“That’s Not Going to Happen to Me”: Racialized Doubt, Gendered Expectations, and Latina Students’ Postsecondary Pathways

Latina students’ postsecondary pathways begin to take shape well before the college application process. Drawing on in-depth interviews with seven Latina high school seniors in Northern California, this study examines how racialized doubt, gendered expectations, and uneven institutional support inform academic identity formation and postsecondary planning.Participants described lowered expectations, benevolent sexism, surveillance, and limited access to college advising as everyday features of schooling that communicated who was seen as “college material.” These cumulative experiences produced uncertainty about belonging while also motivating students to seek alternative pathways toward higher education. Using Yosso’s Community Cultural Wealth framework, this study shows how aspirational, navigational, and resistant capital operated relationally as students sustained educational visions, sought information beyond school structures, and developed critical awareness of the inequalities shaping their opportunities. Participants’ strategies often emerged in response to institutional gaps in counseling and validation. Rather than framing persistence as individual resilience alone, the findings highlight how community-based knowledge and relational commitments supported students’ efforts to pursue postsecondary goals in contexts of uneven institutional care.