Students’ Perceptions of Diversity at Two Hispanic-Serving Institutions Through Pictures: A Focus on Structures for Serving

Abstract


 
 
 Beyond the basic criteria to become a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI), which includes enrolling 25% Latinx students, the federal government has not established guidelines for better serving these students. Instead, educators at HSIs must submit applications for competitive federal grants that allow them to define and enact “servingness” in practice, which is a multidimensional way to think about how to educate and liberate minoritized students and with a need to transform the “structures for serving” them. In both research and practice, however, students at HSIs have not been given the opportunity to define servingness, or to even talk about what it means to be educated at a campus that is compositionally diverse. The purpose of this study was to explore how students at two HSIs in the Midwest perceive diversity through pictures, with a focus on the organizational structures that represent diversity. Using a photo elicitation methodology, which prompted students to take pictures of the structural elements on campus that represent diversity, and one-on-one interviews that allowed them to describe their pictures, students talked about diversity as reflected in art on campus, people on campus, and spaces on campus. Implications are offered for understanding servingess, and specifically the structures for serving, as perceived by students.
 
 

From Predominantly White to Hispanic-Serving: Latinx Student Experiences on a Campus in Transition

“…However, even amongst these students, ethnicity identity and cultural congruity were protective factors related to promoting more self-efficacy and less stress, suggesting they could play a role for the well-being of Latinx students at eHSIs. This interpretation underlines that institutional investment in multicultural centers, racial/ethnic affinity groups, and diverse representation in the built environment can help build a climate conducive to belonging at an HSI (García & Zaragoza, 2020). Importantly, for many students in this study, connecting with these spaces was challenging and took time.…”

“…Cultural incongruity heightens the importance of microclimates or homeplaces where students feel they can bring their full selves and find validation and support (Serrano, 2022). Culturally affirming spaces can be classrooms, co-curricular programs, and physical spaces (e.g., García & Zaragoza, 2020). Co-curricular programs and physical spaces were particularly salient for participants in finding support and connecting with resources and others like them.…”

“…This interpretation underlines that institutional investment in multicultural centers, racial/ethnic affinity groups, and diverse representation in the built environment can help build a climate conducive to belonging at an HSI (García & Zaragoza, 2020). Importantly, for many students in this study, connecting with these spaces was challenging and took time.…”

Further Contextualizing Racial Identity: Multiracial Students at Hispanic-Serving Institutions

“…In line with case study methodology, multiple forms of data were collected for the larger study including one-on-one interviews and focus groups with students and educators on campus, observations, and a photo elicitation project with students (Garcia & Zaragoza, 2020) to understand the "what" and the "how" of the phenomenon (Merriam, 2009;Stake, 2006;Yin, 2009). The core phenomenon we discuss in this article is how mixed-race students perceive their own identities and experiences reflected within an institution that is compositionally diverse.…”

Seeking to Serve or $erve? Hispanic-Serving Institutions’ Race-Evasive Pursuit of Racialized Funding

“…Considering these trends and the federal government's reluctance to define servingness beyond these enrollment criteria (Garcia & Koren, 2020), multiple scholars have questioned and helped define what "Hispanic-serving" or "servingness" means in theory and what it could or should mean in practice (e.g., Garcia, 2017Garcia, , 2019Garcia, & Okhidoi, 2015;Garcia & Zaragoza, 2020;Jones & Sáenz, 2020;Marin, 2019). Among such work, Garcia et al (2019) conducted a systematic analysis of the HSI literature "to conceptualize what 'servingness' means in relation to HSIs and Latinx students" (p. 746).…”