The Promise of Hope: A Study of Educational Opportunities for Marginalized Students of Color

This study examines innovative practices that have been implemented in a summer session for an elementary school district in the Chicago area, and how program practices of a community college program work to provide academic support for first-generation, college-bound students from low-income households to encourage postsecondary educational attainment. Underlying these practices are empowering messages conveyed to the students, showing them ways to transform their academic and social lifeworlds. The messages intended for reading audiences are to advocate for and demonstrate praxis as the highest form of human activity having the power to affect change and ensure social justice as the condition of plurality. Significantly, we question “ready-made truths” through critical dialogue as a powerful force to explore the social, the political, and the personal.