Campus Location
Dallas Campus (Online)
Date of Award
5-2021
Document Type
Dissertation
Department
Organizational Leadership
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Committee Chair or Primary Advisor
Dr. Simone Elias
Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor
Dr. Linda Wilson-Jones
Third Committee Member or Committee Reader
Dr. Bryan Patterson
Abstract
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to understand the factors that influence the leadership development of Chicano leaders who serve in the Texas community college system and how whiteness, white supremacy, anti-Mexican sentiment, and institutional racism impact their leadership style. While there is a revitalization to study the Chicano experience, few scholars have examined the concept of Chicano leadership within the context of Texas higher education. The strategy to use testimonios for this study provided an insight to the leadership identity development process of four Chicano leaders in Texas community colleges while exposing the racial inequities in higher education. Three prominent themes and six subthemes emerged: (1) racial micro-aggression, (2) racial micro-expectation, and (3) resistance. An in-depth analysis of the themes was further explored revealing subthemes that offered insight into how the role of whiteness, white supremacy, and institutional racism impact the leadership identity development of Chicano leaders in Texas community colleges: (1a) resiliency, (1b) Chicano identity, (2a) negotiate Chicano identity, (2b) anti-Mexican/Chicano, (3a) organize, and (3b) protect other Chicanos. Results from this study provide a glimpse of the realities that Chicano leaders in Texas community colleges encounter. The researcher concludes that there is a real problem with race, institutional racism, Whiteness, and white supremacy in Texas community colleges and if not confronted, then these institutions will continue to operate as they always have. This study is an example of how Chicano leaders have the will, skill, and knowledge to be change agents that disrupts racism and white supremacy in higher education as Chicano leadership is rooted in a collective historia, communidad, love for self and all people, organizing and activism, resistance, pride, and dichos.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Pérez, Jonathan, "Testimonios of Chicano Leadership in Texas Community Colleges" (2021). Digital Commons @ ACU, Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 367.
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd/367
Included in
Adult and Continuing Education Commons, Community College Leadership Commons, Educational Leadership Commons, Higher Education Administration Commons