Hispanic Serving College of Education Research Initiative

What does it mean to be a Hispanic-Serving College of Education? How do we make this term meaningful for post-secondary education and teacher preparation?

The College of Education and P-16 Integration has a student population that is approximately 92% Hispanic. As a Hispanic Serving College of Education (HSCOE), how do we support our students through our curriculum, pedagogy, scholarship, and community engagement? What does it mean for our college to serve a population of primarily Hispanic undergraduate and graduate students?

In the Hispanic Serving College of Education Research Initiative, our college is exploring these questions so that we can build upon the unique cultural and linguistic strengths of our students while preparing them to be outstanding educators.

What does it mean to be a Hispanic-Serving College of Education? How do we make this term meaningful for post-secondary education and teacher preparation?

Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI) are institutions of higher education that enroll at least 25% Hispanic students. This federal designation was created in 1992 to ensure recognition and access to resources by institutions that enroll a large number of Hispanic students. HSIs enroll approximately 62% of all Hispanic students, making them an essential pathway to Hispanic educational success.

The College of Education and P-16 Integration at UTRGV has a student enrollment that is approximately 92% Hispanic. As a Hispanic Serving College of Education (HSCOE), how do we build our curriculum, pedagogy, policies, scholarship and community engagement upon the cultural and linguistic strengths that our students bring with them? The Hispanic Serving College of Education Research Initiative is designed to support faculty efforts to explore various aspects of the overarching question: What does it mean to be an HSCOE and how do we make this term meaningful for post-secondary education and teacher preparation? Research teams developed projects that addressed broad questions such as the following:

  • How do we support the identity that is being a Hispanic Serving Institution for UTRGV?
  • How is a Hispanic Serving Institution different from other institutions?
  • How is a College of Education at a Hispanic Serving Institution different from other Colleges of Education?
  • How do we effectively address the unique student population at an HSI?
  • How does an HSI designation affect recruitment, college readiness, and the teacher pipeline?
  • What are initiatives within an HSI that can inform our work with educator preparation?

Initiative facilitators are:

  • Dr. Patricia Alvarez McHatton
  • Dr. Janine M. Schall
  • Eugenio Longoria Saenz

2018-2019

In the third cycle of the HSCOE Research Initiative, we are funding three new projects and three continuing projects.

2017-2018

In our second cycle the HSCOE Research Initiative funded six new projects and two continuing projects.

Spring 2017

In our first cycle of the initiative, four collaborative research teams were funded.


Cycle One Projects

Agency and Identity Among Math and Science Teachers in the Borderlands

Research Team: Dr. Angela Chapman, Ariana Garza, Felicia Rodriguez

Math/science educator identity influences classroom culture. However, power structures in RGV schools encourage dominant American cultures even though the majority of teachers and students are Hispanic. This SIRG seeks to investigate ways to help secondary teachers develop a strong identity and agency as a means of transforming their classroom culture.

Language and Literacy Practices of CEP Students at an HSI

Research Team: Dr. Janine M. Schall, Dr. Leticia De Leon, Dr. Veronica Estrada

Language and literacy practices play an essential role in academic success, yet we know little about how undergraduate CEP students use language and literacy practices to navigate their personal, work, and academic lives. This exploratory study will use student surveys and focus groups to explore this question.

Exploring and Sharing an Ethic of Care in Critical Pedagogy: Outsiders/Non-Hispanic Faculty at an HIS

Research Team: Dr. Karin Lewis, Dr. Jacqueline Koonce, Dr. Vejoya Viren, Dr. Miryam Espinosa-Dulanto

This qualitative study explores the intersectionality of diverse professor and student cross-cultural, racial, social, and linguistic differences and offers ways to cultivate an ethic of care in critical pedagogy at an Hispanic Serving Institution in order to transcend boundaries, bridge insider-outsider epistemologies, engender trust, develop mutual understanding, respect, reciprocity, and empathic teaching-learning relationships.  

Literacy 2.0: Family and Community Literacy

Research Team: Dr. Cinthya Saavedra, Dr. Joy Esquierdo, Dr. Isela Almaguer, Dr. Dagoberto Ramirez

The purpose of Literacy 2.0 SIRG is to examine the organic literacies of Hispanic families living in the Edinburg Housing Authority public housing as a way to address the development of literacy skills for Hispanic families through the creation of a culturally relevant literacy center that will produce digital and print bilingual stories.

 

Cycle Two Projects

Transforming Teacher Preparation in HSIs: Exploring Translanguaging

Research Team: Dr. Sandra Musanti, Dr. Alma Rodríguez, Dr. Alyssa Cavazos

Translanguaging is a natural occurring phenomenon in bi/multilingual communities and an identity marker of the community in the RGV. This SIRG seeks to investigate how translanguaging pedagogies at a HSI impact bilingual and writing teacher candidates’ perceptions of linguistically inclusive literacy instruction to improve teacher preparation.

Hispanic Family Engagement Practice Through Mixed Reality Simulation

Research Team: Dr. Hsuying Ward, Dr. Ignacio Rodriguez, Leticia Frias-Perez

This study describes how we provide mixed-reality IEP learning opportunities to prepare students to advocate social justice and become culturally responsive scholars towards the education of their PK-12 pupils with disabilities. This research investigates the effect of intervention using MRS- TeachLiveTM  as the tool to help practitioners see how their words and actions effect their collaboration with Hispanic parents of children with disabilities.

Reflections on Teacher Education Practices of First-Year Tenure Track Professors at an HSI

Research Team: Dr. Gilberto Lara, Dr. Hitomi Kambara, Dr. Maria Leija, Dr. Gerardo Aponte Martinez

The objective of the SIRG is to reflect on our teacher education practices as first year tenure track professors at an HSI. In this research project, we wrestle with the following questions: What does it mean to be a professor at an HSI? How am I inclusive of my students’ knowledge, experiences, language and culture? What activities do I engage in as I work towards becoming a professor that encourages the sustainment of my students’ culture and language?

Transformative Practice through Technology Integration: How to Leverage the CEP HSI Frames of Reference

Research Team: Dr. Leticia De Leon, Dr. Zulmaris Diaz, Dr. Michael Whitacre, Dr. Janet Martinez

Perception of technology competence and university instructor use of instructional technology play a vital role in preservice teachers’ willingness to use it in their own practice. In this SIRG, we explore the question, Will technology integration in learning transform student frames of reference in a HSCOE?

Science is Socially and Culturally Embedded: How It Is Useful for Hispanic Elementary teachers in the RGV

Research Team: Dr. Noushin Nouri, Dr. Jair Aguilar, Patricia Ramirez

This project has been designed to increase Hispanic preservice teachers’ understanding of nature of science and to improve their attitude towards science and the teaching of science.

Developing a Border Pedagogy for Teacher Preparation

Research Team: Dr. Alcione Ostorga, Dr. Kip Hinton, Dr. Christian Zúñiga

In this meta-analysis of the professional literature we examine border pedagogy, particularly focusing on the following questions: What is border pedagogy and how is it defined or understood? What are border pedagogical practices for Latinx teacher preparation?

Agency and Identity Among Math and Science Teachers in the Borderlands

Research Team: Dr. Angela Chapman, Ariana Garza, Felicia Rodriguez

Math/science educator identity influences classroom culture. However, power structures in RGV schools encourage dominant American cultures even though the majority of teachers and students are Hispanic. This SIRG seeks to investigate ways to help secondary teachers develop a strong identity and agency as a means of transforming their classroom culture.

Language and Literacy Practices of CEP Students at an HSI

Research Team: Dr. Janine M. Schall, Dr. Veronica Estrada, Dr. Elena Venegas

Language and literacy practices play an essential role in academic success, yet we know little about how undergraduate CEP students use language and literacy practices to navigate their personal, work, and academic lives. This exploratory study will use student surveys and focus groups to explore this question.

 

Cycle Three Projects

Agency and Identity Among Math and Science Teachers in the Borderlands

Research Team: Dr. Angela Chapman, Ariana Garza, Felicia Rodriguez, Johanna Esparaza, Alicia Cronkhite

Math/science educator identity influences classroom culture. However, power structures in RGV schools encourage dominant American cultures even though the majority of teachers and students are Hispanic. This SIRG seeks to investigate ways to help secondary teachers develop a strong identity and agency as a means of transforming their classroom culture.

Science is Socially and Culturally Embedded: How It Is Useful for Hispanic Elementary teachers in the RGV

Research Team: Dr. Noushin Nouri, Vero G. Frady, Patricia Ramirez

This project has been designed to increase Hispanic preservice teachers’ understanding of nature of science and to improve their attitude towards science and the teaching of science.

Developing a Border Pedagogy for Teacher Preparation

Research Team: Dr. Alcione Ostorga, Dr. Kip Hinton, Dr. Christian Zúñiga

In this meta-analysis of the professional literature we examine border pedagogy, particularly focusing on the following questions: What is border pedagogy and how is it defined or understood? What are border pedagogical practices for Latinx teacher preparation?

Listening to HSI students’ testimonios to build and learn our OWN paths.

Research Team: Dr. Miryam Espinosa-Dulanto, Dr. Karin Lewis, Dr. Vejoya Viren

Deconstructing racism in higher education must be part of the institutional identity of HSIs as well as embracing and including indigenous knowledges and rejecting the separation between academic work and community involvement. This project will share student voices through their testimonios of resilience, challenges and success before, within and after their UTRGV/HSI experience, locating these experiences within the Latinx tradition of political struggle and pride to help to develop strategies for social change and an opportunity for decolonizing and transcontinental (South-North) understandings based on indigenous-mestizo wisdom and ethics of communality.

Investigating Hispanic Serving College of Education Students’ Perspectives and Experiences Regarding High Impact Practices: Latinx Success Stories

Research Team: Dr. Ming-Tsan Lu, Dr. María Díaz, Dr. Johanna Esquivel

The purpose of this mixed methods study is to investigate CEP students’ perspectives and experiences with high-impact practices.

The Experiences of Women Faculty of Color Within and Beyond the College of Education at Hispanic-Serving Institutions

Research Team: Dr. Elena Venegas, Dr. Jacqueline Koonce, Lorenza Lancaster, Julissa Bazan

The purpose of this qualitative study is to identify the experiences of women faculty of color, who are not Latina, both within and beyond Colleges of Education at Hispanic Serving Institutions.

 


In September 2018, the College of Education and P-16 Integration will be hosting a Hispanic Serving College of Education (HSCOE) Convening. This Convening will bring together faculty from 25 HSCOEs across the United States to begin a national dialogue about what it means to be an HSCOE and how we make this term meaningful for post-secondary education.