Media Contact: Alondra Ponce, alondra.ponce.432@my.csun.edu, or Carmen Ramos Chandler, carmen.chandler@csun.edu, (818)-677-2130
While a lot of research has been done about the development of students in primary school, middle school and high school, Nathan Durdella, a California State University, Northridge professor in education leadership and policy studies, found that not much has been done about the educational development of graduate students of color across educational sectors and transition points in life.
In an effort to address the gap, Durdella has written “Shaping Students of Color from Preschool to Graduate School,” which was released earlier this month.
“It’s about the parents and families impacting graduate students of color on their path in the educational pipeline, from a very young age to their completion of graduate degrees,” Durdella said. “I really wanted to answer the question, ‘how do parents and families shape you as a student from early life to graduation?’ It was that life-course perspective that I really wanted to understand.”
To answer the question, Durdella scoured empirical literature and did personal interviews with graduate students of color and first-generation graduate students from California as well as from the southeast, Mid-Atlantic and mountain west parts of the United States.
Durdella, director of Educational Leadership Doctoral Degree (Ed. D.) Program in CSUN’s Michael D. Eisner College of Education, researched the key transition points, primarily focusing on the graduate student perspective.
“We are part of a campus community, and the idea is to co-create climates that, at their core, value personal strengths of students of color,” he said. “So, that means recognizing families are centered on their success and they bring that with them.”
The book demonstrates that families and parents use a complex system where “cultural knowledge and behavioral modeling socialize children over the life course to promote specific values, including prioritizing education and hard work, building family unity, and honoring familial and ancestral sacrifices,” Durdella said.
One finding that across most of the student narratives is their belief that there is something larger in life they need to accomplish, Durdella said.
For graduate students of color, families are the main drivers of interest in education, he said. While graduate enrollment is on the rise, there is a comparatively lower outcome for graduate students of color, he noted.
“It was part of the reason I wanted to look beyond the conventional measures of outcomes of success and affirm the positive roles of families and connecting experiences at home,” Durdella said.
“Shaping Students of Color from Preschool to Graduate School” is available for purchase on the State University of New York (SUNY) Press at https://sunypress.edu/Books/S/Shaping-Students-of-Color-from-Preschool-to-Graduate-School.
The Michael D. Eisner College of Education is dedicated to preparing and inspiring educational leaders for student learning and access, while linking theory to best practice and support collaborative partnerships. The Educational Leadership Doctoral Degree (Ed. D.) Program cultivates a strong network of school and college administrators to create a positive change in teaching.
