Guided by Bornstein's (2003) model focused on legitimacy within leadership and Latinx critical theory (LatCrit), we explored barriers Latinx leaders encounter on their path to executive roles at Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) and how their race and gender shaped their professional trajectories. Our findings show that some Latinx leaders may feel the need to conform to white-coded institutional practices to secure and succeed in their roles and that raced and gendered practices may permeate their work, including their hiring. Additionally, participants encountered intragroup animosity or competitiveness within the Latinx community, impending and/or complicating their professional experiences and growth. Collectively, the findings encourage HSIs to (a) develop professional development opportunities for Latinxs administrators and (b) actively support their ascension to and experience in executive leadership. The findings also provide insight on how higher education institutions, more broadly, need to consider racial and gender dynamics as part of the ongoing call for leadership transformation.
Keywords: HSIs, leadership; Hispanic-Serving Institutions; qualitative.
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2023, Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.