INSTITUTIONALIZING A CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE APPROACHES TO SERVING HISPANIC STUDENTS (CRASH) COURSE FOR FACULTY AT A SMALL HSI

Inclusive and culturally responsive teaching practices are known to increase learning and sense of belonging for students of underrepresented groups. However, one-off workshops are often not enough to start real change. At Angelo State University (ASU) we set about implementing an on-campus culturally responsive teaching program that could serve as a catalyst for change.

The program began as part of an HSI grant awarded to establish our mechanical engineering degree. We adopted a program run by ESCALA Educational Services. ESCALA aims to foster the use of culturally responsive teaching practices at Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI) to increase access and completion rates for Latinx students. The program had participants attend a three-day workshop to learn the research behind culturally responsive teaching practices, two workshops throughout the semester, and assigned a coach to help them through a semester-long project. For the project participants picked a research question, designed and implemented an intervention in a semester-long course, and assessed the effectiveness. Throughout the semester the participants met with coaches for support and accountability and then presented their project.

The first cohort included two faculty who were sent to the ESCALA workshop and given a one course release during the semester they ran their project. However, the following year it became difficult to find faculty to join the program due to the lack of adjuncts in the area. The program was reworked to bring the workshops to ASU and pay the participants a stipend. This was much more successful as the second and third cohorts had 19 and 17 participants, respectively. In addition, the next iteration already has 15 faculty signed up. It is clear that the program is successful at recruiting and retaining faculty.

As the grant is now nearing its end, we worked to institutionalize the program. The team has worked to align the ESCALA licensed curriculum to fit ASU’s values. The first iteration of the new Culturally Responsive Approaches to Serving Hispanic Students (CRASH) course will be run in January 2022.