Racism or Misunderstanding? Latino/a/e STEM Students' Experiences With the STEM Learning Environment in an Emerging HSI

• In Event: Advancing Latino/a/e STEM Education Research in Hispanic-Serving Institutions

Abstract

Objectives:
The purpose of this paper is to center the experiences of Latinx students in STEM classrooms in an emerging HSI. Through the Latino Critical Race Theory framework (LatCrit) (Solórzano and Villalpando, 1998) and the culturally relevant methodology of pláticas (Fierros & Delgado Bernal, 2016), this paper takes an in-depth analysis of racism, micro-aggressions and bias in the STEM learning environment. This paper sheds light on how Latinx STEM students understand oppression, such as racism, sexism, and classism through a critical analysis of classroom experiences in the STEM learning environment.

Theoretical Framework:
This study employs Latino Critical Race Theory (LatCrit) (Solórzano and Villalpando, 1998) to guide the centralization of racialized experiences of Latinx students in the STEM classroom. Additionally, an analysis of micro-aggressions is employed to further understand the various forms of oppression in STEM classrooms. Micro-aggressions are common racial experiences that isolate and marginalized Latinx students in higher education (Yosso et al., 2009), however, there is minimal research on the HSI campus context.

Methods & Data Sources:
This study uses the culturally relevant methodology of pláticas, which draws from Chicana/Latina Feminist epistemology (Fierros & Delgado Bernal, 2016). This study is based on 25 Latinx first-generation college students who attended an emerging Hispanic-Serving Institution. Two pláticas were conducted with each participant. The first plática focused on relationship building between the researcher and the research collaborators, explanation of the research project, and learning about the participants’ families and educational backgrounds. The second plática focused on participants’ experiences in STEM. The pláticas allowed for greater vulnerability and discussion on moments of racism and sexism in the STEM classroom. Additionally, observations and reviews of documents were conducted. Further, I employed the notion of “cultural intuition,” which is when a Latina researcher brings their professional and personal experiences into the research process (Delgado Bernal, 1998).

Findings:
Findings reveal the gendered differences of racism in the STEM learning environment. Latina STEM students experienced micro and macro-aggressions with their non-Latinx peers and STEM faculty. In contrast, Latino STEM students benefited through meritocracy to avoid any further marginalization in their STEM classrooms. The two emerging themes are: 1) Gendered Differences with Racism, Microaggressions, and Macroaggressions in the STEM learning environment and 2) Latino male adoption of meritocracy to navigate racism in the STEM learning environment.

Significance:
This study advances STEM education research on Latinx students through a critical framework to reveal the differences in racism encountered in the STEM learning environment. Also, I include a discussion on how campus structures in an emerging HSI exclude, marginalize and uphold racism in the STEM learning environment.

Author

• Katherine Arias Garcia, University of California - Irvine