Institutional Ethnography: Illuminating Intersectional (In)Equities in Advisement at a Southwestern Minority Serving Institution (SMSI)

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Sunday 7:45 am - Gold 2
  In Roundtable Session: Critical Examination of Race, Ethnicity, Class, and Gender Roundtable: Supporting Students' Racial Identity Development and Academic Success

Abstract

Southwestern Minority Serving Institution (SMSI) has special designation as a Minority Serving University. However, examining cohort graduation rates through an intersectional lens illuminates a picture in which race, gender, and college-generational status make a significant difference for students’ graduation progress. An outcome that is counterintuitive to the institution’s multiple advising systems. This institutional ethnography explores the role of flexible solidary in advising and the impact this can have on how students navigate university requirements beyond their classrooms. The objectives of this research are to employ intersectionality as both inquiry and praxis, investigating how barriers and experiences vary among students and advisors within the different college advising systems at SMSI, based on their intersecting social locations, like race-gender-first-generation college status.

Author

• Lacey Shanté Hites, University of New Mexico