The Remnants of Colonial Difference in the Post-secondary Experience of Chicana/os Latina/os

Abstract

The development of a Eurocentric ideology in the Americas is best described by Edward Said’s discussion on power in Orientalism and Walter D. Mignolo’s discussion on the production of knowledge in The Idea of Latin America. Due to the prevalence of an ethnocentric ideology in America, our education system has relied on this deficit model to influence how Chicana/os and Latina/os are viewed in institutions of higher education. The deficit model focuses on students’ inabilities rather than their abilities and as a result scholars have developed retention models that reflect this ethnocentric view. Vincent Tinto’s highly acclaimed model on student departure rests largely on the idea that the student is the primary, if not the only actor in the pursuit of an undergraduate degree, and therefore, he/she must fully integrate into the college environment in order to succeed academically. This paper focuses on the possible effects that assimilation into the college environment can have on the Chicana/o and Latina/o student. Given the projected growth of the Chicana/o and Latina/o population, the process of separating the Chicana/o and Latina/o student from important resources and knowledge provided by the home, family and community may result in the loss of important social capital that will be key in meeting future United States societal and economical needs .