ERIC Number: EJ1463299
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025
Pages: 17
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0897-5264
EISSN: EISSN-1543-3382
Available Date: 0000-00-00
"It's Not about Blood, It's about Who Shows up for Me": Black College-Going Foster Youth Disrupting Family Privilege and Creating Chosen Family Networks
Kenyon Lee Whitman; Kizzy Lopez
Journal of College Student Development, v66 n1 p1-16 2025
Utilizing narrative inquiry, this study collected individual interviews to understand how nine Black students who experienced the carceral nexus of foster care navigated college. Utilizing BlackCrit and Community Cultural Wealth as a theoretical framework, findings show how the foster care system was dehumanizing and stripped students of their family privilege. Findings also show how the students resisted the foster care system by (re)defining family in their own way by creating chosen family. Lastly, findings show the unique ways their chosen families provided the love, care, and capital needed to thrive in college, they leaned on their chosen family as support throughout their college experiences. Implications focus on the ways in which family privilege operates in higher education and how it disadvantages Black foster youth. Recommendations focus on creating more inclusive and equitable spaces for Black students with foster care histories.
Descriptors: African American Students, College Students, Foster Care, Family Relationship, Social Networks, Social Support Groups, Disadvantaged Youth, Student Experience, Cultural Capital
Johns Hopkins University Press. 2715 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218. Tel: 800-548-1784; Tel: 410-516-6987; Fax: 410-516-6968; e-mail: jlorder@jhupress.jhu.edu; Web site: https://www.press.jhu.edu/journals/list
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A