Hugo A Garcia | Texas Tech University (original) (raw)
Papers by Hugo A Garcia
Journal of Negro Education, 2015
Why Race and Culture Matters in Schools: Closing the Achievement Gap in America's Classrooms,... more Why Race and Culture Matters in Schools: Closing the Achievement Gap in America's Classrooms, by Tyrone C. Howard. New York: Teachers College Press, 2010, 181 pp., $27.65, paperback.In Why Race and Culture Matters in Schools: Closing the Achievement Gap in America's Classrooms, Tyrone C. Howard, Associate Professor of Education of Urban Schooling and Director of Center X in the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies at UCLA, discusses the gaps in the academic achievement of low-income minority students in American schools. Howard provides an informative and insightful discussion of how culture and race continues to play a powerful role in influencing teaching and learning outcomes of students of color. This book is timely and stimulates the ongoing conversation and recent debates in K-12 regarding appropriately measuring student learning outcomes and closing the achievement gap among different socioeconomic groups of students. He organizes the book by exposing and describing the problem of the achievement gap in light of critical race theory (CRT) and sociocultural theory, and he finalizes his book by examining four different exemplary schools that moved from a cultural deficit paradigm to a cultural difference paradigm using culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP). Howard's goal in writing this text is to convey the urgency to educators, researchers, administrators, and parents to have a deep and critical understanding of race and culture to better inform school reform designs and to help close the achievement gaps.Howard begins with an overview that succinctly introduces his goals in writing the book. In the introduction he explains his use of both conceptual and empirical scholarly research. Because Howard wants to move away from the White-Black dichotomy, he explains how his findings are "situated in both a multicultural theory and practice framework" as well as by tenets of two theoretical frameworks-critical race and sociocultural theory (p. 2). Howard's first two chapters examine the teaching implications of the changing demographics in schools. He candidly explains how school performance data demonstrate the academic achievement gap between students of different socioeconomic groups. Howard defines the achievement gap as thediscrepancy in educational outcomes between various student groups, namely, African American, Native American, certain Asian American (i.e., Filipino, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotian, Hmong, Samoan, Thai, and other Southeast Asian students), and Latino students on the low end of the performance scale, and primarily White and various Asian American students at the higher end of the academic performance scale, (p. 10)Howard's documented portrayal and analysis of the U.S. schools' traditional measures of achievement-reading, math, retention, suspensions, expulsions, and graduation rates-illustrate the pronounced academic discrepancies not only among groups of different socioeconomic statuses but also of different races. According to Howard, the large influx of Latino and Asian populations in the United States has dramatically changed the demographic landscape, which raises the question: "Are educators prepared to teach in diverse schools?" (p. 40). After examining the racial make-up of the current teaching population, Howard concludes that there is a scarcity of teachers of color, which can have potential negative repercussions in the quality of instruction for students of color. Therefore, adopting a multicultural education as a conceptual and guiding framework can help teachers understand the necessary skills to teach diverse learners, and more importantly, recognize the "important roles that race, culture, language, gender, and class currently play in United States' classrooms and society" (p. 45). Using a multicultural approach in the classrooms, according to Howard, is a promising path to guarantee educational parity for all students.In the subsequent chapters, (chapters 3,4, and 5) Howard describes the ways in which culture and race impact teaching, learning, and student achievement. …
Journal of International Students, 2014
International student mobility in higher education has gained currency as an important topic in t... more International student mobility in higher education has gained currency as an important topic in today’s global, political, and economic environment. United States postsecondary institutions are working to expand their international student population to increase revenue and diversity. The current higher education and economic context has produced a “global war” to identify, recruit, and matriculate talented students who have become more mobile when selecting postsecondary education destinations. Thus, in order to provide a clear picture of the current status of international student migration to the United States, we sought to understand the following: 1)prestige as a determining factor in the selection of studying abroad for non-Americans living outside the United States; 2) federal and state financial influences that directly affect institutions’ abilities to enroll foreign students; 3) implications for postsecondary institutions in the United States; and 4) implications for scien...
BRILL eBooks, Jun 20, 2023
New Directions for Higher Education, Jun 1, 2022
In this chapter, the experiences of mid‐level business and finance staff positions in private col... more In this chapter, the experiences of mid‐level business and finance staff positions in private colleges are explored to illuminate how they engage the campus environment as they help navigate their institutional fiscal vitality through the lens of empowerment theory. Through qualitative interviewers, findings include how they negotiate shared governance with members of the community who have tenure and how they empower those around them.
Tertiary Education and Management, Dec 1, 2018
The rising cost of higher education has driven researchers and practitioners alike to identify ar... more The rising cost of higher education has driven researchers and practitioners alike to identify areas of waste and search for practices associated with increasing efficiency. One area commonly targeted is human resources, where the dominant narrative focuses on the role of downsizing as a way to decrease cost. In contrast to workforce reduction, institutions could reduce inefficiencies by finding effective ways to avoid premature departure and strengthen the current workforce in higher education. In this study, we analyze employees’ perception of their work conditions and sense of empowerment, in relation to job satisfaction, which has been found to increase productivity and reduce turnover. To illustrate and model key variables, we utilize structural equation modeling to analyze the relationship between our key latent constructs. We find empowerment is positively related to job satisfaction, while working conditions are not.
Journal of international students, May 15, 2019
International student enrollment in higher education has risen in the United States for the past ... more International student enrollment in higher education has risen in the United States for the past several decades. Along with the increase within 4-year institutions, the number of international students at community colleges also continues to rise. Open Doors reports there were 91,648 total international students enrolled in community college for the 2014-2015 academic year. Since student retention is often reviewed as a measure of "the quality of educational experiences" (Lee, 2010, p. 68), these changing enrollment statistics raise questions about international students' engagement and sense of belonging within U.S. community colleges. Guided by Deil-Amen's (2011) construct of socio-academic integration moments and Strayhorn's (2012) sense of belonging, and using the Community College Survey of Student Engagement dataset and structural equation modeling, this study found that socio-academic integration was instrumental for sense of belonging for international students while social integration is also, to a lesser extent, significant to sense of belonging. Our findings suggest that international students are more likely to obtain closer relationships than their domestic peers when it comes to faculty and staff interactions.
Higher Education Quarterly
The Journal of Higher Education
Journal of International Students
Some institutions have sought to centralize the supports they give students by developing a cente... more Some institutions have sought to centralize the supports they give students by developing a center or office dedicated to international students, led by a director or manager overseeing international student support. However, these directors are also not given the resources needed to fully support international students. Our study focuses on the role and empowerment of these international center leaders. A multi-institution case study approach, guided by the empowerment framework, was utilized. The first research question asked what perceptions international center directors have of the resources and support structures provided by their institutions for the growing international student population. The second research question examined how international center directors perceive their empowerment, and which dimensions of empowerment they experience, or lack. Findings include international center directors reporting their sense of empowerment is founded in their desire to serve, sens...
Journal of International Students
International students are more likely to experience mental health issues and increased stress. M... more International students are more likely to experience mental health issues and increased stress. Mental health is often surrounded by negative societal stigmas that act as barriers to seeking support and tend to lead to greater mental health concerns. International students tend to seek socioemotional support from other international student peers rather than seeking out counseling services. However, this study shows that LGBTQIA+ international students were less likely to seek socioemotional support from other international student peers due to fear of their sexual orientation being discovered and their families finding out about their identity. This study examines how LGBTQIA+ international students talk about their experiences on and off campus in relations to their socioemotional well-being. Specifically, this study sought to better understand the complexities of LGBTQIA+ students’ identities, and the challenges they faced in terms of their socioemotional well-being. Implications...
Higher Education Policy in Developing and Western Nations, 2022
Journal of Education Human Resources, 2021
Using a critical lens, this article discusses some of the most common recommendations for human r... more Using a critical lens, this article discusses some of the most common recommendations for human resource and community college leaders on how to respond to budget cuts to student affairs and support services at community colleges. Student affairs and support services are often the first to experience budget cuts in higher education, yet little is known about the impact of—as well as responses to—declining budgets to such services in community colleges. As part of this critical analysis, we frame recommendations using resource-based perspectives to better understand institutional actions in the face of budget cuts, such as identifying sustainable alternative financial resources and increasing efficiency of existing financial and human resources through increased coordination with other community college units. We also discuss how these best practices can also lead to other challenges in times of financial crisis that institutional leaders should consider.
Journal of Applied Research in the Community College, 2016
There is a large corpus of literature that has consistently indicated that the majority of Latino... more There is a large corpus of literature that has consistently indicated that the majority of Latino students who enroll in college matriculate at two-year community colleges over four-year universities (Arbona & Nora, 2007; Cohen, Brawer, & Kisker, 2014; Fry, 2002; Garza, 2006; Laanan, 2001; Ornelas & Solorzano, 2004; Solorzano, Villalpando, & Oseguera, 2005). There are various reasons for this pattern. Community colleges' open-admission policies allow students who are over the age of eighteen to matriculate regardless of prior academic performance and offer a college education at a much lower cost than their four-year peer institutions (Cohen et al., 2014). While it is encouraging that Hispanic students are enrolling at community colleges, the literature has consistently indicated the drawbacks of enrolling at these institutions (Cohen et al., 2014; Fry, 2002; Laanan, 2001; Pascarella, & Terenzini, 2005; Swail, Cabrera, Lee, & Williams, 2005). Indeed, studies have concluded that ...
Preparing Students for Community-Engaged Scholarship in Higher Education, 2020
This chapter illuminates the ways in which community colleges can develop and enhance their commu... more This chapter illuminates the ways in which community colleges can develop and enhance their community-engaged scholarship (CES) to ensure they meet the needs of the local communities they are a part of. Indeed, community-engaged scholarship (CES) has been seen as a vehicle to support local communities by creating partnerships with postsecondary institutions to ensure research is conducted in a way that is mutually beneficial. The authors first explore the large corpus of literature regarding undergraduate research and then present a select number of community colleges that have been successful in incorporating undergraduate research projects. They then present how CES has been defined and how it has been implemented within a higher education context. They then proceed to introduce a CES conceptual model and explain how community colleges can utilize the model to support the institutionalization of CES programs. They conclude with recommendations for future research.
The Journal of Higher Education, 2020
This study explores how mid-level administrators working in international student service centers... more This study explores how mid-level administrators working in international student service centers make meaning of their roles and perceive the support their institutions provide. Utilizing critical discourse analysis and the theoretical framework of empowerment, this study reveals the social problems, power struggles, and avenues mid-level administrators utilize for change. Specifically, we find that participants cope with significant social problems that impact society and higher education. They are often caught between internal and external power struggles over policy and procedures on their campuses and face expectations that are unrealistic given their available resources. In order to be empowered, mid-level administrators need their centers and spaces in favorable locations on campus; strategic actions and planning must include the internationalization of their institutions as a whole; organizational leadership must be engaged in their center and in international student programming; and the compliance component of their roles and the student service function must be separate.
Journal of International Students, 2019
International student enrollment in higher education has risen in the United States for the past ... more International student enrollment in higher education has risen in the United States for the past several decades. Along with the increase within 4-year institutions, the number of international students at community colleges also continues to rise. Open Doors reports there were 91,648 total international students enrolled in community college for the 2014–2015 academic year. Since student retention is often reviewed as a measure of “the quality of educational experiences” (Lee, 2010, p. 68), these changing enrollment statistics raise questions about international students’ engagement and sense of belonging within U.S. community colleges. Guided by Deil-Amen’s (2011) construct of socio-academic integration moments and Strayhorn’s (2012) sense of belonging, and using the Community College Survey of Student Engagement dataset and structural equation modeling, this study found that socio-academic integration was instrumental for sense of belonging for international students while social...
New Directions for Higher Education, 2020
This chapter uses the Job, Career, Calling conceptual framework to explore the career motivations... more This chapter uses the Job, Career, Calling conceptual framework to explore the career motivations of 119 mid‐level administrators in international higher education. Further, the primary job responsibilities of the mid‐level administrators are also examined to determine if work aligns with motivation. We find that international center directors often came to their roles through a sense of calling that was developed through prior international experiences and the desire to improve the student experience, cultural awareness, and internationalization of the institution and beyond.
New Directions for Institutional Research, 2017
This chapter presents three themes that have emerged from the previous chapters and offers ideas ... more This chapter presents three themes that have emerged from the previous chapters and offers ideas on how to implement recommendations within IR offices.
Journal of Negro Education, 2015
Why Race and Culture Matters in Schools: Closing the Achievement Gap in America's Classrooms,... more Why Race and Culture Matters in Schools: Closing the Achievement Gap in America's Classrooms, by Tyrone C. Howard. New York: Teachers College Press, 2010, 181 pp., $27.65, paperback.In Why Race and Culture Matters in Schools: Closing the Achievement Gap in America's Classrooms, Tyrone C. Howard, Associate Professor of Education of Urban Schooling and Director of Center X in the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies at UCLA, discusses the gaps in the academic achievement of low-income minority students in American schools. Howard provides an informative and insightful discussion of how culture and race continues to play a powerful role in influencing teaching and learning outcomes of students of color. This book is timely and stimulates the ongoing conversation and recent debates in K-12 regarding appropriately measuring student learning outcomes and closing the achievement gap among different socioeconomic groups of students. He organizes the book by exposing and describing the problem of the achievement gap in light of critical race theory (CRT) and sociocultural theory, and he finalizes his book by examining four different exemplary schools that moved from a cultural deficit paradigm to a cultural difference paradigm using culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP). Howard's goal in writing this text is to convey the urgency to educators, researchers, administrators, and parents to have a deep and critical understanding of race and culture to better inform school reform designs and to help close the achievement gaps.Howard begins with an overview that succinctly introduces his goals in writing the book. In the introduction he explains his use of both conceptual and empirical scholarly research. Because Howard wants to move away from the White-Black dichotomy, he explains how his findings are "situated in both a multicultural theory and practice framework" as well as by tenets of two theoretical frameworks-critical race and sociocultural theory (p. 2). Howard's first two chapters examine the teaching implications of the changing demographics in schools. He candidly explains how school performance data demonstrate the academic achievement gap between students of different socioeconomic groups. Howard defines the achievement gap as thediscrepancy in educational outcomes between various student groups, namely, African American, Native American, certain Asian American (i.e., Filipino, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotian, Hmong, Samoan, Thai, and other Southeast Asian students), and Latino students on the low end of the performance scale, and primarily White and various Asian American students at the higher end of the academic performance scale, (p. 10)Howard's documented portrayal and analysis of the U.S. schools' traditional measures of achievement-reading, math, retention, suspensions, expulsions, and graduation rates-illustrate the pronounced academic discrepancies not only among groups of different socioeconomic statuses but also of different races. According to Howard, the large influx of Latino and Asian populations in the United States has dramatically changed the demographic landscape, which raises the question: "Are educators prepared to teach in diverse schools?" (p. 40). After examining the racial make-up of the current teaching population, Howard concludes that there is a scarcity of teachers of color, which can have potential negative repercussions in the quality of instruction for students of color. Therefore, adopting a multicultural education as a conceptual and guiding framework can help teachers understand the necessary skills to teach diverse learners, and more importantly, recognize the "important roles that race, culture, language, gender, and class currently play in United States' classrooms and society" (p. 45). Using a multicultural approach in the classrooms, according to Howard, is a promising path to guarantee educational parity for all students.In the subsequent chapters, (chapters 3,4, and 5) Howard describes the ways in which culture and race impact teaching, learning, and student achievement. …
Journal of International Students, 2014
International student mobility in higher education has gained currency as an important topic in t... more International student mobility in higher education has gained currency as an important topic in today’s global, political, and economic environment. United States postsecondary institutions are working to expand their international student population to increase revenue and diversity. The current higher education and economic context has produced a “global war” to identify, recruit, and matriculate talented students who have become more mobile when selecting postsecondary education destinations. Thus, in order to provide a clear picture of the current status of international student migration to the United States, we sought to understand the following: 1)prestige as a determining factor in the selection of studying abroad for non-Americans living outside the United States; 2) federal and state financial influences that directly affect institutions’ abilities to enroll foreign students; 3) implications for postsecondary institutions in the United States; and 4) implications for scien...
BRILL eBooks, Jun 20, 2023
New Directions for Higher Education, Jun 1, 2022
In this chapter, the experiences of mid‐level business and finance staff positions in private col... more In this chapter, the experiences of mid‐level business and finance staff positions in private colleges are explored to illuminate how they engage the campus environment as they help navigate their institutional fiscal vitality through the lens of empowerment theory. Through qualitative interviewers, findings include how they negotiate shared governance with members of the community who have tenure and how they empower those around them.
Tertiary Education and Management, Dec 1, 2018
The rising cost of higher education has driven researchers and practitioners alike to identify ar... more The rising cost of higher education has driven researchers and practitioners alike to identify areas of waste and search for practices associated with increasing efficiency. One area commonly targeted is human resources, where the dominant narrative focuses on the role of downsizing as a way to decrease cost. In contrast to workforce reduction, institutions could reduce inefficiencies by finding effective ways to avoid premature departure and strengthen the current workforce in higher education. In this study, we analyze employees’ perception of their work conditions and sense of empowerment, in relation to job satisfaction, which has been found to increase productivity and reduce turnover. To illustrate and model key variables, we utilize structural equation modeling to analyze the relationship between our key latent constructs. We find empowerment is positively related to job satisfaction, while working conditions are not.
Journal of international students, May 15, 2019
International student enrollment in higher education has risen in the United States for the past ... more International student enrollment in higher education has risen in the United States for the past several decades. Along with the increase within 4-year institutions, the number of international students at community colleges also continues to rise. Open Doors reports there were 91,648 total international students enrolled in community college for the 2014-2015 academic year. Since student retention is often reviewed as a measure of "the quality of educational experiences" (Lee, 2010, p. 68), these changing enrollment statistics raise questions about international students' engagement and sense of belonging within U.S. community colleges. Guided by Deil-Amen's (2011) construct of socio-academic integration moments and Strayhorn's (2012) sense of belonging, and using the Community College Survey of Student Engagement dataset and structural equation modeling, this study found that socio-academic integration was instrumental for sense of belonging for international students while social integration is also, to a lesser extent, significant to sense of belonging. Our findings suggest that international students are more likely to obtain closer relationships than their domestic peers when it comes to faculty and staff interactions.
Higher Education Quarterly
The Journal of Higher Education
Journal of International Students
Some institutions have sought to centralize the supports they give students by developing a cente... more Some institutions have sought to centralize the supports they give students by developing a center or office dedicated to international students, led by a director or manager overseeing international student support. However, these directors are also not given the resources needed to fully support international students. Our study focuses on the role and empowerment of these international center leaders. A multi-institution case study approach, guided by the empowerment framework, was utilized. The first research question asked what perceptions international center directors have of the resources and support structures provided by their institutions for the growing international student population. The second research question examined how international center directors perceive their empowerment, and which dimensions of empowerment they experience, or lack. Findings include international center directors reporting their sense of empowerment is founded in their desire to serve, sens...
Journal of International Students
International students are more likely to experience mental health issues and increased stress. M... more International students are more likely to experience mental health issues and increased stress. Mental health is often surrounded by negative societal stigmas that act as barriers to seeking support and tend to lead to greater mental health concerns. International students tend to seek socioemotional support from other international student peers rather than seeking out counseling services. However, this study shows that LGBTQIA+ international students were less likely to seek socioemotional support from other international student peers due to fear of their sexual orientation being discovered and their families finding out about their identity. This study examines how LGBTQIA+ international students talk about their experiences on and off campus in relations to their socioemotional well-being. Specifically, this study sought to better understand the complexities of LGBTQIA+ students’ identities, and the challenges they faced in terms of their socioemotional well-being. Implications...
Higher Education Policy in Developing and Western Nations, 2022
Journal of Education Human Resources, 2021
Using a critical lens, this article discusses some of the most common recommendations for human r... more Using a critical lens, this article discusses some of the most common recommendations for human resource and community college leaders on how to respond to budget cuts to student affairs and support services at community colleges. Student affairs and support services are often the first to experience budget cuts in higher education, yet little is known about the impact of—as well as responses to—declining budgets to such services in community colleges. As part of this critical analysis, we frame recommendations using resource-based perspectives to better understand institutional actions in the face of budget cuts, such as identifying sustainable alternative financial resources and increasing efficiency of existing financial and human resources through increased coordination with other community college units. We also discuss how these best practices can also lead to other challenges in times of financial crisis that institutional leaders should consider.
Journal of Applied Research in the Community College, 2016
There is a large corpus of literature that has consistently indicated that the majority of Latino... more There is a large corpus of literature that has consistently indicated that the majority of Latino students who enroll in college matriculate at two-year community colleges over four-year universities (Arbona & Nora, 2007; Cohen, Brawer, & Kisker, 2014; Fry, 2002; Garza, 2006; Laanan, 2001; Ornelas & Solorzano, 2004; Solorzano, Villalpando, & Oseguera, 2005). There are various reasons for this pattern. Community colleges' open-admission policies allow students who are over the age of eighteen to matriculate regardless of prior academic performance and offer a college education at a much lower cost than their four-year peer institutions (Cohen et al., 2014). While it is encouraging that Hispanic students are enrolling at community colleges, the literature has consistently indicated the drawbacks of enrolling at these institutions (Cohen et al., 2014; Fry, 2002; Laanan, 2001; Pascarella, & Terenzini, 2005; Swail, Cabrera, Lee, & Williams, 2005). Indeed, studies have concluded that ...
Preparing Students for Community-Engaged Scholarship in Higher Education, 2020
This chapter illuminates the ways in which community colleges can develop and enhance their commu... more This chapter illuminates the ways in which community colleges can develop and enhance their community-engaged scholarship (CES) to ensure they meet the needs of the local communities they are a part of. Indeed, community-engaged scholarship (CES) has been seen as a vehicle to support local communities by creating partnerships with postsecondary institutions to ensure research is conducted in a way that is mutually beneficial. The authors first explore the large corpus of literature regarding undergraduate research and then present a select number of community colleges that have been successful in incorporating undergraduate research projects. They then present how CES has been defined and how it has been implemented within a higher education context. They then proceed to introduce a CES conceptual model and explain how community colleges can utilize the model to support the institutionalization of CES programs. They conclude with recommendations for future research.
The Journal of Higher Education, 2020
This study explores how mid-level administrators working in international student service centers... more This study explores how mid-level administrators working in international student service centers make meaning of their roles and perceive the support their institutions provide. Utilizing critical discourse analysis and the theoretical framework of empowerment, this study reveals the social problems, power struggles, and avenues mid-level administrators utilize for change. Specifically, we find that participants cope with significant social problems that impact society and higher education. They are often caught between internal and external power struggles over policy and procedures on their campuses and face expectations that are unrealistic given their available resources. In order to be empowered, mid-level administrators need their centers and spaces in favorable locations on campus; strategic actions and planning must include the internationalization of their institutions as a whole; organizational leadership must be engaged in their center and in international student programming; and the compliance component of their roles and the student service function must be separate.
Journal of International Students, 2019
International student enrollment in higher education has risen in the United States for the past ... more International student enrollment in higher education has risen in the United States for the past several decades. Along with the increase within 4-year institutions, the number of international students at community colleges also continues to rise. Open Doors reports there were 91,648 total international students enrolled in community college for the 2014–2015 academic year. Since student retention is often reviewed as a measure of “the quality of educational experiences” (Lee, 2010, p. 68), these changing enrollment statistics raise questions about international students’ engagement and sense of belonging within U.S. community colleges. Guided by Deil-Amen’s (2011) construct of socio-academic integration moments and Strayhorn’s (2012) sense of belonging, and using the Community College Survey of Student Engagement dataset and structural equation modeling, this study found that socio-academic integration was instrumental for sense of belonging for international students while social...
New Directions for Higher Education, 2020
This chapter uses the Job, Career, Calling conceptual framework to explore the career motivations... more This chapter uses the Job, Career, Calling conceptual framework to explore the career motivations of 119 mid‐level administrators in international higher education. Further, the primary job responsibilities of the mid‐level administrators are also examined to determine if work aligns with motivation. We find that international center directors often came to their roles through a sense of calling that was developed through prior international experiences and the desire to improve the student experience, cultural awareness, and internationalization of the institution and beyond.
New Directions for Institutional Research, 2017
This chapter presents three themes that have emerged from the previous chapters and offers ideas ... more This chapter presents three themes that have emerged from the previous chapters and offers ideas on how to implement recommendations within IR offices.
Hugo Garcia CV, 2020
January 2020 CV