Educational Capacity Development: The Journey of Five First-generation College Graduate Teachers Through Acquisition of Social and Cultural Capital and Transmission Towards Their High School Students

摘要

The transmission of social and cultural capital is the condition under which skills, knowledge and beliefs can be acquired by students. Having benefitted from such transformative engagements, first-generation college graduates who become teachers can effectively compensate for the deficiencies yet to be known by first-generation college bound students. These students do not specifically know what they are missing, but teachers who have completed the journey do. Teachers need to be looked at as key educational resources who can provide information and support to students so that they can get ahead in the college arena. First-generation college graduates who become teachers are unique educational resources for students navigating the complex and daunting journey from a non-collegiate home to a post-collegiate career. When looking at sources of social and cultural capital for first-generation college students, each source has a unique amount of capacity and influence upon a college bound student. Following a qualitative approach of narrative inquiry, five high school teachers with the life experience of being first-generation college graduates narrated their personal journey and its relationship to helping first-generation college students. A teacher's capacity and direct opportunity to instruct students in the school setting are the foundation for this narrative inquiry. Educational capacity is the level of cultural and social capital combined that is necessary to navigate through advanced educational situations. This research provides a framework for investigating the concept of educational capacity as it is developed by first-generation college graduate teachers, the simultaneous transmission of social and cultural capital to their students, and the programmatic response by educational institutions to address the inadequate capital among low socioeconomic status students. Several common traits emerged that give perspective to the phenomena of first-generation college graduate teachers and the social and cultural capital that is transmitted to their students. Teachers can have a profound impact in the presence of deficient educational capacity. High school curricula can not prevent years of insufficient adolescent development of social and cultural capital, but targeted development of educational capacity by teachers would create an opportunity for intervention.