EXAMINING ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR OF HISPANIC-SERVING INSTITUTION COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENTS: TOWARD SERVINGNESS AND EQUITY IN THE FIELD

Abstract

This study examines the organizational behavior of departments in Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) with sustained success in graduating Latinx computer science bachelor’s degree recipients. I employ the conceptual framework of HSI servingness, built on a systematic review of literature on HSIs, to investigate the creation of opportunity structures to serve Latinx and minoritized students at the department level. The research for this piece is based on a multiple ethnographic case study of four computer science departments in the Computing Alliance of Hispanic-Serving Institutions. The data corpus included interviews with 102 stakeholders and 69 observations, each of which was conducted on site at the departments. In the analysis, three findings emerged as especially distinctive organizational behaviors to advance minoritized students’ outcomes in computer science. The first finding involved how departmental personnel used disaggregated institutional data in race-conscious and intersectionality-oriented ways to inform more inclusive departmental practices and meet demands for external disciplinary accreditation. The second finding involved how departmental personnel took collective responsibility to build career support for students. The third finding involved how personnel applied a talent development perspective to pedagogical approaches in order to create validating environments for Latinx and other minoritized students. This research extends scholarship on servingness in HSIs to both departmental organizational contexts and computer science fields. It also offers organizational strategies to create more inclusive environments and promote equitable outcomes for minoritized students in science.