Leveraging Asset-Based Peer Tutoring for Equity in Emerging Hispanic Serving Community Colleges

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Abstract

Although Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) continue to expand across the U.S., they are often under-resourced and lack adequate institutional support services. This article presents findings from a qualitative institutional case study of an asset-based, peer tutoring program for Latin* students in an open-access HSI in the Southeast U.S. The article’s findings, informed by community cultural wealth theory, indicate that peer tutoring sustains aspirational capital, honors students’ linguistic capital, nurtures familia within the institution, helps students navigate the nuances of social capital as they forge relationships across their institution, enhances students’ navigational capital, and forges resistant capital by disrupting institutional deficit thinking. Therefore, this article argues that peer tutoring programs could generate a more inclusive institutional environment conducive to student success.

Authors

• Brooklyn Cole Herrera, University of North Georgia

• Michael Lanford, University of North Georgia