Exploring Undergraduate Latine Students' Learning Experiences in STEM Courses

We used a phenomenological research design to explore 19 Latina and Queer identifying undergraduate students' lived experiences in STEM undergraduate courses at a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI). Eighteen participants self-identified as female and one identified as genderqueer with an average undergraduate grade point average of 3.07. The following themes emerged from phenomenological data analysis: failure to acknowledge students' cultural and language resources; deficit assumptions about students' background, abilities, and potential; absence of active and collaborative learning and practical and real-world examples; minimal feedback on student learning and growth; disregard for student voices in design of assessments; and misalignment between assessments and evaluation tools to measure those assessments. We provide implications for faculty developers at HSIs and other institutions of higher education.