Latinx Students Research Articles

In-School Suspension Through the Lens of Whiteness as Property: Exploring a School District’s Role in Maintaining Educational Inequality

Despite impacting almost three million students annually, and disproportionately impacting Black students, little is known about district policy and central office staff in the use of in-school suspension. The purpose of this study was to understand how districts use in-school suspension over time, with attention to racial disparities, programmatic changes, and central office perspectives. Case study methods were used to examine in-school suspension in one large school district in the Western United States. Data included two district board school discipline policies, quantitative in-school suspension data, and interviews with central office staff. We found a history of on-going racial disparities for Black and Latinx students and that decisions made by central office about in-school suspension had likely sustained these disparities over time. District policy goals of reducing racial disparities were found to be largely rhetorical in the face of an ethos of non-enforcement. Central office administrators believed they lacked the power to hold school principals accountable for implementing school discipline policy with fidelity to redressing racial disparities. Through the concept of Whiteness as Property, we argue these patterns demonstrated central office administrators’ protection of White educational and political propertied interests above those of educational opportunities for Black and Latinx students. This study contributes to the literature on in-school suspension by finding discrepancies between policy and practice and contributes to the field’s understanding of how school autonomy can undermine equity-oriented school discipline policies through racial negligence.

Navigating double marginalization: narratives of Asian (American) educators teaching and building solidarity

ABSTRACT This study examines Asian (American) teachers’ racialized experiences teaching and building solidarity with predominantly Black and Latinx students. Adopting tenets of Asian Critical Theory, the findings reveal participants’ paradoxical experiences of ‘double marginalization’: On one hand, they are broadly excluded from the Black-White racial paradigm and made invisible as racial outsiders and ‘forever foreigners’; on the other hand, they report feeling marginalized within the communities of Color due to the prevailing ‘model minority’ and ‘honorary White’ tropes. In resisting the ‘double marginalization’, participants strategically utilize their Asian (American) identities and experiences to challenge stereotypes about Asian (American) people and foster relationships with students and parents based on their shared struggles against White supremacy. This study has implications to reject Asian (American) invisibility in education research and practice by reclaiming the legacies of cross-racial solidarity-building among communities of Color and supporting the development of collective critical consciousness against racial division.

Cultivating a Collectivist Community on a College Campus for Latinx Students

ABSTRACT Do inclusion, diversity, equity, and access (IDEA) courses geared toward Latinx students help create a collectivist community on a college campus? We argue that courses incorporating IDEA initiatives into their curriculum and focusing on Latinx individuals provide students the face, place, and space to create the cultural wealth required for educational success. The academic intervention described in this study focused on supporting the Latinx community and advancing our university’s IDEA values. This qualitative project describes the results of forty-seven participants in ten focus groups within undergraduate courses during the Fall 2019-Spring 2021 semesters. Based on a deductive-inductive hybrid thematic analysis, our results suggest that IDEA courses at the curricular level are essential in cultivating a collectivist community on campus for students to thrive. Evidence from this study can be utilized to inform educational policy and pedagogical considerations within higher education.

Centering Latinx students in STEM education research through pláticas methodology

Pláticas methodology is introduced in this article to advance the centering of Latinx researchers and Latinx students in STEM research. As an increase in Latinx educational researchers enter academia, engaging an appropriate epistemology and methodology that is culturally relevant and race-centered is key in the ongoing STEM education research which aims to diversify and create equitable outcomes for Students of Color. This article draws from a study with 24 Latinx STEM students and 48 pláticas. An overview of pláticas methodology, Chicana/Latina Feminist Epistemology, along with an examination of the principles of pláticas methodology in STEM education. This article is timely as the Latinx student population and Hispanic-Serving Institutions are growing in higher education. This article places emphasizes reframing methodology to provide a culturally relevant and holistic methodology to engage Latinx Students and advance STEM education research focusing on Latinx students.

Investigating the efficacy of peer tutoring to support Latinx students in Hispanic serving community colleges

AbstractAlthough open‐access Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) continue to expand across the United States, they are often under‐resourced and lack adequate institutional support services. This article presents findings from a qualitative case study of an asset‐based, peer support program for Latinx students in an open‐access HSI in the Southeast United States. The article's findings, informed by the theory of community cultural wealth, indicate that peer tutoring honors the linguistic capital of Latinx students, nurtures familia within the institution, enhances students’ navigational capital, and helps students navigate the nuances of social capital by encouraging the maintenance of their cultural integrity as they strengthen tutor‐tutee relationships and forge relationships across their institution. Therefore, this article argues that identity‐affirming peer support programs could efficiently and effectively ameliorate Latinx student challenges in under‐resourced MSIs, particularly at the community college level, thereby generating a more inclusive institutional environment conducive to student success.

Para mi gente: Community responsive civic practices at Hispanic Serving Community Colleges

AbstractThis article presents research on the role of educators at a Hispanic Serving community college in the civic development—the capacity to be socially and/or politically civically engaged—of Latinx students. The article presents educators’ perceptions of, and pedagogies used to promote, the civic development of Latinx students and communities at a federally designated Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) community college. The community college serves a region that has historically disenfranchised, excluded, and dismissed Latinx and other immigrant groups from fully incorporating into the civic fabric of the region. We present findings from interviews with educators (i.e., faculty, counselors, administrators, and staff), and document and website analysis to undercover the pedagogies that support the civic development of Latinx students and communities. The need to study the connection between HSIs, community colleges, and civic engagement is imperative because these colleges can serve la gente de la comunidad by promoting service to communities and developing leaders to evoke social and community change. This study contributes to the understanding of the critical role of Minority‐Serving Institution (MSI) community colleges and presents practical approaches to promoting the civic development of underserved Latinx communities.

Family Helps Transform the STEM Pathways of Community College Women of Color STEM Majors.

A "critical access point in the STEM pipeline for Latinx students and other students of color" (Herrera etal., 2018), community colleges provide a seminal breeding ground for academic pursuits (Bahr etal., 2017). However, how personal networks influence STEM pathways of two-year college students remains largely unexplored. This mixed methods case study explores influence of personal networks on pursuing STEM fields via social network analysis and qualitative narratives. 36 women of color STEM majors at a two-year urban Hispanic-Serving Institution were interviewed via social network questionnaire. Participants nominated anyone who has influenced their STEM trajectory, which signifies influence to their reason for pursuing a STEM path; they also had an option to qualitatively elaborate on any nomination but this was not required. Nominations were counted towards degree centrality and categorized into social relationships. Participants nominated diverse relationship influences, with family as the most influential relationship group, followed by college faculty/staff. Qualitative narratives revealed that family influenced participants, regardless of relatives' educational attainment level at the high school or lower level. In alignment with community cultural wealth, family members provided the impetus for pursuing STEM pathways through influence on participants' (1) aspirational capital, (2) familial capital, and (3) resistant capital.

Racial and Ethnic Bias in Scholastic Achievement Awards: A Collective Dual Language Case Study

ABSTRACT This mixed-methods case study examines data for over 1,500 student awards at two dual language elementary schools collected over the course of two years. Using descriptive statistics, this paper examines student representation by demographics in quarterly scholastic awards. Through document analysis of award descriptions, we analyze how students were selected by their teachers. Using Critical Race Theory (CRT) as a theoretical framework, findings show that across both schools, Latinx students were underrepresented in scholastic awards while White students were overrepresented. After examining and discussing student award data, this paper contextualizes the data within the literature on unconscious bias, inequity in DLBE programs, data-based SWPBIS systems, and explores implications for further research and school-based leadership.

Latinx students embodying justice‐centered science: Agency through imagining via the performing arts

AbstractChildren are often denied science education that engages their emotions and multiple identities. This study focused on ways in which embodied arts‐based experiences offer opportunities for such engagement in pedagogical efforts associated with justice‐centered science. The conceptual framework that informed the study considers the body as a site of learning, embraces social justice in science education and engages with the dialectical relationship between various structures and children's agency, and frames the transdisciplinarity of imagination. The instrumental case study centered on a fifth‐grade class of Latinx students in an urban public school, as they grappled with lead contamination and peoples' rights to clean water through an embodied, arts‐based pedagogy in their science class. Analysis of video clips, student work, and other artifacts pointed to three findings on how children engaged with justice‐centered science learning via arts‐based embodied activities. Through perspective‐taking in the dramatizing, children engaged with science ideas intertwined with sociopolitical understandings. Through centering emotions that drama afforded, children experienced empathy and solidarity with others affected by environmental injustices. Through imagined and enacted participation in struggles that the embodiments necessitated, children engaged in actions to resist injustices. These findings suggest that exploring children's arts‐based embodied meaning making in science is a robust area of inquiry. Furthermore, the findings compel researchers and practitioners to consider emotions in performing arts, and how they can deepen engagement in, and exploration of, justice‐centered science. Recommendations emerged for practitioners poised to explore justice‐centered science with children through the arts.

Academic achievement, same- and cross-ethnic positive peer regard among Asian American and Latinx adolescents.

This article presents a short-term longitudinal study examining bidirectional associations between academic achievement and positive peer regard among Asian American and Latinx adolescents. Specifically, our investigation distinguished between positive peer regard within and across different ethnic groups in a diverse school setting. Three hundred and thirty-five middle school students (52.8% girls; 65% Asian American, 35% Latinx; assessment at the first time point Mage = 12.27 years, SD = 0.71) were followed across two consecutive school years. Participants completed a peer-nomination inventory assessing multiple dimensions of positive peer regard (i.e., reciprocal friendship, social acceptance, and respect), and grades were obtained from school records. Academic achievement was predictive of prospective positive peer regard received from same-ethnic peers only for Asian American adolescents. In contrast, academic achievement predicted prospective positive peer regard received from cross-ethnic peers only for Latinx adolescents. These results suggest that academic achievement was linked to social gains with peers from different ethnic backgrounds for Asian American and Latinx students. The findings underscore the importance of disentangling the sources of positive peer regard in multiethnic school environments. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Ethnic–racial socialization experiences of Mexican American youth

AbstractResearch has shown that ethnic–racial socialization (ERS) predicts education and mental health outcomes for adolescents. However, limited research has evaluated the ERS experiences of Latinx students. The current study examined ERS experiences of Mexican American youth in four focus group interviews that were transcribed and analyzed at both the individual and group level using interpretive phenomenological analysis. Main themes included feeling like an outsider, navigating discrimination, encountering social/emotional difficulties, and achieving a positive identity. Each theme contained two to three subcategories that provide further insight into the Mexican Americans' ERS experiences. Participants reported within‐group discrimination, motivation to disprove stereotypes, and infrequent understanding or compassion from adults. Teachers, administrators, counselors, and school psychologists can attend to and seek to promote social connections, implement social‐emotional learning interventions, foster resilience, work to dismantle racism, collaborate with parents, and create communities of inclusion.

School Climate Perception among Latinx and White Students: An Examination of Intersecting Race/Ethnicity and Socioeconomic Identities in Context

Limited research has explored how the characteristics of student and teacher racial/ethnic composition may explain students’ perceptions of school climate. This study used stratified analysis to assess the associations of two prominent diversity aspects (i.e., student racial/ethnic diversity and teacher racial/ethnic diversity) with students’ perceived school climate. Particularly, this study controlled for student- and school-levels demographic characteristics among 41,237 Latinx students and 23,819 White students from 7th grade to 12th grade enrolled in 250 California public schools. The findings indicated that higher teacher racial/ethnic diversity had a mild to moderate positive association with perceived school attitudes to parental participation (Economically Disadvantaged Latinx: β = 0.20, p < .05; Economically Disadvantaged White: β = 0.37, p < .01) and perceived school equity and safety (Economically Disadvantaged Latinx: β = 0.16, p < .05; Economically Disadvantaged White: β = 0.19, p < .05) among Latinx and White students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Only Latinx students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds perceived less favorable school safety and equity in schools with a higher student racial/ethnic diversity (Economically Disadvantaged Latinx: β = −0.20, p < .05). Results have implications for addressing school climate disparities at an organizational level. Impact Statement Although ecological theories have proposed that school climate perception is constructed by contextual and individual characteristics interactively, relatively little research has attempted to understand how school demographic compositions, such as teacher and student racial/ethnic diversity, interact with students’ intersecting social identities in shaping perceived school climate. This study provided empirical evidence of the positive influences of teacher racial/ethnic diversity on perceived school climate. This effect was observed among White and Latinx students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Latinx students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds perceived less safety and equity in schools with higher racial/ethnic diversity.

Latina teacher reflections on critical linguistic cariño: Disrupting the raciolinguistic realities of Latinx multilingual students

ABSTRACT In this paper, we look at pedagogies of care articulated by Latina high school teachers who teach Latinx multilingual students in a variety of content areas, including Latinx studies. We draw on raciolinguistics to understand how the teachers in this study practice “critical linguistic cariño,” a radical form of care that considers how linguistic practices of Latinx students are racialized within the U.S. and beyond. The findings demonstrate how critical linguistic cariño is a pedagogical orientation that moves beyond simply caring for multilingual students. Instead, it is praxis that recognizes the sociopolitical contexts of language as central to care. As the teachers in this study have highlighted, to care for Latinx students is to love and actively create spaces for their full cultural and linguistic identities as they exist within these contexts.

Exploring the Gender Differences in Bullying, Mental Health, and Sexual Behaviors Amongst Latinx Youth

Abstract: According to the CDC, 19% of Hispanic and Latinx high school students reported experiencing bullying either online or physically. Bullying has many consequences, including mental health and risky sexual behaviors. Students that are more sexually active are more likely to experience bullying. Additionally, students who experience bullying are more likely to experience mental health issues such as depression and anxiety. Much of the existing literature has not touched upon Latinx high school students’ experiences with bullying and how they are impacted by mental health and sexual behavior. By taking the CDC’s Adolescent Behaviors and Experiences Survey and utilizing logistic regression, this research paper examines the relative impact of mental health, sexual behavior, and key demographics on the likelihood of ever being bullied; and then examines how those relationships manifest for male students versus female students. Our findings showed that overall, mental health had an impact on Latinx students’ experience with bullying. These findings carry implications for future research and mental health initiatives targeted towards Latinx youth.

School Climate, Teacher Characteristics, and School Discipline: Evidence From New York City

School discipline is a salient problem of educational policy and practice. Teachers play an important role in the production and disruption of racial inequities in school discipline, yet there remains a need to disentangle the relationship between teacher characteristics, their perceptions of school climate, and school discipline patterns. This study uses longitudinal data representing over one thousand public middle and high schools in New York City and linear regression methods to examine the relationship between teachers’ perceptions of school climate, teacher characteristics, and the rates of and disparities in suspensions. Overall, results indicate more positive teacher perceptions of school climate, higher years of teaching experience, and a greater share of Black teachers are independently associated with lower rates of office referrals and suspensions, overall and especially for Black and Latinx students. The study concludes by discussing implications for teacher education and on-the-job support as well as school leadership.

‘Synonymization’ Threat, Equity, and the Funding of Districts with Relatively High Populations of Latinx Students

‘Synonymization’ Threat, Equity, and the Funding of Districts with Relatively High Populations of Latinx Students

English-Speaking Latinas Like Selena: A National Study of Latina Adolescent Intimate Partner Physical Violence during COVID

Abstract: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identifies Intimate Partner Physical Violence (IPPV) as a significant public health crisis for U.S. adolescents. During their lifetime, about 1 in 3 Latinas are affected. What has been understudied is the impact of IPPV on Latinx adolescents with data collected during the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. To address this gap in the literature, this paper analyzes the CDC’s Adolescent Behaviors and Experiences Survey (ABES) data, as well as LatCrit theory and intersectionality as theoretical frameworks to interrogate the relative impact of key demographics, sexual behavior, and non-sexual risky behaviors on IPPV. In addition to analyzing data for the entire sample of Latinx students (n=1510), significant findings from the use of hierarchical logistic regressions indicate that girls who are not proficient in English (not boys), whose partners carry a gun, and who do not wear a seatbelt have a greater risk of ever experiencing IPPV.

Cultural Values as Contributors to Latinx Student Grades

Cultural discontinuity, or the misalignment of learning processes based on cultural values practiced at home and at school, is one factor that has been explored in the educational experiences of racial/ethnic minority students. The purpose of the current quantitative study was to examine the influence of cultural discontinuity between Latinx and Eurocentric cultural values on the grades of Latinx high school students. The conceptual framework for this study was developed from relevant literature. The model theorizes that Latinx students’ grades are influenced by socio-demographic variables, academic experiences, and cultural discontinuity. Participants were 334 Latinx students recruited from three high schools in the U.S. Southwest. Data was collected via a self-administered questionnaire and student transcripts. Hierarchical multiple regression was conducted to identify which variables were associated with student grades. Results of this study showed that Latinx students who reported experiencing higher levels of cultural discontinuity had lower GPAs than students who reported lower levels of cultural discontinuity.

The essential role of ABCD in developing two community engagement frameworks for supporting Latinx students

&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) is an important framework to understand and develop community-engagement experiences for Latinx students, especially at Hispanic Serving Institutions that play an important role in educating Latinx students. This article presents the conceptual findings of a research project that looked at the community-engagement experiences of Latinx students at an HSI. Drawing on in-depth interviews and critical frameworks for engagement, two models were developed: Prism of Liberatory Engagement and Asset Based Critical Engagement. These frameworks are presented as ways to (1) understand and differentiate the service learning experiences of Latinx students and (2) provide a framework for faculty and Community Engagement Professionals (CEPs) to situate their courses and community relationships, and work from an asset-based philosophy of engagement. The Prism of Liberatory Engagement gives explicit attention to the themes (awareness, agency and action; positive interaction with faculty; engaging sameness, and engagement for uplift) and the significant factors (personal/familial trauma, constraints and previous experience with service) that shape the community-engagement experiences of Latinx students. The Asset Based Critical Engagement model presented in this article provides a theoretical asset-based framework for critical pedagogy for service learning and community engagement that can be vital for institutions, in and outside of the United States, which are serving an increasingly diverse student population.&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D;

“We need to step it up—We are basically the future”: Latinx young women co‐construct science storylines in high school chemistry

AbstractResearchers and practitioners in the United States increasingly promote phenomena‐based instruction in science that supports the development of a coherent storyline throughout the unit. Questions about who is constructing the science storyline and how still remain. Employing a qualitative ethnographic case study approach, we explore how three Latinx female students authentically contribute in their high school chemistry class and change the science storyline originally developed by the teacher. Data include over 950 min of video recordings, student artifacts, and interviews collected from a unit about reaction rate, which was contextualized by students' experiences with a local wildfire. The analysis points to three instructional moves that appear to play an important role in shifting the collective storyline: connecting to Latinx students' personal concerns, moving across multiple figured worlds, and recognizing students' epistemological contributions. Implications for supporting minoritized students are discussed.