Chapter 7: Navigating Family Expectations in Post-Secondary Planning

School counselors not only serve the vital role of creating a college and career going culture within the school, but they also serve as educators for families and caregivers to guide and aid students’ transition to post-secondary options, which we refer to as the 3E’s (enrollment, enlistment, and employment). Researchers highlight that school counselors who cultivate the aspirations of young people can create a tangible college and career going culture not only within the school, but also within family units (George Mwangi et al., 2018). Families can serve as a dynamic resource to school counselors during this important adult life decision making process of postsecondary options. However, researchers have indicated potential barriers to parental involvement, including families feeling unwelcome in school, time constraints of working parents, and believing that their involvement was not a big deal to their children’s education based on teachers’ attitude (Hornby & Blackwell, 2018). There is also a continued growth of students from cultural, ethnic, and linguistic backgrounds and positive postsecondary transitioning plans can be more complex for school counselors and educators to address.Therefore, the importance of school counselors’ understanding of how the impact of familial cultural differences influences students’ success, opportunities, and planning for diverse populations is critical in postsecondary transitions.