Alternative Title

Lift As We Climb - Pláticas On Being, Willing, And Making Space In Architecture

Subject Area

Architecture, Education

Abstract

As women have become the majority of those enrolled in college and in architecture programs in the U.S., there is a stark underrepresentation of first-generation Latinas in higher education in architecture. While they enroll, they do not complete architecture degrees at a pace needed for parity in the field. They account for ~7% of students enrolled in architecture programs, 5% of graduates, and less than 2% of licensed architects in the U.S. (FirstGen Forward/ NASPA, 2024; NCARB, 2024; US Census Bureau, 2022). Representation increases at the entry point, yet it narrows at every stage of the pipeline towards and in professional practice. This qualitative study examined the lived experiences of nine first-generation Latina graduates in architecture to understand how identity, cultural wealth, and belonging shaped persistence. Grounded in a conceptual framework integrating Borderlands/Social Cognitive Career theories and Community Cultural Wealth, this asset-based study foregrounded success, in-betweenness, and self-transformation.

Data were collected via pláticas, a culturally rooted method emphasizing researcher-participant knowledge co-creation, with a thematic analysis via a priori and in vivo coding. Findings suggest that persistence in architecture was shaped by intersecting and conflicting forces, including early marginalization, limited institutional support, strong peer solidarity, and delayed yet impactful faculty mentorship; belonging and self-efficacy evolved as processes and outcomes. Being a first-generation architect emerged as the most salient identity marker, while aspirational and resistance capitals functioned as survival and empowerment strategies. Persistence was an embodied, relational travesía experience. The participants’ endurance, “fortaleza con decisión,” was sustained through an unwavering sense of obligation to succeed and familial/community support—yet at a significant emotional cost—with participants reporting anxiety and depression. Familial and emotional labor emerged as design capital, informing empathy and commitments to human-centered/socially just design practices. Developing a strong sense of belonging emerged as the central mechanism through which participants developed their self-efficacy and ultimately their persistence as first-generation graduates in architecture.

This study contributes to architectural education scholarship by centering first-generation Latina voices as knowledge holders, extending Community Cultural Wealth to design contexts, conceptualizing familial and emotional labor as design capital, and offers a conceptual framework of the first-generation architect. Recommendations call for practice and policy changes, including early retention and mentorship, culturally responsive pedagogy, self-efficacy interventions, faculty professional development, reexamination of studio culture, and the creation of learning environments in which belonging is sustained through care and shared institutional responsibility.

Degree Date

Spring 2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ed.D.

Department

Education Policy & Leadership

Advisor

Allison Kanny

Second Advisor

Meredith Richards

Third Advisor

Emily Klement

Number of Pages

240

Format

.pdf

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Download

Available for download on Tuesday, April 13, 2027

Share

COinS