Parental involvement in college planning: Cultural considerations when working with African American families

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this article was to describe Hossler and Gallagher’s (1987) college choice model and emphasize the predisposition phase of the model as the starting point for school counselors’ efforts to help African American parents foster their children’s college planning in the college choice process.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors wrote this manuscript as a conceptual approach to helping school counselors work with African American parents in their children’s college planning process by including two case studies as examples.

Findings

This is a conceptual article.

Practical implications

School counselors should be culturally competent and aware of how African Americans rear their children to help them successfully navigate college planning. For example, school counselors can learn about and share information with families about colleges that have support programs assisting African American students toward college completion.

Originality/value

This paper is important to the field of education as it contributes to the literature regarding how school counselors can assist students in becoming college and career ready by working with their parents using a college choice model.

Citation

M. Hines, E., DiAnne Borders, L., M. Gonzalez, L., Villalba, J. and Henderson, A. (2014), "Parental involvement in college planning: Cultural considerations when working with African American families", Journal for Multicultural Education, Vol. 8 No. 4, pp. 249-260. https://doi.org/10.1108/JME-06-2014-0025