"The Tissue Box: Applying Critical Race Pedagogy in Latina/o Studies Office Hours"

This presentation seeks to center the role of office hours in Latina/o Studies. Mainstream literature on office hours in higher education has explored undergraduate and faculty perceptions of office hours. Specifically,... [ view full abstract ]

This presentation seeks to center the role of office hours in Latina/o Studies. Mainstream literature on office hours in higher education has explored undergraduate and faculty perceptions of office hours. Specifically, Newton and Gutman (1979) find inconsistencies in attendance and usage of office hours by faculty and students. Attempting to address this pre-existing tension in office hours, Atamian & DeMoville (1998) argue that faculty (institutions) need to use technology (specifically email) to meet student’s needs. Further, Steinhaus (1999) found that “walking office hours” were key for her students at a predominantly commuter campus. Lastly, Chung & Hsu (2006) found that supplemental hours in “course centers” were favorable to a student sample in physics and symbolic logic courses. They find that students prefer course center hours because they build community thereby improving their performance in class.

Using Critical Race Theory as a theoretical framework, Tara J. Yosso (2006) stages professor/student discussions on the impacts of racism and sexism in the academy and personal life within office hours for Latina/o students. Yosso’s (2006) counterstory led the author to reflect on the ways in which he uses office hours, as a Critical Race Theorist and Latina/o Studies faculty. The theoretical framework used is Critical Race Pedagogy (Floyd, 2008; Jennings and Lynn, 2005; Lynn, 1999; Lynn 2013), that argues for culturally relevant pedagogy for Students of Color. CRP and the literature on mainstream office hours allows the author to ask, what are the ways in which Critical Race Pedagogy informs how Latina/o Studies faculty use their office hours? Specifically, how do Latina/o Studies faculty frame their discussions, advising, and mentorship with undergraduate students?

The method used for this presentation is auto-ethnography (Chávez, 2012; Hughes, Pennington, and Makris, 2012; and Moule 2005) to provide analysis of the author’s experiences in his office hours during his first year as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in Latina/o Studies at a California State University. Specifically, the author uses personal memory and personal journals to code for themes that highlight the relationships between CRP and office hours. This project seeks to map qualitative perspectives of the value of office hours in Latina/o Studies courses, specifically in the ways that CRP can inform successful sessions between faculty and students. By creating composite characters and using counterstorytelling as method (Solórzano and Yosso, 2002), the author narrates scenes that display themes of self-awareness and community engagement. The author finds that Latina/o Studies curriculum engages these two themes, and they are often explored more in depth in the office hour setting. This presentation builds on literature on CRP and Latina/o Studies in higher education, specifically by valuing the Latina/o Studies professor’s office as well as other unofficial locations on a college campus, such as hallways and collective spaces like campus cultural centers, where self-awareness and community engagement takes place.