Con Ganas Reading list
Copies of these books are available in Miller Library for check out.
Con Ganas Lunch Forums
At our regular semester lunch forums you can learn more about what your colleagues are doing to implement their own HSI projects into their domains of expertise to better serve our learners and support our faculty/staff.
Student Engagement and Efficacy Workshop Series 2024-2025: Culturally Responsive Teaching/Flexible Teaching Strategies
10/24/2024
Dara Naphan-Kingery, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Sociology
Michael Cook, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Political Science
Jia Rowland, Research Assistant
Workshop #3: Culturally Responsive Teaching/Flexible Teaching Strategies– held on 10/24/2024
Workshop participants: Dr. Cook, Dr. Naphan-Kingery, and Jia Rowland
Series co-moderated by Roberta Brown and Michael Cook
Workshop #3, titled “Culturally Responsive Teaching/Flexible Teaching Strategies,” was the third workshop in the Lunch Forum series for the HSI Community of Learning and Practice. The workshop offered a statistical figure that points to complex underlying factors impacting student outcomes, both external and within the institutional environment. It highlighted areas where targeted improvements in campus experience can be impactful for Latinx students.
Key Discussion Points
Challenges in Effectively Serving Hispanic Students in HSI Institutions:
- The discussion centered on whether HSIs merely enroll Hispanic students or actively support their success. Many HSIs, especially those previously predominantly white, are not always structured to meet the needs of Hispanic students. Disparities also persist in HSI funding and representation, with Latinx faculty underrepresented relative to white faculty.
- Faculty representation matters as research indicates that students of color benefit academically and emotionally from faculty with similar backgrounds.
Cultural Mismatch and Communication Styles:
- The Cultural Mismatch Theory was a framework to understand the tensions faced by first-generation and minority students in adapting to academic norms that may contrast with their collectivist, interdependent backgrounds.
- Key concepts discussed included personalismo (close, respectful relationships with faculty), simpatía (desire to maintain harmony), and fatalismo (an external locus of control), which can influence Hispanic students’ classroom interactions and coping strategies.
Impact of Low vs. High Context Communication in the Classroom:
- Many Hispanic students come from high-context cultures, where communication is more implicit, harmony-driven, and relational. This contrasts with the low-context, direct, and task-oriented communication styles predominant in academia. This mismatch can affect engagement and perceptions of authority within academic settings.
- Examples were shared of how students often hesitate to challenge or critique ideas openly, instead favoring a collaborative, additive approach to discussions, which may lead to misunderstandings or diminished classroom participation.
Practical Recommendations for Faculty:
- Faculty can adapt communication approaches to meet students’ needs by recognizing the importance of one-on-one interactions and real-time engagement.
- Asynchronous learning poses a challenge by increasing reliance on low-context communication; in-person or synchronous methods may better convey the tone and non-verbal cues Hispanic students value.
- Language flexibility, such as allowing communication in Spanish where appropriate, can help students feel more comfortable and reduce barriers to participation.
Video Recording of Presentation
Student Engagement and Efficacy Workshop Series 2024-2025: Building Community for Online Learners
09/26/2024
Dean Foster, Chief Online Education Officer
Mary Elizabeth McBrayer, Assistant Professor/Program Director for the RN-to-BSN & RN-to-MSN Tracks
Kim Petrovic, Ph.D., Associate Dean of the School of Nursing and Kinesiology (SONAK)
Workshop #2: Building Community for Online Learners – held on 09/26/2024
Workshop participants: Dean Foster, Professor McBrayer, and Dr. Petrovic.
Series co-moderated by Roberta Brown and Michael Cook
Workshop #2, titled “Building Community for Online Learners,” was the second of an eight-session series geared toward highlighting, discussing, critiquing, and adapting student success tools/approaches/considerations in various contexts (e.g., on campus, online, general education, dual enrollment, etc.).
In this workshop, experienced online educators and those who have designed online programs shared practical strategies for bridging the “virtual division” and building meaningful connections with students in the online environment to support student success and using discussion boards in two styles of writing versus videos brought fruitful insights about what works and how it is different according to the content and field. The advancement of technological tools and resources to teach was addressed, considering implications related to internet connectivity for remote students. In this workshop, the exchange of ideas about an online community, particularly at a Hispanic-serving institution, and why it matters was a big part of the conversation for faculty and staff. It also highlighted the need for effective communication in writing.
We had 3 participants for our second 90-minutes workshop.
Building Community for Online Learners
- Dean Foster delivered valuable online resources, such as Models Lab and Harmonize, for faculty to foster interaction, provide timely feedback, be present and visible, make announcements, and mentor meetings.
Using Accurate and Effective Writing to Build Community for Online Learners
- Professor McBrayer and Dr. Petrovic discussed the relevance of written communication, the need for quality writing in nursing, and the standardization of APA (7th Edition) formatting and style requirements in online courses.
Video Recording of Presentation
Student Engagement and Efficacy Workshop Series 2024-2025: Supporting the Whole Student
08/29/2024
Kate Oubre, Ph.D., Assistant VPAA, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences
Damon Bullock, Ph.D., Co-Chair of Behavioral Sciences / Professor of Criminal Justice
Ms. Shelby Wilkie, Mental Health Therapist
Ms. Hope Estepp-Dixon, Primary Advisor
Tanya Rivers, Professor of Developmental Mathematics, FAR
Workshop #1: Supporting the Whole Student – held on 08/29/2024
Workshop participants: Dr. Kate Oubre, Dr. Damon Bullock, Ms. Shelby Wilkie, Ms. Hope Estepp-Dixon, and Prof. Tanya Rivers. Note: Ms. Kim Woodard contributed to the presentation Dr. Oubre delivered.
Series co-moderated by Roberta Brown and Michael Cook
Titled “Supporting the Whole Student,” workshop #1 was the first of an 8-session series geared toward highlighting, discussing, critiquing, and adapting student success tools/approaches/considerations in various contexts (e.g., on campus, online, general education, dual enrollment, etc.).
We recognize that our faculty and staff have a wealth of teaching knowledge and experience, but based on interactions with colleagues, we appear sometimes to have difficulty breaking out of our respective departmental/disciplinary silos. Thus, the spirit of the workshop—and the series, more broadly—is idea, experience, and expertise sharing to generate cross-campus discussion about how most effectively to support student success. Fundamentally, we are aiming for cross-pollination and mutual support/exchange of ideas and tools.
In workshop #1, we plunged right into the deep end of the pool. We discussed practical academic student success interventions as well as those related to mental health and stress. Many new, and even returning, students feel overwhelmed and lost from the beginning of the semester. Overall, we were guided by the following questions: What are the problems we see? And how can we intervene to mitigate them before students are unable to recover in class?
We had five participants for our first 90-minutes workshop.
Definition of the problem/articulation of student success challenges
1. Dr. Kate Oubre gave a brief overview of challenges based on experience and discussions in Academic Affairs, the College of Arts and Sciences, and across WNMU.
2. Dr. Damon Bullock presented his recent research assessing the needs of students, particularly those in an online learning environment. He conducted a survey over the summer to gain insights into the experiences of students who have and have not accessed academic resources. And why.
Mental Health Interventions
1. Ms. Shelby Wilkie provided faculty with helpful tools and resources for effective intervention(s) to address stress, anxiety, and depression among our students.
Academic Interventions
1. Dr. Oubre spoke about the revamped tools—namely, Dropout Detective and Mustang Alert—and new tutoring initiatives at WNMU, in addition to how Student Services and Advising are working to support student academic success.
2. Prof. Tanya Rivers spoke to her experience with building “learning ecosystems,” using the Math Cafe as a model. Her presentation addressed both online and face-to-face learners.
Video Recording of Presentation
Dr. Shiva Kyasa- 10/24/2023
Dr. Kyasa, Professor of Chemistry, presented on the Syllabus and Design Thinking in Chemistry- how he has applied what he has learned from the Con Ganas Summer Institute into his courses. Dr. Kyasa demonstrated how readability and the scaffolding technique have been implemented in his organic chemistry classes. Additionally Dr. Kyasa shared qualitative data on student receptions to his implantation in his courses.
Dr. Scott Fritz – 09/27/23
“Aligning American History Courses with WNMU’s Status as a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI)”
Dr. Fritz provided an outstanding overview on how he is enabling his students to co-construct and team organize a survey focused on themselves and how they identify with this region and their origins – where they were born and grew up, and where their parents came from. For those of you there, this was a fascinating look at how to operationalize a co-constructed or “crowdsourced” survey relevant to the learner(s) and sensitive to all of them.
Dr. Fritz provided a foundation for discussion on how he is incorporating relevant regional history into his history courses, and how he is creating engaging and culturally responsive student assignments into his courses. His expert ideas and strategies opened up a lot of opportunities that can be applied across the curriculum, and relevant to the Con Ganas project.
Video Recording of Presentation
Adel Springer- 10/11/2023
Adele Springer, Institutional Researcher, provided an excellent overview of Pivot Tables and how to use them to refine large amounts of data to demonstrate data trends and extract important data points. This is foundational to building upon our goal of demonstrating a culture of evidence here at WNMU.
Video Recording of Presentation
Dr. Sue McFeaters and Dr. Scott Smith- 03/07/2024
For this insightful Con Ganas Lunch Forum, Dr. Sue McFeaters and Dr. Scott Smith co-created and presented a forum on the principles and practices of Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) and its vital role in creating inclusive and equitable educational experiences.
A dynamic panel of faculty members shared their resources and implementation practices on the subject.
The panelists:
Dr. Manuel Bustamante, College of Education
Dr. Levi Si, College of Education
Dr. Estella Lightfoot, School of Social Work
Dr. Perry James, College of Education Gallup Campus
Dr. Andrew Hernandez, School of Social Sciences and Cultural Studies
Panelists delved into various aspects of culturally responsive teaching, including:
Specific strategies they have implemented across multiple modes of instruction including digital and traditional storytelling, non-western educational experience sharing, and biases examination.
Implementation of CRT to multi-modal instruction including cultural communication, implicit & explicit curriculum, and culturally responsive methodologies including Participatory Action Research.
CRT and non-traditional learner strategies including Flexible Pedagogies, anonymous surveys, scaffolding, and teaching through your own personal cultural perspective.
How CRT can complement your current teaching methods including valuing students perspectives, incorporating lived experiences, teaching to transgress, dynamic micro lectures, traditional non-western teaching methods and reflective writing.
Felipe De Ortego Y Gasca Institute
Who was Felipe de Ortego Y Gasca?
Dr. Ortego was the founding director of The University of Texas at El Paso’s Chicano Studies program and is considered the founder of Chicano literary history. Starting in 2007, Dr. Ortego was the Scholar-in-Residence at Western New Mexico University, where he focuses on cultural studies, critical theory and public policy. Dr. Ortego also chaired and helped found New Mexico’s first Chicano Studies Department, the Department of Chicano/a and Hemispheric Studies. Dr. Ortego was a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English and Comparative Literature, having retired from Sul Ross State University in 1999.
Dr. Felipe de Ortego y Gasca was a legendary figure in Chicano/a studies and the pioneer of the Chicano Renaissance in literature. Besides being a prolific writer, Ortego was an actor, musician, activist, university professor, and a U.S. Marine who saw action in three confl icts and served in the U.S. government. The son of migrant farmworkers, Ortego spoke only Spanish in his childhood. However, he went on to earn a Ph.D in English and published work in numerous genres, including journalism, action, theater, essays, and academic papers. Ortego died in December 2018.
- Mission
We are an integral component of Western New Mexico University’s educational and cultural goals as a Hispanic Serving Institutions; we provide opportunities for students, faculty, and staff to engage and develop awareness of the Latina & Latino experience. - Vision
To become the most trusted and reliable institutional entity in New Mexico for the exchange of ideas and enhancement of the Latina & Latino experience.
Felipe De Ortego Y Gasca Lecture Series
The Felipe de Ortego y Gasca Lecture Series is named in honor of WNMU’s former scholar-in-residence. The event, which may be a lecture, reading, or panel discussion, takes place annually and focuses on any subject that Felipe was engaged in, especially Chicano issues, social justice issues, and literature.
Stella Pope Duarte- 09/12/24
Inspired to become a writer by a prophetic dream of her father in 1995, acclaimed author, activist, and educator Stella Pope Duarte is recognized as an “author who will enlarge humanity.” Named by critics as a “major, literary voice in America,” she is described as a “magical weaver with a sure hand and a pure heart.” Her work includes her novels Let Their Spirits Dance, that honors Latinos who fought and died in the Vietnam War, and If I Die in Juárez, based on the horrific murders of women whose untimely deaths have led the way to healing and hope for women worldwide.
In this presentation, Stella Pope Duarte reveals what it really takes to get in touch with who you are as a writer. In this exciting excursion into the power of creative work, you will discover the open doors, valleys and mountains within yourself that create the characters and landscapes that are yours alone.
Video Recording of Presentation
Tim Z Hernandez- 10/04/23
Tim Z. Hernandez is an award-winning author, research scholar, and performer. His books include fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, and he is the recipient of the American Book Award, and the International Latino Book.
This presentation focused on the author’s decades-long journey to uncover stories that have been lost, omitted, or erased from popular American narratives. Centered on his previous award winning books, Mañana Means Heaven, All They Will Call You, and most recently, Some of the Light, the author will speak about the process of story-gathering, and turning research into creative narrative, utilizing a wide range of tools from multiple genres.
Video Recording of Presentation