Chicana and Chicano Studies Degree Program: Student Learning Outcomes

Broad Program Learning Goals for this Degree/Certificate Program

1. Students will draw on diverse gendered social, historical, economic and cultural perspectives to evaluate the historical and contemporary conditions, issues, and challenges facing diverse Mexican descent populations;
2. Students will analyze intersectionality so as to understand the impact of the social construction of race, class, gender, and sexuality as related to diverse Chicana/o, and Latina/o communities in national and transnational contexts;
3. Students will assess the social, historical and cultural development of New Mexico’s Chicano and Hispano communities within the larger context of U.S. and Mexican American history;
4. Students will apply technology in collaborative learning situations to engage key concepts and problems, solve tasks, or develop solutions to problems;
5. Students will demonstrate an ability to engage in creative and community-responsive problem-solving in addressing questions of social justice facing community-based organizations as they relate to local and global realities; and
6. Students will evaluate the applicability and relevance of theories and approaches to Chicana/o experiences and to the discipline.

List of Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) for this Degree/Certificate Program

1. Students in the degree program will demonstrate advanced competency in critically analyzing and interpreting significant examples of Chicano and Mexican texts and explicating the gendered, social, economic, and historical context of these cultural and creative expressions.
2. Students will demonstrate an ability to articulately communicate an intersectional analysis through academic writing, publishing and/or public presentations.
3. Students will demonstrate an ability to use interdisciplinary methods of study to understand how New Mexico’s cultural heritages shape the lived realties of Nuevomexicanos.
4. Students will demonstrate an ability to produce audiovisual materials to convey new forms of cultural knowledge and information to academic and community audiences. In this process, students will conduct oral history and other interdisciplinary methods of research, documentation and presentation. They will have the opportunity to present their work in class, at an academic venue, or in a community setting.
5. Students will demonstrate the ability to apply community-responsive research and reasoning in working with diverse communities.
6. Students will demonstrate the ability to write an advanced research paper and present their research at an academic venue. In this process, students will demonstrate the following abilities: write a compelling thesis statement, organize a research plan, conduct a literature review, collect and interpret data, examine the complexities and perspectives of an issue to different viewpoints, and recognize and test assumptions that enable theirs’ and others’ belief systems.