Resources for Resistance: The Role of Dominant and Nondominant Forms of Cultural Capital in Resistance among Young Women of Color in a Predominantly White Public High School

Abstract

This case study explores the ways in which black and Latino women who graduated from a predominantly white, elite public high school in the Northeastern United States engaged in varied acts of resistance while students there, both within the classroom and within the larger community. The women accessed the high school through one of the three ways: as town residents, as commuters, or as boarders through two distinct voluntary racial desegregation programs. Through in-depth interviews with 37 women, two overriding trends appear in the data – a form of “resistance for liberation” or “political resistance” in which women push against stereotypes, introduce new programming, and work to reform policies and curriculum, and a smaller strain of “resistance for survival” in which women actively utilize stereotypes. Women with greater amounts of both dominant and nondominant forms of cultural capital are more likely to engage in “political resistance,” while women with lesser amounts of dominant cultural capital show more evidence of “resistance for survival.” Variation exists by point of entry into the system, with town residents showing the lowest levels of either form of resistance.

Citation

Bueker, C.S. (2017), "Resources for Resistance: The Role of Dominant and Nondominant Forms of Cultural Capital in Resistance among Young Women of Color in a Predominantly White Public High School", The Power of Resistance (Advances in Education in Diverse Communities, Vol. 12), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 311-337. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-358X20140000012015