Presence of spanish in a hispanic-serving institution on the southwestern US border: Towards better serving underrepresented students

Abstract

This research explores the presence of Spanish in a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) in Southern California. Latinxs who are potentially Spanish speakers make up 34.6 % of the HSI's undergraduate enrollment. Three dimensions of space were analyzed: 1) the political dimension through institutional language policies; 2) the spatial dimension through linguistic landscape methodologies; and 3) the experiential dimension by collecting students’ perceptions about Spanish use on their university. Outcomes showed that the HSI positioned itself politically as appreciating linguistic diversity; however, outcomes revealed little Spanish in campus signage. Likewise, most students wanted to see more Spanish in their campus. The absence of Spanish in the educational space perpetuates the invisibility of Spanish speakers, underrepresents their identities, and reinforces the hegemony of English. The author recommends three approaches to better serve historically underrepresented students attending HSIs: the exploration of HSIs’ schoolscapes, the adoption of the critical pedagogy of place, and movement towards decolonization of HSIs.