| Abstract: | Abstract: The author draws from select topical life histories conductedwith individuals who enrolled in doctoral programs at UC Berkeleyduring a ten-year period beginning with 1968. She examines themyths surrounding academic achievement for people of Mexicandescent and how these myths affected her initial interpretationof their childhood stories about their parents' relationshipto their achievements. She considers the interpretation of thesenarratives from the perspectives of various schools of thoughtand argues that the issue of educational achievement by minoritygroups is subject to a "politics of exceptionality." Hence,high academic achievement is not considered normative, and studentswho do achieve are treated as exceptions, not only to the presumedmeritocracy, but as exceptions to their racial/ethnic group.By individualizing their achievements and focusing on theircharacteristics as individuals, the focus of social policieswith respect to educational attainment remains focused on theindividual achiever and not on the institutional processes andstructural opportunities that maximize the possibilities forachievement. |
