Community Cultural Wealth and Critical Race Feminist Perspective of South Asian American Women's Persistence in Higher Education

The purpose of this ethnographic study was to explore how the community cultural wealth experiences of South Asian American women help or hinder their persistence through higher education. Although there is current literature regarding Asian Americans in higher education, there is not a strong foundation in the experiences of South Asian Americans, especially South Asian American women. The theoretical frameworks that were used to guide this study were community cultural wealth and critical race feminism. Ten semi-structured interviews were conducted to identify similar themes identified by South Asian American women regarding their persistence experiences. The interviews were conducted at a minority serving four-year public institution in southern California. The goal of the study was to help fill the gap in the literature regarding South Asian students in higher education along with providing recommendations for policy and practice. The main community cultural wealth capitals mentioned by these women were familial as well as aspirational, but these women used their own drives to persist in their educational journeys. They all felt that their own motivations were the strongest components in their education. At the end, many of them mentioned that there was additional factor that helped them to continue in their education: the desire to not get married. Although this was not mentioned as a significant point for all of the women, it did come up enough to be considered significant for this study. The fact that these women were using their education as a means to avoid getting married and settling down was a factor in retention that has not been discussed in literature. The recommendations for this study focused on discussions that came up in the interview as well as prospects for further research. The women interviewed all discussed a lack of "role models" in their everyday lives on campus. They felt that they did not have the best exposure to other South Asian American women not just in their classes, but in their specific majors. Even though all of the women were in STEM related fields, they did not feel fully supported because they did not find that anyone would be able to fully understand what they were going through on a daily basis. The institutional recommendations made by these women focused on the possibility of offering more courses related to South Asians in general and possibly a larger more noticeable presence in the administrative positions.