“The War Still Continues,” Part II: The Importance of Positive Validation for Undocumented Students One Year After Trump’s Presidential Victory

Abstract

Spanish

During the 2016 campaign, President Trump promised to establish numerous anti-immigration policies, which heightened undocumented students’ fears and anxieties. The present longitudinal qualitative study investigated seven undocumented students’ socioemotional states and whether administrators and educators provided sustained positive validation in light of Trump’s policies a year later. Findings revealed that students faced similar or heightened, negative emotional states and, although some positive validation occurred, new support services are needed.

Keywords

validation theory neo-critical validation theory socioemotional development undocumented/DACAmented students community college

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Abrego

L. J.

(2006). “I can’t go to college because I don’t have papers”: Incorporation patterns of Latino undocumented youth. Latino Studies, 4, 212-231.

Adames

H. Y.

(2016). Caring for each other as acts of defiance against systems of oppression. Latina/o Psychology Today, 3(2), 4.

Andrade

L. M.

(2017). “The war still continues”: The importance of positive validation for undocumented community college students after Trump’s presidential victory. Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, 18(3), 273-289.

Andrade

L. M.

(2018). Latina/o transfer students’ selective integration and spatial awareness of university spaces. Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, 17(4), 347-374. doi:10.1177/1538192717701252

Anguiano

C. A.

Nájera

L. G.

(2015). Paradox of performing exceptionalism: Complicating the deserving/underserving binary of undocumented youth attending elite institutions. Association of Mexican American Educators Journal, 9(2), 45-56.

Astin

A. W.

(1984). Student involvement: A developmental theory for higher education. Journal of College Student Personnel, 25, 297-308.

Bradbeer

(2016). Working together in the space-between: Pedagogy, learning environment and teacher collaboration. In Imms

Cleveland

Fisher

(Eds.), Evaluating learning environments: Snapshots of emerging issues, methods, and knowledge (pp. 75-92). Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers.

Castellanos

Gloria

A. M.

(2007). Research considerations and theoretical application for best practices in higher education: Latina/os achieving success. Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, 6, 378-396.

Castillo

(2018, January 6). Thousands of Salvadorans in Los Angeles worry about Trump ending temporary legal status. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-salvadoran-tps-20180106-story.html

10.

Chen

A. C. R.

Rhoads

R. A.

(2016). Undocumented student allies and transformative resistance: An ethnographic case study. The Review of Higher Education, 39, 515-542.

11.

Contreras

(2009). Sin papeles y rompiendo barreras: Latino students and the challenges of persisting in college. Harvard Educational Review, 79, 610-631.

12.

Creswell

J. W.

(2013). Qualitative inquiry and research design, choosing among five approaches (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

13.

Creswell

J. W.

Miller

D. L.

(2000). Determining validity in qualitative inquiry. Theory Into Practice, 39, 124-130.

14.

Erikson

E. H.

(1968). Identity: Youth and crisis. New York, NY: W.W. Norton.

15.

Freire

(2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, NY: Continuum.

16.

Gildersleeve

R. E.

(2011). Toward a neo-critical validation theory: Participatory action research and Mexican migrant student success. Enrollment Management Journal, 5(2), 72-96.

17.

Gonzales

R. G.

Chavez

L. R.

(2012). “Awakening to a Nightmare”: Abjectivity and Illegality in the Lives of Undocumented 1.5-Generation Latino Immigrants in the United States. Current anthropology, 53(3), 255-281.

18.

Gonzales

R. G.

Suárez-Orozco

Dedios-Sanguineti

M. C.

(2013). No place to belong: Contextualizing concepts of mental health among undocumented immigrant youth in the United States. American Behavioral Scientist, 57, 1174-1199.

19.

Hansler

(2017, September 5). Colleges try to reassure undocumented students in wake of DACA decision. CNN. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/05/politics/universities-respond-to-daca-decision/index.html

20.

Hinojosa

Cavazos Vela

(2017). The role of positive psychology, cultural, and family factors on Hispanic/Latino college students’ depressive symptoms and subjective happiness. Journal of Hispanic Higher Education. Advance online publication. doi:1538192717734287

21.

hooks

(1994). Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom. New York, NY: Routledge.

22.

James

(2018, January 5). Trump seeks $18 billion to extend border wall over 10 years. USA Today. Retrieved from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/01/05/trump-border-wall-proposal/1009584001/

23.

Jones

(2017, September 1). California colleges undaunted by Trump’s decision to phase out DACA. EdSource. Retrieved from https://edsource.org/2017/california-colleges-undaunted-by-trumps-threat-to-end-daca/586746

24.

Jones

. (2017, November 6). For black DACA recipients in Texas, it often feels “impossible to exist.” KUT. Retrieved from http://kut.org/post/black-daca-recipients-texas-it-often-feels-impossible-exist

25.

Journell

Castro

E. L.

(2011). Culturally relevant political education: Using immigration as a catalyst for civic understanding. Multicultural Education, 18(4), 10-17.

26.

Marshall

C. B.

Rossman

G. B.

(2011). Designing qualitative research (5th ed.). Los Angeles, CA: SAGE.

27.

Negrón-Gonzales

(2013). Navigating “illegality”: Undocumented youth & oppositional consciousness. Children and Youth Services Review, 35, 1284-1290.

28.

Nienhusser

H. K.

Vega

B. E.

Saavedra Carquin

M. C.

(2016). Undocumented students’ experiences with microaggressions during their college choice process. Teachers College Record, 118(2), 1-33.

29.

Owen

W. F.

(1984). Interpretive themes in relational communication. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 70, 274-287.

30.

Pérez

Cortés

R. D.

Ramos

Coronado

(2010). “Cursed and blessed”: Examining the socioemotional and academic experiences of undocumented Latina and Latino college students. New Directions for Student Services, 2010(131), 35-51.

31.

Pérez Huber

. (2010). Using Latina/o critical race theory (LatCrit) and racist nativism to explore intersectionality in the educational experiences of undocumented Chicana college students. The Journal of Educational Foundations, 24(1/2), 77.

32.

Potochnick

S. R.

Perreira

K. M.

(2010). Depression and anxiety among first-generation immigrant Latino youth: Key correlates and implications for future research. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 198, 470-477.

33.

Rendón

L. I.

(1994). Validating culturally diverse students: Toward a new model of learning and student development. Innovative Higher Education, 19, 33-51.

34.

Rendón

L. I.

(2002). Community college Puente: A validating model of education. Educational Policy, 16, 642-666.

35.

Rendón Linares

L. I.

Muñoz

S. M

. (2011). Revisiting validation theory: Theoretical foundations, applications, and extensions. Enrollment Management Journal, 2, 12-33.

36.

Saldaña

(2003). Longitudinal qualitative research: Analyzing change through time. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.

37.

Santos

Menjivar

(2013). Youths’ perspective on senate bill 1070 in Arizona: The socio-emotional effects of immigration policy. Association of Mexican American Educators Journal, 7(2), 7-17.

38.

Steele

C. M.

(1997). A threat in the air: How stereotypes shape intellectual identity and performance. American Psychologist, 52, 613-629.

39.

Suárez-Orozco

Katsiaficas

Birchall

Alcantar

C. M.

Hernandez

Garcia

. . . Teranishi

R. T.

(2015). Undocumented undergraduates on college campuses: Understanding their challenges and assets and what it takes to make an undocufriendly campus. Harvard Educational Review, 85, 427-463.

40.

Terriquez

(2015). Dreams delayed: Barriers to degree completion among undocumented community college students. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 41, 1302-1323.

41.

Tinto

(1987). Leaving college: Rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.

42.

Wray-Lake

Wells

Alvis

Delgado

Syvertsen

A. K.

Metzger

(2018). Being a Latinx adolescent under a trump presidency: Analysis of Latinx youth’s reactions to immigration politics. Children and Youth Services Review, 87, 192-204. doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.02.032