Centering Latine/Hispanic, Native American, and Indigenous Students' Ways of Knowing in Curriculum and Pedagogy

• In Event: Developing Culturally Responsive Curriculum in Higher Education in Challenging Times

Abstract

For nearly two decades, scholars have grappled with what “serving” means at a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI). In 2019, Garcia and colleagues conducted a systematic review of the literature on HSIs to determine the notion of “servingness.” Through their framework, they developed indicators for servingness, including: Academic Outcomes, Non-Academic Outcomes, and Validating Experiences with Campus Structures. They also argued that racialized experiences within HSI structures, including racism, discrimination, harassment, and microaggressions, can lead to invalidating experiences that do not advance servingness. This framework highlights that although there are apparent structures for serving, Latine/Hispanic students still experience racism, discrimination, and biases at HSIs because of systemic structures of oppression (Cuellar & Johnson-Ahorlu, 2020; Deeb-Sossa et al., 2022; Serpas, 2021; Serrano, 2022). In more recent years, the understanding of what “serving” entails at Native American Serving Non-Tribal Institutions (NASNTIs) has called for an indigenized approach to praxis. Minthorn (2022) argued that for colleges and universities to be considered NASNTI, they must adhere to the following praxes: Indigenizing Institutional Narratives and Landscapes, Indigenizing Leadership, Indigenizing Academia, and Indigenizing Student Support. Collectively, these bodies of scholarship challenge leaders at HSIs and NASNTIs to center Latine/Hispanic and Native American/Indigenous lived experiences.

Given the unique needs and experiences of Latine/Hispanic and Native American/Indigenous students, higher education institutions across all levels of the administration must interrogate how to best support this critical arm of their student body, particularly when designated as a Minority Serving Institution (MSI). We argue that MSIs play a vital role in providing a supportive and asset-based culture where students can thrive, both in and out of the classroom. To address the needs of Latine/Hispanic and Native American/Indigenous students, we create a call to action to develop critical curricula, rooted in place, and strives toward liberation.

As we considered our approaches to supporting Latine/Hispanic and Native American/Indigenous students, we engaged in individual reflexivity and considered the culturally relevant pedagogies we each draw from. Through dialogic conversations, we then shared our pedagogical approaches with one another. This sharing allowed us to feel supported and empowered in our teaching while also continuously learning to better support our students. As faculty with diverse backgrounds, expertise, and training, we have built a community with one another to help establish a teaching culture that centers student learning.

In this session, we will discuss pedagogical strategies that focus on student learning (e.g., community cultural wealth, funds of knowledge, culturally relevant pedagogy, sentipensante pedagogy, red pedagogy). We will also share strategies for developing cultural competence and supporting students’ critical consciousness that move away from normative teaching. We will conclude our discussion by engaging with the audience and building community with one another. This will entail asking the audience members to reflect on how they can incorporate these strategies in their courses/classrooms and other strategies or pedagogical approaches they use to support student learning. In this way, we will co-construct knowledge with one another to collectively develop salient takeaways from our session.

Authors

• Lauren R. Contreras, Northern Arizona University

• Renee White Eyes, Northern Arizona University

• Susana H. Hernandez, Northern Arizona University

• Alana Aiko Uilani Kennedy, Northern Arizona University

• Cynthia D. Villarreal, Northern Arizona University