The Emotional Response of Students of Color to Hostile Postsecondary Racial Environments and the Need for Assessment

• In Event: Race and Contemporary Contexts

Abstract

Scant attention has been paid to emotionality within the postsecondary literature. Critical higher education research touches upon the emotional experiences of Students of Color without utilizing what is known about emotionality from other fields (e.g., neuropsychology and ethnic studies). Therefore, I assert the need for more nuanced investigations of the affective processes of Students of Color within postsecondary research. The proposed review will serve to highlight the ways higher education scholarship and assessment have integrated emotionality in the past while reviewing contemporary interdisciplinary research surrounding affective processes. Lastly, I will outline a future research and assessment agenda in an attempt to address present literary and assessment gaps needed to improve future postsecondary persistence rates for Students of Color.

Author

• Misty Dawn Sawatzky, University of Southern California