This chapter – scaffolded by an interpretive, constructivist qualitative study design supported by liminality and intersectionality theory – shares the voices of nine undergraduate FGCS women of immigrant origin enrolled at a large, 4-year, public institution in the Mid-Atlantic. Our work was guided by the following research question: “How, if at all, do first-generation college student women of immigrant origin perceive the role of gender in their experiences on- and off-campus?” Analysis of multiple interviews with and among participants as well as analysis of participant journal reflections support findings that speak to the students’ perceptions of (1) how familial expectations and country/ies of origin values related to gender roles; (2) how race, immigration status, and language further complicated students’ perceptions of immigrant-origin identities; and (3) how serving in familial roles fostered gratitude, resilience, and transformation.

Drawing upon interview data from a yearlong study with fourteen children of Latinx immigrants applying to college, I explore how students’ visions of their futures shape their college decision-making processes. I utilize possible selves theory as a guiding framework, which speaks to how people imagine who they may become in the future and can guide their actions (Markus & Nurius, 1986). I explore the following research questions: (1) how do children of Latinx immigrants conceive of their possible futures, both within higher education and beyond?, (2) what is the connection between student and familial pasts in the conceptualization of educational futures, and (3) how do students’ conceptualizations of the future shape their higher education decision-making? What I find is that students think about various possible versions of themselves simultaneously in their decision-making. This chapter contributes to current research on college choice/decision-making, the application of possible selves theory to postsecondary education, and increased insight on the role of immigrant origins in the construction of higher education aspirations among the children of Latinx immigrants.

This chapter shows how a hierarchical organization and a dominant faction were crucial prerequisites for the strategy of instrumentalism. The union’s hierarchical structure enabled it to mobilize teachers in elections and a dominant faction enabled negotiations with political parties from across the ideological spectrum. The last section analyzes the political backlash against instrumentalism in 2013, which resulted in leadership turnover and policy changes that weakened the union overall. Despite this backlash, however, the union’s internal organization remained largely intact and union leaders continue to be ideologically flexible, in line with the main argument in this book.

College access does not begin or end with an acceptance letter; it continues throughout students’ college experiences, especially for first-generation, working-class Latinx students who are experiencing many college milestones for the first time. It is predicted by scholars that the rapid growth of the Latinx population will make them a large college applicant pool in the near future. These predictions show that retention efforts for Latinx students are an important investment for institutions of higher education. However, support for Latinx first-generation, working-class college students is often lacking at universities. In this conceptual chapter, we center on first-generation, working-class Latinx students of immigrant origin and the identity intersections experienced by individual students to equip administrators, academic advisors, and university data analysts with the knowledge to improve Latinx student success efforts through an overview of (1) academic advising, (2) data analytics, (3) social class, and (4) theories and frameworks related to the identity intersections of Latinx students.

This chapter provides an overview of the book. It presents the outcome of interest: the political strategies of teachers or the different ways that teachers mobilize in politics. These strategies are referred to as instrumentalism (strategic alliances), movementism (recurrent protests), and leftism (alliances with left parties). The chapter explains the significance of these strategies in relation to the labor movement and education politics, and it introduces the main argument. This chapter shows that examining the ways in which teachers mobilize in politics helps to shed light on normative questions about how they shape education policy and democratic governance.

Immigrant college students represent a diverse population across the United States. In this chapter, Michelle Leao and Stephen John Quaye engage in a quest to use our own immigrant stories to enrich the larger narrative of immigrant college students in the United States. We utilized a duoethnography to capture our higher education experiences through our undergraduate and graduate experiences. From our conversations, we focus on four themes: studying people around us, assimilating and fitting in, using our accent and language, and developing our immigrant identities. With those themes in mind, we close by offering recommendations for policy and practice to support immigrant college students.

This chapter explores the legislative history of immigration and higher education, shedding light on the challenges faced by undocumented students in the US education system. Using findings from a qualitative study with undocumented students who left higher education, the chapter examines the barriers faced by students that affected their decisions to leave higher education, including financial need, imposter syndrome, and disclosure of identity. It also looks at the impact of interactions with peers, family pressure, and changing campus resources on student persistence. This chapter offers recommendations for support and retention of these students, including guidance during the transition from high school, advising, fostering a sense of community, and direct support services.

This chapter shows how factional divisions in FECODE shaped electoral mobilization and ideological rigidity. It links the repertoire of leftism to competition among rival factions in internal union elections. Contrary to the Argentine tendency toward ongoing and disruptive protests, protests by FECODE were easier for the government to manage owing to the political priorities of union factions. The next section shows how factionalism and ideological rigidity produced rival negotiating strategies that limited the influence of union leaders on the policy process. The final section shows that leftism remained the central tendency of political mobilization for the union throughout the 2010s.

This chapter puts forth an argument for the use of appreciative advising (Bloom et al., 2008) as a means of building vital relationships with students of immigrant origin and a potential framework to increase retention of this student population. This versatile framework is relationally oriented to foster micro-climates in which students can identify their goals and ambitions while also envisioning the path to achieve these goals. To successfully employ appreciative advising, it is critical to shift focus toward privileging these students’ experiences and diverse knowledges. Anderson et al. (2019) referred to this as exercising cultural curiosity and cultural humility, actions which disrupt power while creating openness and investment in students (particularly those on the margins). By combining these concepts with a funds of knowledge approach, which builds on immigrant students’ communal resources, knowledges, and experiences, collaboration between advisers and immigrant students can lead to developing dialogic spaces where appreciative advising can be actualized (Anderson et al., 2019; Witenstein et al., 2022).

This chapter argues that the organizational structure of the Argentine teachers’ confederation (CTERA), with power rooted in provincial and municipal actors, is crucial for explaining why teachers engaged in ongoing protests. It examines the process of union rebuilding in the wake of democratization, after harsh repression during the military regime. Even if newly elected leaders offered little support to the union because of the debt crisis, union leaders made some progress in consolidating CTERA through their own initiatives. The chapter then turns to decentralization under President Carlos Menem as a point of inflection. This undermined national union leaders, weakening their hold on the base. Once organizational hierarchies were weakened, movementism became the union’s political strategy.