Social capital research has demonstrated the value of relationships and networks to enhance college opportunity for first-generation students. While most work has focused on individual students and their ties, high schools play a critical role in social capital processes by connecting students to external college access organizations and resources. This case study employs Mario Small’s organizational brokerage theory to investigate social capital formation among college-bound first-generation youth in an urban high school. Specifically, we explore how the school itself brokered college-going resources through its partner organizations. Findings illustrate a range of passive and active brokerage strategies that influenced the quantity and quality of available resources, and in turn, the amount of student agency required to secure social capital gains.
This article describes how the qualitative research tradition known as positionality can be used as a method to support classroom equity. The text describes three ways teachers can use a spoken approach to positionality in their day-to-day practice. Classroom vignettes illuminate how these spoken methods of positionality can address the latency of power and privilege in 21st-century teaching and learning contexts. The didactic use of positionality to stimulate the kind of reflective student discussions associated with culturally responsive educational reform is also evidenced. Conceptual consideration of positionality methods to support classroom inclusivity for students with disabilities is suggested.
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