mixed-status family, and the fear of deportation was a topic of great consideration during his college-choosing process for his undergraduate education and continues to be at the forefront of his mind when considering the location of his graduate studies. When Belén was admitted as a transfer student at WU, his mom expressed concern, wondering who would be there to pick up his brother from school if they were suddenly detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). His parents relied on Belén as a source of strength within his family and their hesitation deeply impacted him. Therefore, Belén sought out advice from his pre-existing community networks on how to approach the situation, saying,

[My mom is] just scared that she loses a little bit safety and support from home if I leave to Central City. And [a friend] told me to not take [things] so personal with my parents into decision making because to them, they are first-gen undocumented immigrants… but it’s kind of the same in a way, going somewhere new and alone with no connections, no support, starting over, and maybe even financially unstable. I’ve learned to not take it personal.

Belén’s parents’ display a distrust of higher education. This, coupled with their feelings of powerlessness in the larger U.S. immigration system, creates tensions between Belén’s educational aspirations and his family’s expectations. He recognizes his family’s skepticism, but rather than seeing it as a hindrance to his academic journey, he mobilizes the knowledge gained from his parent’s immigration story to reframe his higher education journey. He draws parallels between these two experiences, concluding that the end goal in both scenarios are to better his family’s life outcomes. Belén admits to feeling pressure from his parents to apply to an institution closer to home for his graduate studies. However, he is concerned of losing access to potential opportunities by not considering programs further away. Additionally, although Belén recognizes his role as a safeguard for his family, he also understands the implications of pursuing an education at a prestigious institution like WU, saying, “I did take it into consideration a lot of what it could mean for to go to WU. Not only for me, but for my parents, my community”. Similar to Xiomara, Belén demonstrates an understanding of how pursuing a graduate degree is representative of a collective accomplishment, one that is fueled by family and community memory and translated to social capital by increasing the knowledge and resources FGLSs can funnel back into these contexts to foster a cycle of graduate school aspirations.

Belén actively navigates the tensions of being physically separated from his family with his aspirations to better his and his family’s social location through pursuing education. Ultimately, Belén aspires to become president of a community college and knows that he needs to pursue a graduate degree to reach his goal, saying, “I know I need a PhD or EdD for that. I think that’s also progressing me to want a PhD or EdD, because I do want that door open. I would take that role, if given the chance”. Belén carries the responsibility to his family and community with him as he navigates higher education, and this responsibility serves as a primary motivator for his graduate education aspirations.

4. Discussion

This study emphasizes FGLSs’ ability to activate and mobilize their funds of knowledge from familial and community contexts into capital to contribute to their journey to graduate school. Much of the previous literature focuses on institutional activities undergraduate students can engage in to prepare for the rigors of graduate school and develop an aspiration to pursue graduate studies. While the findings from this study contribute to previous scholarship indicating activities such as undergraduate research programs or internships contribute to student’s graduate school aspirations, the findings introduce a new dimension focused on the role family plays in developing student’s aspirations to pursue graduate studies. Furthermore, the findings demonstrate how the activation from knowledge to capital is a two-way street through which 1. students draw upon familial/community knowledge and activate it to foster graduate school aspirations and 2. families/communities leverage FGLS knowledge gained from pursuing higher education and activate it into capital to collectively improve their life outcomes. Previous scholarship underscores the importance of familial motivation for high school students in their transition to college and graduate students in their progress towards degree completion [14,64,65,66,67,68]. However, less is known about the type of support family can provide in the interim period between undergraduate and graduate studies.

This study expands on this work, demonstrating that students leverage their knowledge from familial contexts to translate it into various forms of capital including aspirational, navigational, resistant, and familial capital, addressing the importance of power relations in higher education. Diego and Xiomara’s graduate school aspirations are largely informed by their family’s previous experiences with education, demonstrating that generations closer to them, such as Diego’s sister and Xiomara’s cousin, can provide logistic support to navigate their journey to graduate school. On the other hand, the preceding generation of parents transmit knowledge of how a lack of education can impact your experiences, which contributes to their perceptions of education as providing career opportunities. Diego’s parents share the hardships they have encountered facing the job market due to a lack of education credentials. Similarly, Xiomara’s mom propelled her forward and encouraged her to apply despite not knowing the intricacies of applying to college. Diego and Xiomara’s parents demonstrate an understanding of the potential benefits of pursuing an education, informed by their understanding of power. In their experience, not pursuing higher education has restricted their job prospects. Therefore, they transmit hope by encouraging their children to continue pursuing education beyond college to increase aspirational capital. Belén’s parents’ perception of higher education is also informed by their understanding of power, which is informed by their understanding of power dynamics within the immigration system. Belén recognizes the existing tensions within his familial dynamic and leverages his family’s immigration experience as a parallel to his journey to graduate school, seeing it as a venture into unknown territory with hopes of collective success for his family and community.

Secondly, this study expands upon Rios-Aguilar et al.’s complementary approach of examining funds of knowledge and a capital framework by understanding how FGL students activate and mobilize knowledge to capital, with a focus on the activation and mobilization of knowledge students develop from familial contexts to familial and linguistic capital [73]. Previous studies emphasize the importance of language as a component of students’ cultural background, which is often shaped by familial makeup [106,107,108,109]. While there are similarities between F.K. and capital, I adopt Rios-Aguilar et al.’s distinction between F.K. and capital, indicating that F.K. “has become the accepted term for describing capital in lower income and immigrant communities” and capital is based on a person’s social location and the privilege afforded to a higher social class [73]. Alexander’s ability to code-switch his research interests translates to his ability to move between funds of knowledge within his neighborhood context to linguistic capital in an academic setting. He demonstrates an understanding and recognition of social location in each instance; knowing how to communicate like a “foo’” with his community of former gang members to conduct interviews and speak in “polite”, “formal”, and “pedantic” ways to academics when describing his research. Similarly, Sebastian’s narrative highlights the shift in language through bilingualism in familial and community contexts, contrasted with his leveraging of this skill in professional settings.

Implications, Recommendations, and Future Directions

This study has critical implications for future research and practice. The findings demonstrate the varied ways students draw upon the funds of knowledge from their familial contexts to develop their graduate school aspirations. However, further research examining parental involvement in their children’s journey to graduate school from the parent’s perspective is needed. While this is beyond the scope of this project, it is important to note that not all first-generation college students are also first-generation Americans. Therefore, first-generation college students may have parents with diverse immigrant backgrounds that impact they type of knowledge they draw upon. For example, Alexander identifies as a fifth-generation Chicano with deep familial roots in Central City, whereas Sebastian, Diego, Xiomara, and Belén have at least one parents identifying as an immigrant. Secondly, we could benefit from a gendered analysis from the student and parent perspective. This study was exploratory in nature, which deepened our understanding of the experiences of FGLSs. The co-constructors in this study highlight the role their mothers play in their educational experiences, contributing to previous scholarship indicating the critical role mothers play in their children’s educational aspirations [110,111,112,113,114]. However, there are fewer research studies examining the role fathers play in their children’s aspirations to pursue graduate school, which has been positioned as an “untapped resource” in the development of Latine students’ educational aspirations [115]. Additionally, there is a growing body of literature examining Latina’s graduate school experiences [13,19,116,117,118]. National trends indicate that they outpace the graduate degree attainment of their Latino male counterparts [119,120]. Therefore, while this study provides critical insight into the growing literature examining male Latino’s experiences pursuing graduate education in social science and humanities fields, more research is needed to understand the gendered differences between FGLSs in their pursuit of graduate school. Finally, while this study focuses on FGLSs, we would benefit from gaining a deeper understanding of the cultural nuances of aggregated Latine data in their pursuit of graduate degrees.

It is crucial that four-year institutions provide formalized, culturally competent opportunities to engage their Latine students in opportunities that helps activate/mobilize their F.K. to capital to prepare them in their transition to graduate school. The findings from this study highlight the benefit of shifting between F.K. and capital for FGLSs. Furthermore, the findings highlight various ways students maintain their cultural values in their aspirations to pursue a graduate education. Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) and emerging HSIs are uniquely positioned to cater to Latine students’ cultural background as a strength in their educational journey, given that their mission is to “champion Hispanic success in higher education” [121]. Institutions are granted the federal designation as HSIs if they are non-profit institutions with a full-time equivalent undergraduate student enrollment of at least 25 percent Hispanic [122]. There is a high level of variability that exists around how HSIs serve their Hispanic student population, leading to debates around servingness frameworks beyond minimum enrollment rates [123,124]. Still, HSIs and emerging HSIs have a unique opportunity to engage FGLSs in programs, services, and educational opportunities that help them activate and mobilize their knowledge to capital to develop graduate school aspirations.

Leading HSI scholar Gina Garcia argues for a multidimensional model of servingness for HSIs where servingness is conceptualized through indicators and structures for serving [125,126]. One way of conceptualizing indicators of servingness is through experiences, which can encompass positive and affirming cultural experiences, experiences that can draw upon students’ cultural and familial backgrounds [125,126]. I pose two recommendations for HSIs and institutions at large to engage FGLSs and their families in the journey to graduate school. First, I recommend the implementation of bilingual support services, specifically in conversations around pursuing graduate school in college advising and counseling for students and their families alike. Sebastian’s narrative illustrates the importance of a bilingual college advice in developing his graduate school aspirations and involving families in the college-going process by empowering them through education. Belén’s parents exemplify the distrust many FGLS’ families may have of higher education. However, as the co-constructors of this study demonstrate, many FGLSs feel a strong commitment to improving their family and community’s life outcomes when pursuing higher education, despite the barrier to understanding the pathway students are pursuing. Therefore, institutions should integrate family in their college’s advising and promotion of graduate education through accessible means, starting with providing bilingual services. Second, narratives like Xiomara’s and Diego’s demonstrate how FGLSs gravitate toward familiar and familial structures when seeking guidance to gather the hidden curriculum about navigating graduate school. While the positive impact of mentoring support programs has been a well-established recommendation in improving student success, I recommend embedding family-like structures in mentoring programs. Often, this is reflected through a mentor–mentee relationship. However, as is evident by the FGLSs in this study, students call upon various members, including parents, siblings, cousins, and neighbors, because family is not limited to only immediate family members. Creating these structures highlights the wealth of knowledge within their social networks and fosters confianza, ensuring students have multiple resources available for guidance.

Future research should explore if and how HSIs support Hispanic student educational pathways to graduate education through student’s familial background and experiences. This is of paramount importance given that HSIs represent almost two-thirds of the institutions Hispanic students attend, despite only making up 20 percent of institutions nationwide [10,127]. Therefore, HSI administrators have an opportunity to leverage federal funding to sustain and support their role in preparing FGLSs transition to graduate school, further establishing their commitment to contribute to the diversification of graduate education.