Transforming Hispanic Serving Community Colleges Using Participatory Action Research

• In Event: Participatory Action Research Projects at Hispanic-Serving Institutions: Co-creating HSI-PAR to Foster Servingness and Community-Centered Transformation

Abstract

Hispanic-serving community colleges (HSCCs) represent 40% of all HSIs, making them significant in providing access for Latine/x college students. California is home to the most HSCCs with 108 of the 116 California Community Colleges (CCCs) meeting the eligibility requirements to become HSIs (Cuellar et al., 2023). Yet embracing an HSI identity requires more than enrolling a critical mass of Latine/x students and securing federal grants. With nearly all CCCs now identified as Hispanic-serving, there is a dire need to understand how HSCCs can advance racial equity by changing the educational structures and organizational culture for serving Latine/x students. We document the results of a participatory action research (PAR) project focused on organizational transformation at two California HSCCs. We outline how these two colleges, Fullerton College (FC) and Santa Rosa Junior College (SRJC), actively changed the culture of their campus by implementing HSI Transformation Teams that created equity-minded solutions driven by HSI research and data collected by each team.

The project was guided by the Transforming HSIs (T-HSI) framework, which offers a critical approach to organizational change (Author, 2023). It outlines dimensions that can serve as levers of change as the campus commits to intentionally and holistically serving Latine/x students. The nine dimensions include mission, identity, strategic purpose, membership, infrastructure, governance, leadership, partnerships, and external influences. Scholars have been actively exploring the intersection of the community college mission and an HSI identity, documenting the ways HSCCs integrate servingness into each of the nine dimensions of the T-HSI framework (e.g., Alcantar & Hernandez, 2020; Burmicky et al., 2023; Doran, 2023; Lujan et al., 2024; Marin & Aguilar-Smith, 2023). Our study contributes to this growing body of research.

The aim of this PAR project was to transform the ways two HSCCs use research to develop educational structures that serve Latine/x students and to foster collaborations that inform equity-minded practices and resource creation. Sponsored by a grant from the Student Experience Research Network (SERN), our approach was to launch 12-month Transformation Teams at FC and SRJC. The Transformation Teams were created by the presidents of each campus who collaborated with the principal investigator (first author) on the project. They used a shared governance approach to create the teams, ensuring that there was equal representation across faculty, classified staff, and management. FC’s team included 17 colleagues and SRJC’s team had 15. The teams commenced in November 2023 and officially sunset in November 2024, although each campus committed to continuing the work beyond the life of the grant.

Using PAR methods, each team identified 4-5 core areas to address such as “cultivating and strengthening our HSI identity and commitment” and “fostering solidarity and collective empowerment among communities of color.” The teams launched conversations and new practices that allowed their campuses to embrace their HSI identity while breaking away from a history that had perpetuated race-neutral efforts to serve a predominantly racially and ethnically minoritized campus. These strides have led both colleges to elevate the Latine/x student experience while enacting intentional servingness.

Authors

• Gina Ann Garcia, University of California - Berkeley

• Flor Huerta, Fullerton College

• Julio Rene Flores, Santa Rosa Junior College