Multiculturalism for Whom? Latinx Students' Perceptions and Experiences of Belonging in Higher Education

• In Event: Fairmont Roundtable Session Four
  In Roundtable Session: Campus Climate Research Into Curriculum Studies: Curricular Examinations of a Decade of Qualitative and Quantitative Research (Table 4)

Abstract

This paper examines institutional climate from the perspectives and lived experiences of Latinx students in higher education. Utilizing focus group data and emergent qualitative themes from climate research on Latinx students, this paper aims to build upon extant literature on Latinx students’ sense of belonging on college campuses. Anne-Marie Nunez (2009) notes that Latino students’ sense of belonging can be measured across a psychological dimension (perceptions of inclusion) and a behavioral dimension (interactions among campus members). Further, Sylvia Hurtado and Luis Ponjuan posit that institutions of higher education retain structures and practices that “reflect assumptions that preserve predominantly White norms” (2005, p. 235). In their analysis of Latino students’ sense of belonging, Hurtado and Ponjuan found that Latino students’ perceptions of climate in predominantly White institutions are neither continuous nor predictable. Rather, they point to the complex factors that shape a sense of belonging and morale among Latino students to experience a positive and fulfilling academic experience. Such factors include external community/familial support, friendships and institutional intergroup interactions through activist-based student organizations.

This paper builds upon the aforementioned research from two distinct perspectives. Methodologically, the paper utilizes grounded theory, understood as an interpretative analysis of actions and interactions within social phenomenon (Priya, 2016). Secondly, from a grounded theory analysis, the paper then integrates the central concepts and ideas that emerge into curriculum studies. Moreover, based upon a cursory analysis of data, the paper examines the Latinx experience from the multivocal enunciation of self and place. In other words, Latinx students do not embody a monolithic social group but rather, have various experiences and perceptions of belonging based on a number of factors which include but are not limited to: country of origin, U.S. generation status, sexual and gender identity. The entanglement of social identities figures centrally in this paper and enters into conversation with mainstream and critical multiculturalist discourses in curriculum studies that lean towards privileging either identity or class politics. In this paper, I argue that multiculturalism cannot sustain an either/or domain provided the shifting social dynamics and needs faced by a multivocal and heterogenous Latinx student population across the U.S. The paper closes with questions and articulations that inform multiculturalist discourses in curriculum studies.

Nunez, A.M. (2009). A critical paradox? Predictors of Latino students’ sense of belonging in college. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 2(1), 46-61.

Hurtado, S., and Ponjuan, L. (2005). Latino educational outcomes and the campus climate. Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, 4(3), 235-251.

Priya, A. (2016). Grounded theory as a strategy of qualitative research: An attempt at demystifying its intricacies. Sociological Bulletin, 65 (1), 50-68.

Author

• Nathalia E Jaramillo, Kennesaw State University
  Presenting Author