INTRO
On March 10th, UndocuScholars LLC got to lead a breakout session for the 7th annual Keeping the Dream Alive Conference. Our session called for early college-engagement interventions especially at the high school level. But to do that, we first contextualized the issue of Culturo-Institutional Barriers.
CULTURO-INSTITUTIONAL BARRIERS
Through anthropology, we understand that our community’s culture is partly shaped by the environments we inhabit. But what happens when some environments are more than physical? How do communities culturally adapt to environments that are themselves cultural concepts like ‘government,’ ‘employment,’ and ‘school’?
At UndocuScholars LLC, we currently use the term Culturo-Institutional Relationships to help ourselves discuss the cycle where communities create cultural strategies to navigate systems and the way institutions then adapt or maladapt to these “community behaviors”. Within this cycle, conflicts can arise as Culturo-Institutional Barriers, which we define like this:
The liminal moments where strict cultural norma meet strict institutional processes and create community dissonance.
FOR EXAMPLE
A common Cultural Survival Strategy encountered by educators serving undocumented students is Nondisclosure. We have decades of community wisdom proving that maintaining our status secret is safer for our well-being. If people do not know our status, it cannot be used to threaten us with family separation. If people do not know our status, we can tap into more extensive social networks regardless of their political stance on immigration. Keeping our status hidden keeps our parents’ jobs safe, and therefore, it keeps the livelihood of our families safe. And yet…
The state mandates disclosure of status as an unavoidable requirement to access In-State Tuition, the most basic form of institutional equity.
In this single example we can see how a historic victory for institutional equity can still clash with a survival strategy that is passed on through community wisdom (and childhood horror stories). What is a student to do when given the choice between access to college and disclosure of status? Some disclose to take the first step into college enrollment, and some don’t. This is what we mean by Culturo-Institutional Barriers, which is why we work to heal the relationship between institutions and the undocumented communities they serve.
CULTURO-INSTITUTIONAL INTERVENTIONS
Nondisclosure is only one example of the many Culturo-Institutional Barriers that hinder engagement with education. Families affected by an undocumented status have to parse through misinformation and active disinformation that warns them against engaging with resources made for them. At its core, our program works to bridge the gap between institution and community. For educators, we contextualize the cultural reasons that drive disengagement and offer Culturo-Institutional strategies to mitigate them. For families, we contextualize current and outdated legal jargon that pertains to higher education, how it impacts their status, if at all, and offer strategies to engage with retention services safely.
POTENTIALITY
The instances in time we described, where cultural norm and institutional process meet in conflict, have the potential for transformative change. They bring into focus miscommunications beyond the individual and allows us to wonder, “what would it take to help us work better?” What would it take for families to disclose their status so they can tap into services and resources made for them? A safer campus they can trust to guide them accurately. And what does it take to become that college or high school campus? A bit of work.
