The power of positioning: the stories of National Hispanic Scholars' lives and their mothers' careful placement to enhance the likelihood of academic success

Established in 1983 by the College Board, the National Hispanic Recognition Program annually recognizes approximately 3,300 Hispanic students who scored the highest on the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT). These top-performing high school students are recruited by U.S. universities as National Hispanic Scholars with the offer of scholarships. Few studies have been conducted in the past 20 years about National Hispanic Scholars; and none have investigated the role of the scholars' parents in their children's academic success. The purpose of this study was to address the gap in the literature by providing a comprehensive view of the scholar-parent relationship across low-income and high-income categories. The focus was on exploring differences and similarities, according to income, between the scholar-parent relationships and the scholars' negotiation of scholarship achievement and their first-year university experience. The research question was "What are the experiences of low-income and high-income National Hispanic Scholars and the experiences of their parents from the students' childhood academic achievement through their early collegiate maturation?" Topical life history was the research methodology utilized to explore the students' academic progression. Eighteen interviews were conducted, including nine student-parent pairs. The students were asked to include the parent they felt was most influential in their decision to go to college; all students chose their mother. Interviews were conducted utilizing an interview protocol; however, participants were given opportunities to fully explain their responses. Drawing from the recorded and transcribed interviews, the researcher developed narratives for each scholar and analyzed data according to existing literature. Five thematic data categories--academic progression, racial identity, scholarship award, early collegiate maturation process, and matriarchal/ child relationship progression--were further analyzed between and across income groups. The study's major finding was that parents intentionally placed the scholars in schools or facilitated strategic circumstances that would ensure their children's academic success. Parental navigation of their children's academic activities--termed "positioning"--was present in the scholars' lives from their earliest years, and findings indicate the activity contributed to the students' becoming recipients of the National Hispanic Scholars award.