“It Really Felt Like They Cared”: How learning communities serve a Hispanic Serving Institution

• In Event: Faculty Innovations at Minority Serving Institutions

Abstract

Situated within the literature on Learning Communities (LCs), HSI servingness, and care, this paper demonstrates how faculty and students perceive servingness within a General Education (GE) LC pilot at a 4-year, public HSI. Faculty and student interviews complicate whether/how GE LCs are serving students. As many HSI students are academically underserved in K-12 education, the separate “high school” space generated by LC faculty’s relational care and perceptions of more curricular freedom is significant. Some LC curricula addressed inequities and students’ identities; however, this was not the norm. We contend that while the potential for HSI LCs to increase academic achievement is promising, HSI LCs are not fully serving or caring for students unless curricula explicitly center cultural relevance and critical consciousness.

Authors

• Tara Schwitzman-Gerst, Kean University

• Liza Ann Bolitzer, Kean University

• Peter Bardys, Kean University