Supporting Latinx Students in Hispanic-Serving Institutions: An Exploration of Faculty Perceptions and Actions

ABSTRACT

While acknowledged as vital to expanding educational opportunity for Latinx students, Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs) are also criticized for not adequately serving this population. Drawing on interviews with faculty at three HSIs, this study examines how faculty view Latinx students and their role in advancing these students’ learning, development, and success. Findings show that faculty perceptions of Latinx students coalesced around three broad areas, but interpretations varied, as did faculty’s actions in response.

KEYWORDS:

• Hispanic-serving institutions
• Faculty
• Post-secondary education
• Qualitative research

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank the research team who designed the case study, collected and transcribed the interview data, and conducted related analyses on the data that is the source for the analysis presented in this study, including Ifeoma Amah, Estela Mara Bensimon, Brianne Dávila, Alicia C. Dowd, Liliana Garces, Linda Taing Shieh, and Ricardo Stanton-Salazar. The author would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their feedback. All errors are mine.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹ All of the interviewees referred to Latinx students as “Hispanic.”

Additional information

Funding

The National Science Foundation (Grant No. 0653280) provided funding for this study to the Center for Urban Education at the Rossier School of Education, University of Southern California (Principal Investigator: Alicia C. Dowd; Co-Principal Investigator: Estela Mara Bensimon). Findings, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.