At the Crossroads: Postsecondary Education Access Opportunities and Constraints for Rural Black Students

Abstract: This longitudinal qualitative study delves into the nuanced dynamics of postsecondary education access and choice for 23 rural Black students during their senior year of high school. Employing a multifaceted methodological approach encompassing interviews, visual data, and geospatial data, this research illuminates conditions that influence postsecondary education access and opportunity for rural Black youth. Results highlight how postsecondary education opportunity for rural Black students is shaped by local Black social networks, institutional contexts and climates, proximity to hometown, postsecondary education costs and affordability, as well as the intersecting forces of class, racial, and spatial inequities. This study also demonstrates how participants' meaning making of these conditions changed over time, thereby influencing their postsecondary education trajectories and decision-making processes. This research contributes insights into the shifting dynamics, meaning making, and forces that shape postsecondary education access for rural Black youth over time, providing implications for creating more equitable postsecondary education opportunities for rural Black youth.