A Cultural Communication Perspective on Hispanic Students’ College Experiences

ABSTRACT

Guided by the theoretical assumption that college life is a culturally situated, symbolic process of interaction between students and various others, this qualitative study attempts to explore how minority students’ home culture, which is different from the dominant college culture, helps them make sense of their college experiences. The respondent interviewing method was used to obtain Hispanic students’ responses to questions that allow them to share their experiences, which were centered around student-professor interactions. A total of 112 Hispanic college students from a comprehensive university in South Texas participated in the study. Results confirmed the significance of examining minority students’ college experiences in light of their home culture as they indicated that student experiences were strongly influenced by their Hispanic cultural values. In this study, suggestions for improving Hispanic college experiences are provided.

KEYWORDS:

• Cultural communication
• college life
• Hispanic culture
• minority students
• qualitative research

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ The population of Hispanic 18–24-year-olds has grown from 1.3 million in 1972 to 6.0 million in 2011, a nearly five-fold growth, and the high school completion rate for Hispanics has increased from 52% in 1972 to 76.3% in 2011 (Fry & Lopez, 2012)

² We must be prudent not to stereotype all minority and/or white students in terms of the college adjustment experience. Generally speaking, minority students might experience more difficulty due to their family cultural background being different from the dominant school culture. However, for some this may not be true. Similarly, some white students may also experience difficulty of adjustment.