A Social Capital Framework for the Study of Institutional Agents & Their Role in the Empowerment of...

8/3/2019 A Social Capital Framework for the Study of Institutional Agents & Their Role in the Empowerment of Students & Youth from Oppressed Communities

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A Social Capital Framework for the Study

of Institutional Agents & Their Role in the

Empowerment of Students/Youth

Ricardo D. Stantn-Salazar

May 25, 2010

Center for Urban Education

USC

UCLA, Prof. D. Solrzano


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Institutional Agents

1997, A Social Capital Framework for Understanding TheSocialization of Racial Minority Children and Youths."

Harvard Educational Review, 67, 1.


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Intellectual Agenda (I)

How can the tools of social networkanalysis, combined with theories ofsocial

capitaland class reproduction,

1) inform our understanding of how class, race,

ethnicity, & gender

the social mobility and educationalexperiences of working-class, minority youth


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Intellectual Agenda (II)

2) those countervailing processesthat enable

some working-class youth and students toexperience success within the school system

and social mobility...

college degreepolitically-progressive professional class


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Intellectual Agenda (III)

How can the tools of social network analysis,

combined with theories ofsocial capital,inform how we can programmatically

intervene in the lives of working-class

minority students.?


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Purpose of Manuscript/Essay

1) To elaborate the concept ofinstitutionalagentsthose individuals, well positionedin

schools, universities, and in other institutionsand organizations, who have the capacity and

commitment to provide youth/students with:

valued resources and opportunities (linked toschool success and social mobility) &

with connections to other key andresourceful agents and networks


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Instuonal Agent(Lin, 2001)

1) position in social hierarchy of aninstitutionaccess to resources attached tothat position (e.g., school principal, Dean of

School of Ed): positional resources \\

2) personal resources individuals with highdegree ofhuman, cultural, &social capital

Resources & institutional support can eitherbe positional or personal


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The Structure & Resourcefulness of an

Institutional Agents Network

IA/EAs have access to 2

kinds of resources:

positional resources personal resources


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Positional Resources


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Social Capital = Institutional Support,

embedded in social relations with IAs

Forms of Institutional Support Institutional Agent: Roles

Transmission of Key Knowledge Agent

Funds of Knowledge

Network Development Networking Coach

Evaluation, Advice & Guidance Advisor

Bridging Bridging Agent

Institutional Brokering Institutional Broker(an amplification of bridging agent)

Coordinating Coordinator(an amplification of institutional broker)

Guided Cultural Exposure Cultural Guide


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Social Capital = Institutional Support,

embedded in social relations with IAs

Forms of Institutional Support Institutional Agent: Roles

Transmission of Key Knowledge Agent

Funds of Knowledge

Network Development Networking Coach

Evaluation, Advice & Guidance Advisor

Bridging Bridging Agent

Institutional Brokering Institutional Broker(an amplification of bridging agent)

Coordinating Coordinator(an amplification of institutional broker)

Guided Cultural Exposure Cultural Guide


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Resource

Agentpositional

resources

Resource

Agent

personal

resources

Knowledge

Agent

Bridging

Agent

Networking

Coach

Institutional

Broker

Advisor

Coordinator

AdvocateCulturalGuide

Integrative

Agent

Institutional Agent:

Enactment of Multiple (often sim) Roles

Agent invites astudent to attend aprofessionalconference.

Networking

Coach

Cultural

Guide

Integrative

Agent


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Multi-stranded& Multiplex Relationships

High School Calculus Teacher

Knowledge Agent

Networking Coach

Advisor

Institutional Broker

Coordinator(an amplification ofinstitutional broker)

Guided Cultural Exposure


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Purpose of Manuscript/Essay (2010)

2) Agenda: To extend, in theoretical terms, my

definition of institutional agent

[Kinds of IAs, class analysisunderstandingclass inequality]

Institutional Agent: (Upper middle-class, middle-class) Gate-keepers: (Settings diversified by class and race) Institutional Agent vs.Empowerment Agent:

(working-class students and youth)


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Institutional Agents:

Along the Class Hierarchy

Social Reproduction:

.upper strata:

IAsidentified as those

societal actors who act to

maintain the advantages

of other actors and

groups who share similar

attributes, high-statuspositions and social

backgrounds


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Gate-keeping agents

Agents are oriented toward

rendering services and

providing institutional

support to thoseprivileged by class or

race, to those who exhibit

cultural capital,and to

those who demonstrate

institutionalized symbols

of merit and ability


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Urban educators, fulfill their potential as an institutional agent

when they 1) provide institutional support to low-status

students, 2) enact the many roles subsumed under the concept of

IA


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Resource

Agent

positional

resources

Resource

Agent

personal

resources

Knowledge

Agent

Bridging

Agent

Networking

Coach

Institutional

Broker

Advisor

Coordinator

AdvocateCulturalGuide

Integrative

Agent

Empowerment Agent

Agent serves on a campus

committee looking atstudent success. Theyidentify resources thatwould improve Latina andLatino student success.

Coordinator

Empowerment

Agent

Institutional

Broker

When the institutional agent acts

with a critical consciousness, theybecome an empowerment agent;

they question the system, envision

an alternate system, and enable

students to do the same.


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The Motivational and Ideological

Characteristics of anEmpowerment Agent

1) awareness of social structural forces2) critical awareness that the success dependent upon

institutional support

3) willingness to notact on the established rules ofsocial structure (e.g., recognizes the cultural resources of his/her students)

4) Self-identification as one of those agents responsiblefor advocating for low-status students

5) willingness to be identified by the larger communityas an advocate

6) critical consciousness (Freire)


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Organizational Settings/Cultures Oriented

Toward Counter-stratification andAuthentic Empowerment

Empowerment Theory: critical social work(Gutierrez & Lewis, 1999)

Empowerment defined: as the active participatory

process ofgaining resources, competencies, and key

forms ofpowernecessary for gaining control over

ones life and accomplishing important life goals(Maton & Salem, 1995).


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P-o-w-e-r

Power: includes ability to criticallyinterrogate [societal, organizational]social structures:

bureaucratic/institutional policies, rules, procedures andnormative practices, codes, regulations, and laws,--

and

--operate in ways that exclude, discriminate, or

disempowermembers of a group or class;

Power: ability/resources to change thesestructures


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Moving from institutional agent to

empowerment agent1) Social capital = institutional support via IAs

2) Enabling the [young] individual to develop a criticalconsciousness and asociological discourse (Freire)

.for interrogating and contesting different forms ofoppression rooted in society [history], .deep structuresthat govern institutions:

school, university educational systems

Local to national governmental bodies the juvenile justice system (Ianni, 1989).


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empowerment agents


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empowerment

awareness of resources necessary to navigatethe system

transforming social network into socialsupport systempolitical and networking skill-set entering

into different kinds of relationships

developing effective coping strategies Ability to interrogate the sociopolitical

contextenvisioning social change


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Positive & Enlightened

Network Orientaon [consciousness]:

empowering another

can be accomplished

indirectly, through

actors and resources

embedded in their

own social networks;

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