The Impact of COVID-19 for Latino Boys and Men Throughout the Educational Pipeline

• In Event: The COVID-19 Pandemic: Implications for Male Students of Color in Higher Education

Abstract

Latino boys & men continue to be an important student population to understand throughout the P-20 educational pipeline (Howard & Huerta, 2014; Huerta et al., 2018; Patrón et al., 2020). The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the problems that currently affect Latino boys & men (Field, 2021) and thus drawing more attention to the continuing absence of Latino boys & men throughout the educational pipeline (Field, 2021). Along with other persisting challenges they face, their absence throughout the educational pipeline will be a problem that will need to be addressed as we come out of the pandemic. This paper will focus on addressing challenges Latino men they face in higher education and will provide specific recommendations to address them.

Latino boys have continued to face struggles in various educational spaces as being treated with any humanity (Howard et al., 2019). For example, in both K-12 and higher education, Latino men’s nuanced experiences have been noted by Singh (2020), about the ways that problematic knowledge of Latino mentorship has continued to perpetuate singular notions of Latino masculinity and manhood. Research has continued to remind us about the importance of caring about boys and men of color, specifically Latino boys & men (Howard & Huerta, 2014). Our understanding of Latino boys continues to be clouded in violence and as problems defined by deficit framings rather than linked to educational systems (Huerta, 2018).

Scholars have also focused on the experiences of Latino men in community college (Rodriguez et al., 2019). These scholars have examined the ways that Latino men experience belonging and use their resources while attending community college (Rodriguez et al., 2019). The experiences of undergraduate men at four-year institutions have to expand to focus on the experiences of those in highly selective institutions (Pérez et al., 2020). Nuance has continued to evolve the varied ways that Latino undergraduate men experience higher education (Pérez et al., 2020; Huerta et al., 2021).

This paper also explores how doctoral Latino men’s experience has continued to face challenges in the ways to thrive. Patrón et al. (2020) remind us about the ways that compañerismo (fellowship) has supported Latino men in their doctoral journeys. Latino men in doctoral programs continue to face environments that are incongruent with their identities and values (Patrón et al., 2020; Patrón & Garcia, 2016). Latino men’s journeys throughout the educational pipeline will have to be a collaborative effort to make better (Ponjuán, 2016). Compañerismo has continued to be conceptualized as a way to understand the Latino men’s doctoral experience (Flores & Patrón, 2021; Patrón et al, 2021).

Scholars and practitioners need to focus on the ways that they can support Latino boys & men on a psychological, social, and cultural basis in higher education (Huerta et al., 2021). The pandemic has exacerbated existing challenges for Latino men and so institutions must reassess how they are supporting Latino men.

Authors

• Adrian H. Huerta, University of Southern California

• Gabriel Rodríguez Lemus, University of Texas at Austin

• Edgar Fidel Lopez, University of Southern California