Browsing by Author "Szabo, Julia Colleen Campbell"

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    Finding La Raza in the Suburbs: Race, Place, and Schooling in a Latino-majority Suburb
    (2024-07-16) Szabo, Julia Colleen Campbell; Lopez Turley, Ruth; Rhodes, Anna
    As American suburbs become increasingly diverse, a growing share of Latino families call them home. In 2020, 61% of Latinos living in major metropolitan areas lived in the suburbs, including ethnic suburbs or ethnoburbs that are majority Latino. Latino-majority suburbs upend assumptions about race, class, and nativity in suburbia, offering a strategic case to explore the residential selection and suburban schooling experiences of families in this new iteration of a contemporary suburb. This dissertation examines these dynamics in a Latino-majority suburb and school district in Houston, Texas, which I call Arroyo. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 70 parents and 40 educators in district middle schools, I examine why families and educators came to live and teach in Arroyo and their schooling experiences and schooling decisions once there. I find that family, co-ethnicity, and schools were important factors drawing families to Arroyo but that the bundle of factors and perceived benefits of co-ethnicity varied by immigrant generation and race. Additionally, I demonstrate that educators’ narratives of district choice and narratives of Latino students and families varied by educator race, as Latino and white educators drew on distinct lived experiences in Arroyo and closeness to the Latino community. These varied narratives were consequential because they informed educators’ classroom and family engagement practices, leading some to adopt practices that affirm and include Latino families, and others, practices that blame and exclude them. Finally, I illustrate that school dissatisfaction led some families to exit the school district, given unresolved challenges related to bullying, safety, and academics in district middle schools. However, mobility was a poor proxy for dissatisfaction in the sample broadly, as some dissatisfied families chose to stay despite facing similar challenges, and other satisfied families left the district in response to new opportunities and constraints. This research contributes to our understanding of the residential selection and schooling experiences within Latino-majority suburbs, pointing to their perceived protective promise for Latino families and the challenge of living up to this promise in racially changed suburban schools.