A Literature Review of Campus Climate in Higher Education Literature: Native and Black Perspectives

Native and Black populations have long, troubled histories with American colleges and universities. In order to have a better understanding of campus climate and sense of belonging among Native and Black students, we conducted a literature review to produce a summary specific to Native and Black students in higher education. In a total of 182 articles published within the United States between 2010 and 2021, we found four major themes: (a) the prominence of certain theoretical frameworks that were not rooted in Indigenous and Black ways of knowing, (b) limited specificity in target audience and recommendations, (c) oversaturation on undergraduate White student data and conflation of identity, and (d) limited nuanced campus climate methods and methodology. Implications for future studies and recommendations for higher education researchers are provided that account for issues of race, racism, power, and sovereignty in postsecondary settings.