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Abstract
What challenges do political science educators face teaching in the Hispanic-serving classroom? How do they adapt their teaching styles and strategies when confronting these challenges? This preliminary study explores these and related questions through a survey conducted of political science instructors at colleges and universities across Texas. The answers to these questions are important for both pedagogical and policy reasons. There is a growing body of literature focused on the scholarship of teaching and learning in political science to which this study contributes.Footnote 1 In addition, findings from this research may help to develop policy recommendations in the area of Hispanic and minority education. Many have predicted a sharp increase in the number of Hispanics attending postsecondary schools. In addition, education researchers have argued that our educational institutions have failed the minority communities (Justiz, Wilson, and Bjork Citation1994). In this article, we provide a brief overview of the state of the demographics of Hispanic education, a summary of past research, a description of the survey instrument, and an analysis of the findings. We conclude with some avenues for further research.
Notes
∗∗The difference in means between the HSI faculty and faculty from the control groups is statistically significant at the .01 level.
∗The difference in means between the HSI faculty and faculty from the control groups is statistically significant at the .05 level.
∗∗The difference in means between the HSI faculty and faculty from the control groups is statistically significant at the .01 level.
∗The difference in means between the HSI faculty and faculty from the control groups is statistically significant at the .05 level.
∗∗The difference in means between the HSI faculty and faculty from the control groups is statistically significant at the .01 level.
∗The difference in means between the HSI faculty and faculty from the control groups is statistically significant at the .05 level.
∗∗The difference in means between the HSI faculty and faculty from the control groups is statistically significant at the .01 level.
∗The difference in means between the HSI faculty and faculty from the control groups is statistically significant at the .05 level.
The authors would like to thank Wallace D. Johnson of South Texas College for his help on the first draft, which relied on a limited survey conducted in 2003. The authors also thank Angela M. Brown of Western Kentucky University for her research assistance.
For definitions of the “scholarship of teaching and learning” and an annotated bibliography of this literature, please see (Hutchings, Bjork, and Babb Citation2002).
South Texas Community College (STCC, now a college- STC) was created in 1993 by legislative act. It is the only community college in Texas created by the State Legislature. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, the four Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in the United States with the highest percentage of Hispanics are in South and Southwest Texas. They are the MSAs for: Laredo (94.3%), McAllen-Edinburg- Mission (88.3%), Brownsville-Harlingen-San Benito (84.3%), and El Paso (78.2%). STCC serves the McAllen-Edinburg- Mission MSA. The other institutions of higher learning serving the other MSAs on this list are also part of this study. Note: South Texas Community College has become a four-year institution and renamed South Texas College.
The survey was sent to 92 universities and colleges.
This is an arbitrary cutoff that differs from the HACU's definition of HIS. For HACU's membership purposes, Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) are defined as “colleges, universities, or systems/districts where total Hispanic enrollment constitutes a minimum of 25% of the total enrollment.” Definition is from http://www.hacu.net/hacu/HSI_Definition_EN.asp?SnID=1773988048. HSI institutions represented in the survey include the following: San Antonio College, UT San Antonio, University of St. Thomas, Odessa College, St. Mary's University, University of Texas Pan American, Northwest Vista, UT El Paso, Our Lady of the Lake, UT Brownsville, Del Mar College, Texas A&M International, Texas A&M Corpus Christi, and South Texas College.
We adapted US News and World Report's listing of “national universities” to include these prominent universities that have a national presence and are different than Texas' regional and or comprehensive baccalaureate-granting institutions. Seven universities (Rice, UT-Austin, Texas A&M, SMU, Baylor, TCU, Texas Tech) are ncluded in this grouping.