Connection to Literature - Flexible Learning Environments: Minoritized College Students’ Experiences in HyFlex

Connection to Literature
In Chapter 2, I introduced a foundation of literature to provide footing to the study within
a framework of existing empirical and theoretical studies involving minoritized college students.
I began the literature review with a section contextualizing HyFlex learning according to the
existing literature. Relying primarily on empirical literature, but also including limited relevant
theoretical works, I presented literature about minoritized college students; specifically, the three
most prominent groups in the study’s findings: Indigenous students, student mothers, and
students with disabilities. Although the Indigenous students were the most vocal about the need
for decolonizing education (including HyFlex), the notions of decolonization and critical
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consciousness permeated across the accounts of most participants. This common thread
warranted including a section of literature about decolonization and critical consciousness to give
context to why this was important to the participants and the study. Although at the time of this
study there has not been previous empirical research that directly explored how minoritized
college students experience and understand HyFlex learning, some of the literature on online
teaching and learning bears relevance for HyFlex. Careful consideration of parallels in the
findings and reconciling sample differences are essential to impart relative implications
The first major theme of the study, the Indigenous experience in HyFlex, gives voice to
Indigenous college students about their experiences in HyFlex and the schools where they take
HyFlex courses. The findings of Walton et al. (2020a) about key “supports and barriers for
Indigenous online college students support a wholistic and intersectional Indigenous model that
includes social, cognitive, physical and cultural components” (p. 23). The social component
entails positive student–faculty relationships, positive student–student relationships, positive
environment, time management, and motivation. The cognitive component of their model
includes building students’ literacy, math, and computer skills. The physical component includes
financial support, affordable housing, family support, and non-academic support. The cultural
component calls for colleges to hire more Indigenous faculty and infuse more Indigenous culture
in the courses and throughout the college experience.
Walton et al.’s (2020a) findings are congruent with the findings of this dissertation.
Although participants did not use those keywords verbatim, in their interview accounts they
expressed several met and unmet needs in the social, cognitive, physical, and cultural domains.
Though not the only one, Josephine was the most vocal about expressing the need to fulfill these
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four domains and the need to decolonize education and infuse Indigenous culture in HyFlex (and
in the overall college experience).
Mize and Glover (2021) brought to light the educational inequities confronting
Indigenous students and other students of color, which became exacerbated during the COVID-
19 global pandemic. The authors argue students of color have experienced compounding levels
of loss during this pandemic; they explained:
For students from families whose incomes fell near or below the national poverty line,
access to technology became an immediate concern. The wrap around services such as
food support, health, and counseling services typically provided by school districts for
these students were suddenly unavailable. (Mize & Glover, 2021, p. 162)
This resonates with some of the details the Indigenous participants discussed during the
phenomenological interviews. Some participants devised creative ways to overcome the effects
of poverty and took advantage of any wraparound services they could get. Lyle rented a small
apartment and shared a car with his aunt to save money and make ends meet as he pursues a
degree in criminology. Lyle’s daily routine involved dropping his maternal aunt off each
morning at the hospital where she worked; he then went to his own job and finished in time to
drive back to the hospital and attend his HyFlex class in his car, using the hospital’s public Wi-Fi
network in the parking lot while he waited for his aunt to finish work and drive back home
together.
Winona and Josephine pointed out how the faculty at their college was comprised of
mostly White teachers. Josephine pointed out there was only one African instructor and just a
handful of Indigenous faculty. Although they generally liked their teachers, they stated they
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would like to see more Indigenous representation in the faculty ranks and in the general college
experience. Mize and Glover (2021) highlighted this issue of cultural imbalance and lack of
representation. Minoritized students do not see themselves reflected enough in the faculty ranks.
The authors called for “institutional and curricular change grounded on antiracist and abolitionist
policies and practices that reject white supremacist educational ideology” (Mize & Glover, 2021,
p. 163). During the interviews, Josephine explained how she perceived a need for critical
consciousness and antiracist and practices to validate Indigenous culture and ways of knowing to
reject underlying White supremacist ideology.
Gaudry and Lorenz (2018) contended universities using treaty frameworks can be
important to effect change by allowing all persons in their ecosystem to understand their position
in the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, and that in doing so
universities can ensure all stakeholders understand that Indigenization is not just a ceremonial or
symbolic program but a way of working together through collaboration, consensus, and
meaningful partnership. The authors pointed out there is significant consensus around the world
that universities have decolonized, and that curriculum is generally Eurocentric and “rooted in
colonial, apartheid, and Western worldviews and epistemological traditions . . . therefore
continuing to reinforce white and Western dominance and privilege” (Heleta, 2016, p. 223, as
cited in Gaudry & Lorenz, 2018). This echoes the perceptions of the Indigenous participants in
the study. They implicitly and explicitly conveyed they understood college in the United States
was Eurocentric at heart, and they looked to their families and communities to feel connected to
Indigenous culture and ways of knowing. The participants were generally satisfied with HyFlex
learning and expressed the integration of onsite and online instruction mediated through
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information communication technologies and the learning management system (LMS) was
favorable for learning but pointed out unless the curriculum and the overall college experience
were imbued with critical consciousness components and efforts made to decolonize college
education, HyFlex felt to them as a novel way of doing more of the same.
The second emergent theme from the interview data of this study, Motherhood in
HyFlex, centers on the experiences of female college students who have young children. Four
participants in the study were mothers taking care of young children while they attended college.
One participant was finishing her doctoral program at the time of the interviews, two others were
halfway through a master’s program, and one participant was nearing completion of her
bachelor’s program. One participant in the study was a father and had already graduated from a
master’s program in which he took various HyFlex courses. Although this participant did not
care for the multiple modes of participation because he preferred to attend in person and made
sure to drive to class every time to get the most out of it according to his account, the mother
students unanimously praised the flexibility afforded by HyFlex. This echoes the literature on the
perceived benefits of online learning (Baum & McPherson, 2019; Burke, 2019; Grau-Valldosera
et al., 2019; Levy, 2017; Swanson, 2005). Although the number of student mothers is large,
roughly 2.7 million (70%) out of a total of 3.8 million college students in the United States in
2015–2016 according to Reichelin et al. (2019), there are limited recent empirical studies about
their experiences. Most of the literature about women online is focused on gender, and the
number of available studies shrinks when one looks for empirical studies about mother college
students. Studies about the experiences of mother students in HyFlex are nonexistent, empirical
or otherwise.
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The California Community College Chancellor’s Office (2022a) reported during the
2019–2020 academic year, 53% of the student body in the California Community College (CCC)
system were female, and Duffin (2020) estimated the share by gender of students studying online
in 2020 was 50% female at the undergraduate level and 52% female for graduate-level students.
These numbers are large and warrant investigating the experiences of women in HyFlex, and
more specifically, the experiences of women who happen to be mothers while in college taking
HyFlex courses.
The third theme emerging from the study, Disability in HyFlex, illustrates the essence of
the lived experiences of college students experiencing disabilities and their struggle to succeed
academically. There are many types of disabilities that afflict students, some are physical and
some psychiatric. Because participants in this study reported physical disabilities only, this
discussion focuses on college students with physical disabilities but acknowledges there is a
wide spectrum of disabilities beyond what these participants experience. Fung and Babik (2020)
pointed out many persons with disabilities are also immunocompromised and becoming infected
with the COVID-19 virus would have disproportionately deleterious effects on this population.
This observation was congruent with the study’s findings; Isabel was immunocompromised, and
as a result, she experienced a debilitating condition that put her at high risk during the pandemic.
She stayed home for the most part and attended HyFlex online, relying on her husband as her
lifeline to the external world. In their study, Gin et al. (2021) found the COVID-19 global
pandemic had exacerbated the conditions of students with disabilities by creating barriers to the
accommodations they rely on to complete their coursework.
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Because of the abrupt way everything had to move online during the COVID-19 global
pandemic, disability resource centers were closed, and they did not necessarily act proactively to
follow up and ensure students in emergency online learning received their accommodations.
Students were left to advocate for themselves or fail silently. Some scholars pointed out students
with disabilities are generally at a higher risk of experiencing food insecurity and homelessness
(Coleman-Jensen, 2020; Coleman-Jensen & Nord, 2013; Gin et al., 2021), and the COVID-19
global pandemic pushed them further into that risk along with increased circumstances of food
insecurity. These concerns resonate with some of what participants in this study shared in the
interviews. Robbie described often having to be his own advocate to get the necessary
accommodations for a class. He also discussed being low-income and having to move far away
from campus to find a more affordable place to live and share the expenses with his partner.
Under normal circumstances, students with disabilities are faced with many challenges their
abled-bodied peers never have to worry about; the COVID-19 global pandemic hit students with
disabilities particularly hard by making their life situations worse and creating barriers to much
needed support and resources during the emergency online learning response to the pandemic.
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