Taking a Holistic and Culturally Sustaining Approach to Serving HSI Students

Workshop Series

Every Learner Everywhere in partnership with Achieving the Dream has developed a 3-part Hispanic Serving teaching and learning workshop series. This service supports faculty and educators at Hispanic Serving Institutions by providing instructional strategies and approaches alongside digital tools for implementing servingness in teaching and learning spaces. The workshops focus on transforming the Latino student experience through the exploration of (1) community cultural wealth, (2) a sense of belonging and (3) open and culturally responsive education. Participants will examine what intentional “servingness”  looks like in practice, how to embed community cultural wealth into the learning experience, implementing culturally sustaining teaching strategies to support multilingual learners while utilizing digital tools to best support Latino students and their success.

 Workshop I:

• Embracing the Community Cultural Wealth (CCW) of Latino students 
  • In this session participants will engage with Yosso’s Community Cultural Wealth Framework to better understand the funds of knowledge Latino students bring into the learning environment.  Participants will explore how linguistic capital can be embraced as a means to create a space where students feel they can bring their authentic selves while utilizing their navigational capital and familial capital to engage in the learning environment.
  • Participants review how community Cultural Wealth is put into practice through course assignments that foster community building, academic agency, and spaces that holistically embrace Latino students.

 Workshop II:

• From isolation to a Sense of Belonging 
  • The workshop explores inclusive and culturally affirming pedagogy that encourages a sense of belonging through Mutualista Pedagogy. This pedagogical approach supports the cultural ways of being, knowing and learning of many Latino students through its focus on community, collaboration family, and shared sense of purpose.
  • Participants practice strategies to bring sense of belonging to their courses through activities, materials, assessments, interactions, and approaches that transform the course space into a safer and more culturally sustaining and affirming environment where Latino students feel empowered, validated and liberated.

 Workshop III:

• Open and Culturally Responsive Framework as a tool for Servingness 
  • Workshop participants learn about the Standford Research Institute’s Open and Culturally Responsive Framework. It serves as a tool with course features and dimensions for educators to implement open and culturally relevant teaching and learning. Participants will revise the framework through a servingness lens to better serve their Latino students.
  • OER exemplars will be provided to inform the design and implementation of open and culturally responsive practices, assignments, and assessments in their courses.

Learning Outcomes:

Upon engaging in this workshop participants will:

• Increase their knowledge of SERVINGNESS as it relates to being faculty and educators at an HSI
• Have a better understanding of how to design course assignments that build community, embrace Latino linguistic, familiar, and navigational Community Cultural Wealth, while dismantling structures and teaching practices that isolate Latino students
• Gain an awareness of how to create educational environments that allow students to engage in learning as their authentic and whole selves
• Enhance their skills to identify and implement the use of digital tools that support students’ cultural connection to course content
• Design an Open and Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning framework from the context of centering students’ culture, identity, and lived experiences in course content and curriculum

Service Deliverable:

Complete a reflection to include next steps for advancing servingness in teaching and learning spaces.

Intended Audience:

Faculty, part time instructors, instructional designers, academic leaders, and coaches

Service Format:

Virtual 3-part Hispanic Serving teaching and learning workshop series.

Delivery Method:

Virtual synchronous facilitated workshops.

Length and duration:

Each workshop is 2 hours in length. Workshop content builds upon one another. Workshops delivery is scheduled on alternate weeks to allow participants to implement teaching and learning practices between each workshop. The workshop series duration is 6 weeks in length.

Time on task required:

Participants will attend 3 two-hour workshops, identify, implement, and assess outcomes for one teaching and learning practice. Assessment should include student, engagement, experience, and success outcomes. Total hours of commitment for engaging in the series is 15 to 18 hours.