2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

In their quest to further their understanding of the power of plática (authentic dialogue) in community engagement efforts, the researchers/practitioners embedded themselves in deep, critical conversations with family leaders from a community-based organization on issues of equity and excellence in education. The Family-Centered transformational theory was developed and shaped by fully engaging in fostering trusting relationships and partnerships with students, their families, and educators over seven years. Family Organizing, Strategic Training, Education and Research is the set of processes and methods that gave form to the Family-Centered Theory of Change. This theory of change was incorporated in the professional development of thirty-two STEM faculty, revised curricula in twenty-two different STEM courses, transformed teaching practices in fifty-two STEM course sections and impacted over 2,000 students and their families. The purpose of this study is to advance the body of knowledge on the operationalization of servingness and to provide insight on the utilization of metrics to assess the impact of equitable, community engagement efforts of servingness at Hispanic-Serving Institutions.

Well researched metrics on the sense of belonging and institutional integration were used to assess the effectiveness of the interventions and helped the researchers focus their intended, holistic outcomes on student success to go beyond achievement and persistence. Two-way ANOVA on baseline data (N=779) showed that female undergraduate students have statistically significant (α=0.05) higher sense of belonging than males throughout their first three years of college. This is consistent with institutional data that show higher retention and graduation rates for female undergraduate students than males, especially in STEM. Research activities have demonstrated that the intervention/enrichment has improved students' motivation, engagement, passing rates, and performance. Theme analysis on (N=151) open-ended surveys collected during an end-of-semester symposium revealed that participants (students, families, and faculty) felt a strong “sense of belonging with ownership and pride.” This somewhat “unintended” outcome is of particular interest to the researchers in this study. It not only demonstrates the fulfillment of the intended positive impact of an improved sense of belonging among the participants, but it also suggests equitable outcomes. These results show the effective implementation of the family-centered theory of change in the transformation of teaching practices in STEM courses.

In this study, the researchers/practitioners took a critical ethnographic approach to assess the impact of their community engagement efforts in their search for equity and excellence in education. Garcia, Nuñez, and Sansone’s (2019) also recommended ethnographic research to understand structures of servingness. The researchers utilized metrics on the sense of belonging and community engagement advanced by Mitchneck (2022) in the operationalization of Garcia, Nuñez, and Sansone’s (2019) multidimensional conceptual framework of servingness. Through critical reflection and reflexivity, the researchers used these metrics to assess the impact of the internal processes and methods of the family-centered theory of change and the navigation of institutional, pragmatic mechanisms that led to equitable outcomes among participants.