Judy Marquez Kiyama

University of Denver

This article explores how higher education institutions are engaging and communicating with the parents and families of first-generation college students. Drawing on multiple case study data from families and staff members within a multi-year project on parent and family engagement, this article identifies what communication parents and families ar...

Drawing on a synthesis of foundational and extant Funds of Knowledge (fk) scholarship that traces the framework’s theoretical origins and development, this manuscript proposes a unified corpus of six core tenets for fk, as an extension to current theoretical understandings of the framework. These six core tenets are commonly cited individually with...

Community‐based and participatory action research partnerships between community organizations and postsecondary institutions offer powerful possibilities for expanding educational opportunity, capacity building, and social change. When family members of the local community are included in such partnerships, opportunities for equity‐focused transfo...

Using a funds of knowledge framework, this qualitative case study focuses on Latina/o staff in a college outreach program. Findings suggest the success of the outreach program is influenced by staff who have incorporated funds of knowledge into their professional practice. This study reveals that funds of knowledge are not only accumulated or cultu...

This case study of families of first-generation college students, drawing from multiple data sources including longitudinal data from 8 parents who were interviewed three times over the span of their students’ first college year and focus group data with parents attending college orientation, expands our understanding of parent and family engagemen...

Within higher education, students’ parents and families are representative of more diverse family configurations (Redding, Murphy, & Sheley, 2011) with multiple forms of involvement and engagement. Inclusive programming for college students’ families creates an environment for a range of opportunities to further strengthen familial relationships th...

This multiple case study examines how higher education institutions utilize controlling images to establish guidelines of family engagement, including that of first-generation families, low-income families, and/or families of color. Family engagement is limited to the extent to which it aligns with controlling images that paint families as overly i...

The proximity of proprietary institutions to working-class urban areas is rarely explored as a factor in Latina student college choice. Utilizing Chicana Feminism as a conceptual lens, this study explores the path of proprietary college choice for Latina high school students. Qualitative interviews and geographic data reveal how factors of race, ge...

This article reviews how orientation programs perpetuate or combat an ideology of invisibility for families of Color during the transition into college. Findings identify the ways in which ideologies of invisibility or support are constructed through institutional messaging of dismissal or welcome that influence the engagement of families of Color....

Persistently negative stereotypes of college students’ parents are biased toward parents from privileged backgrounds and reflect privileged practices that operate from a color-blind and class-blind ideology. This scholarly paper argues for a conceptual shift from parent involvement to family engagement, establishes the need for a more inclusive len...

This study examined the inclusivity language and general characteristics (e.g., cost, duration, types of sessions offered) of 82 orientation programs across 35 states in the U.S. A directed content analysis of orientation websites revealed logistical considerations of attending orientation, such as cost and duration of orientation; variation in inc...

Upon transition to higher education, Latinas face obstacles including cultural stereotypes, limited financial resources, racist campus climates, family responsibilities, being first generation college students, and cultural incongruities. Despite obstacles, Latinas exhibit college aspirations and goals. This article centers Latinas’ messages direct...

Background/Context The experiences of Latina youth in the United States are embedded within a larger social context influenced by gender, ethnic/racial identity, socioeconomic status, language, and sociospatial and political characteristics that can negatively impact their daily lived experiences. Given the challenges that young Latinas encounter,...

This qualitative study seeks to understand Latinas’ college-going behaviors by examining their agency and role in securing opportunity for college. The authors examine the activation of agency among 16 urban Latinas when navigating the structures influencing college opportunity through a cultural ecological model. Examples of agency are represented...

This chapter highlights the factors that hinder or contribute to the success of Latino and Latina students at predominantly White institutions. The Culturally Engaging Campus Environments (CECE) Model is offered as a framework from which to create environments for Latino/a students to thrive in college.

A community-based, multisite study using mixed methods examined the experiences and perspectives of Latino students and families in a low per- forming urban school district in New York State. his research project was spearheaded by a Latino Education Task Force which brought together multiple stakeholders in a collaborative effort to counteract hig...

This study documents the important role school and community-based programs have for sustaining the persistence of Latina/o high school students in an urban, low achieving school district. Consensus among student participants revealed these programs provided a safe space where students were able to develop confianza (mutual trust) with caring adult...

Informed by the experiences of former peer mentors, this qualitative study examines the structure of opportunity of a university retention program. Extending the concept of social capital, the study investigates the experiences of students who served as peer mentors, and how their involvement in the retention program has influenced their social and...

This study considers a distinct case of a college outreach program that integrates student affairs staff, academic administrators, and faculty across campus. The authors find that social networks and critical agency help to understand the integration of these various professionals and offer a critical agency network model of enacting change.

A feature of the existing literature on minority students' transition to college is the preponderance of models that have “imagined” what students (and their families) need to have in order to be successful. In this paper we discuss how the theoretical framework of funds of knowledge can be used by researchers in higher education to challenge these...

Educational researchers have assumed that the concept of funds of knowledge is related to specific forms of capital. However, scholars have not examined if and how these theoretical frameworks can complement each other when attempting to understand educational opportunity for under-represented students. In this article, we argue that a funds of kno...

Families are crucial in the development of a college-going culture in the home. This qualitative study illustrates that Mexican American families are no exception. Using a multiple case study design, this study explored the funds of knowledge present in Mexican American families. Findings from this study reveal how daily educational practices, exte...

This article focuses on multiple truths pertaining to doctoral education as expressed by three Latina doctoral recipients. These scholars successfully navigated various educational processes with the support of one another, their families, faculty, and their chosen discipline. The authors, as sister scholars, retell their educational journeys throu...

Using a qualitative multiple-case-study design, this study explored how funds of knowledge in Mexican American families contributed to the development of educational ideologies. Findings illustrated the following ways in which families are involved in their children’s education: the formation of both helpful and limiting educational ideologies, whi...

This essay critically examines the centrality of mobility to the model of being a higher education professor or a student affairs professional. Using three narratives of lower-income Latino students about their educational and professional choices, we offer a reading based on Gouldner's classic conception of cosmopolitans and locals, and on Baez's...