Networks of Transformative Resistance: How Community College Educators Support Students with an Undocumented Status

Abstract

Students with an undocumented or DACA status continue to fight for access to higher education across the U.S. Their struggle is particularly courageous in Arizona, where these student populations are forced to pay nonresident tuition and subjected to laws that separate, detain, and deport immigrants with an undocumented status. Student Services Professionals (SSPs) at community colleges, where most students with an undocumented status attend, can support or block these student populations from accessing college because of their roles in recruitment, orientation, and retention. In contrast to literature that centers educators’ individual work to support students with an undocumented or DACA status, I seek to understand how community college SSPs use social networks to support these student populations in Arizona. I conducted a qualitative case study design that centered SSPs’ social networks. I grounded my methodological approach in Social Network Analysis (SNA) which helped visualize individuals and strength of relations in SSPs’ networks. I used the Critical Agency Network Model (Kiyama, Lee, & Rhoades, 2012) and concept of transformational resistance (Solórzano & Delgado Bernal, 2001) in the conceptual framework that guided my research. My findings indicate that to be in a network which supports students with an undocumented or DACA status, network actors must show visible and explicit support for the students. Networks are built among actors who have strong ties based on trust and a shared resistance to policies harming these student populations. Networks, especially with actors external to the college, offered places of support, care, and knowledge sharing for SSPs. The more SSPs were engaged in transformative resistance efforts in their networks, the lower they perceived their personal risk in supporting students with an undocumented or DACA status.