Disrupting Systemic Pushout: Examining Barriers and Supports for Latino Students at Hispanic Serving Institutions

• In Event: AERA Research in Progress Roundtable Session Five
  In Invited Roundtable: Research-in-Progress RT032 (Sunday)

Abstract

This phenomenological study examines how first-generation, first- and second-year Latino men navigate a California State University Hispanic-Serving Institution in Southern California. Guided by Community Cultural Wealth and LatCrit, participants were interviewed via Zoom. Preliminary findings reveal persistent academic pressures centered on course performance, reliance on generic supports (tutoring, library, office hours), minimal exposure to culturally responsive services, and limited awareness of the HSI designation. Participants consistently demonstrated aspirational, familial, and social capital, with occasional resistant and linguistic capital; navigational capital was largely absent. Implications include the need for HSIs to acknowledge institutional culpability, expand capital-affirming mentorship, and reallocate resources toward culturally sustaining practices that debunk deficit ideologies and foster persistence and graduation outcomes.

Author

• Fabian Pacheco, Claremont Graduate University