“I feel like I have to be the whitest version of myself”: Experiences of early career Latina higher education administrators.

Abstract

Latinx undergraduate student enrollment has dramatically increased over the past 20 years. However, this growing representation of Latinx students has not come with a parallel increase in the number of Latinx higher education administrators. This dearth in Latinx administrators is especially alarming because students who are able to build mentoring relationships with faculty and staff of similar backgrounds are more likely to persist and complete their college degrees. In particular, considering that Latinas are one of the least educated groups in the nation despite their growing college-going patterns, the paucity of Latina higher education administrators, who can potentially serve as their role models and femmentors, is problematic. Using a Chicana feminist epistemology and thematic analysis, this study examines how multiple social identities, such as race and gender, influence the experiences of eight early career Latina administrators, and how these early career experiences consequently impact their professional trajectories in higher education. Our findings indicate that early career Latina professionals feel pressured to tone down their race/ethnicity; are impacted by their intersecting identities; and navigate the field of higher education. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Marginality and mattering: Inequality in STEM majors’ relationships with higher education practitioners.

“…Representation of diverse practitioners in academic units, such as advising offices, matters as much as in identity-based programs (Lane & Id-Deen, 2020). Unfortunately, identity-based programs are too often underfunded and undervalued (Patton, 2010), and the work of practitioners goes unrecognized and uncompensated leading to burnout (Sánchez et al, 2021). Additionally, we found a stark contrast between the relationships that minoritized-status students developed with practitioners at identity-based programs and the interactions they had with advisors.…”

“…Practitioners seek to support student learning and create opportunities that promote student development outside the classroom (Martin et al, 2020; Sánchez et al, 2021). Unlike many faculty members who only connect with students within a semester or a year of instruction, practitioners often work with students for extended periods of times throughout their college years (Martin et al, 2020).…”

“…These sustained interactions can facilitate the development of close relationships. As a result, practitioners typically work with students on a wide range of problems and concerns, and also serve as their mentors and role models (Sánchez et al, 2021; Schuh et al, 2017).…”

Serving Whom? An Exploration of Cultural Taxation Themes in Latinx Graduate Students

“…Women faculty are canonically more involved in departmental or university service work than their male colleagues (Niemann, et al, 2020;Njie-Carr, et al, 2020;O'Meara et al, 2017), which partially explains why women, on average, publish less and receive fewer research grants than men (Wijesingha & Ramos, 2017). Adding to their challenging experiences is the relatively small number of women of color in upper-level professor and administrative ranks (Sánchez et al, 2021).…”

In Praxis: Creating a (Web)Site of Resistance and Disrupting the Hidden Curricula of Academic Socialization

“…Several years and a doctorate later, I can name what we created: a digital counterspace for ourselves within the larger landscape of higher education that consistently messages to marginalized communities that they/we do not belong (see Gildersleeve et al, 2011;Sanchez et al, 2020;Steele, 2018;Yao et al, 2019). From experiences of microaggressions to deficit narratives to even the critique of me-search and doubts of rigor regarding research design (see Delgado Bernal & Villapando, 2010;Stanley, 2007), scholars have long described how academic socialization and toxicity specifically and disproportionately impacts racially marginalized students, faculty, and practitioners.…”