Social capital as village network: Rethinking the nature of parental involvement in the precollege preparation of African American students
Year: 2009
Type: article
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine the processes involved in how African American high school students in a southeastern city of the United States of America prepare for college. The social science research literature is saturated with studies regarding the low college enrollment rates of African American students. Analogously, these same studies have tried to uncover "the reasons" for these devastating low enrollment rates. This study was not centered on "the reasons" why African American students are lagging in enrollment, but it employed the related theoretical and conceptual framework of social capital to examine the mechanisms and agencies in the participants' daily lives that promote precollege preparation. Using an interpretive research paradigm, and building on previous research literature examining precollege preparation, social capital, parental involvement, household transformation, and barriers to school participation, the researcher asked 12 African American students about the role of parental involvement in how they prepared for college. The data revealed that the term parental involvement should be defined more broadly to include kinship and non kinship parental figures. Ultimately, this study uncovered that students utilized a village network model of parental involvement that included the family/community, the church, the school, and extracurricular activities to prepare for college that incorporates the statement "it takes a village to raise a child."
Authors: Miller Dyce, M Cherrel
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1605881188