Students’ Perceived Value of Women’s and Gender Studies and Chicana/o Studies at a Hispanic Serving Institution: A Quantitative Analysis of “The Studies” in Higher Education
Abstract
Previous research indicates that “The Studies” are helpful to students at both K-12 and higher education levels. Most of these studies focus on K-12 schools, fewer are at the higher education level, and few use quantitative methods to examine students’ perceptions of “The Studies.” The purpose of this study is to research students’ perceived value of Women’s & Gender Studies and Chicana/o Studies at a Hispanic Serving Institution. This quantitative study employed a feminist framework and methodology to develop a survey instrument and to analyze the survey responses from students who took courses in Women’s & Gender Studies and Chicana/o Studies in the Fall of 2020. Separate analyses were conducted for Women’s & Gender Studies and Chicana/o Studies to review data for each program. The findings demonstrated that both women and men highly value Women’s & Gender Studies and Chicana/o Studies at this HSI in West Texas. These results contrast with a similar study (Horwath & Diabl, 2020) that found while both men and women admitted to the value of Women’s & Gender Studies courses, men who were required to take the courses expressed resistance and negative judgements. The present study adds to the limited research on “The Studies” in higher education. This study is student-focused and quantifies students’ perceived value of “The Studies,” two contributions that aimed to merge both classical feminist methods and quantitative methods. I sought to make this contribution to the field of feminist-centered methods of research through a paradigm shift addressing concerns in both feminist and positivist approaches.
Subject Area
Womens studies|Higher education|Educational evaluation|Hispanic American studies
Recommended Citation
Ontiveros-Arrieta, Hilda, "Students’ Perceived Value of Women’s and Gender Studies and Chicana/o Studies at a Hispanic Serving Institution: A Quantitative Analysis of “The Studies” in Higher Education" (2022). ETD Collection for University of Texas, El Paso. AAI29207765.
https://scholarworks.utep.edu/dissertations/AAI29207765