The Importance of Psychological Safety For Hispanic College Students: HACU 2023

Two apparel merchandising and management lecturers were invited to share their research into the “Fearless Classroom” methodology with the Hispanic Association of Colleges & Universities.

 

J.C. Cañedo and Nichole Dwyer made their presentation, “The Importance of Psychological Safety for Hispanic College Students,” at the association’s annual conference in Chicago on Oct. 29.

 

More than 100 university administrators, advisors, and faculty from around the country attended the hour-long presentation on the methodology, which was followed by a question-and-answer session.

 

“There was a lot of interest in the Fearless Classroom approach in making the classroom a more psychologically safe place,” Cañedo said. “It kind of tells us the state of higher education these days.”

 

The Fearless Classroom approach seeks to improve student performance and engagement by developing mutual trust and respect among students and between instructors and students.

 

In addition, instructors in a fearless classroom must also demonstrate empathy, compassion, and humility toward their students.

 

In classrooms with instructors who were part of the Fearless Classroom project, 92 percent of the students felt that the instructors had created a comfortable learning environment that supported their ability to succeed, according to Cañedo and Dwyer.

 

Their findings were based on data on Hispanic college students at Cal Poly Pomona that was gathered by a university-wide “Fearless Classroom” study.