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Shaping Students of Color from Preschool to Graduate School
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01 September 2025

Illuminates how family-student interactions enhance the educational achievement of students of color/first-generation academics and applies these lessons to institutional goals.
Shaping Students of Color from Preschool to Graduate School argues that family socialization and parent involvement in education influence paths to graduate school. Based on personal interviews with over thirty graduate students of color and first-generation graduate students, the text shows 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 spirituality; honoring familial and ancestral sacrifices; fostering individual agency and personal autonomy at a young age; resisting gendered and racialized norms; and managing relationships in both personal and professional settings. These stories lay the groundwork for developing an asset-based understanding of what graduate students of color and first-generation graduate students bring to campus. Institutionally, what we learn can continue to build on the unique experiences and strengths of graduate students and enhance connections between personal and familial backgrounds and inclusive educational programming.
"Shaping Students of Color from Preschool to Graduate School provides a comprehensive discussion on the role of family and the educational pathways from preschool to graduate school. The chapters are well organized to address critical nuances that influence student decision-making, academic success, and degree completion." — Pamela Felder-Small, President and Founder of Black Doctorates Matter and coeditor of Sankofa: African American Perspectives on Race and Culture in US Doctoral Education
"The positive, affirming nature of this work related to the roles of families in graduate student's long-term success is both important and very appealing. In addition, the work has the potential to be very useful in informing practice in graduate programs." — Don Haviland, coauthor of Shaping Your Career: A Guide for College Faculty
List of Tables
Acknowledgments
Preface
Introduction
1. Parenting Roles, Early Experiences in Families, and Resistance to Gender Norms for Children
2. Parental Relationship Quality: Physical and Relational Distance but Emotional Closeness from a Young Age to Adulthood for Children
3. Parental Values Extend Far for Children: The Importance of Education, Hard Work, Family Unity, Empathy, and Spirituality
4. Honoring Sacrifices that Parents Make to Get Children to College and Beyond: Education, Immigration, and Racial Discrimination
5. Familial Contexts and Parenting Shape Self-Reliance, Independence, and Resilience as Students: From Elementary to Postsecondary Education
6. Educational Connections in Precollege and College Years: Effects of Parents on College Choice, Transitions to College, and Experiences in College
7. Parenting Relationships While in Graduate School: Changing Roles, Conflicting Demands, and Remaining Connected Later in Life
8. Where Parents, Families, and More Fit into Academic Life and Student Outcomes
References
Index