(2019). Intentional Leadership for More Just Experiences: Supporting Black Males on College Campuses. Georgia Journal of College Student Affairs, v35 n1 Article 6 p84-98. This essay explores the unjust experiences of Black males and minority faculty on college campuses that perpetuate inequality in higher education. The literature shows Black male undergraduates experienced both overt racism and more subtle insults on some college campuses, which serve as a barrier to integration into the college system. This essay also connects the underrepresentation of minority faculty as a contributing factor to the climate that inhibits the integration of Black male students into the college system. Through intentional leadership, educators should create or support existing Black male initiative programs on their campuses as this evidence-based practice contributes to the performance, retention, and college engagement of Black male undergraduates. To address underrepresentation of minority faculty and staff, educational leaders may consider advocating for an empirically supported three-pronged approach to include a hiring search toolkit, a biases video or… [PDF]
(2018). What Is the Experience of Midlife African American Female Graduate Students at Predominantly White Institutions? A Heuristic Inquiry. ProQuest LLC, Psy.D. Dissertation, Michigan School of Professional Psychology. This study explores the question: "What is the experience of midlife African American female graduate students at predominantly White institutions?" A modified heuristic model of qualitative research was used to explore the experiences of 12 female African American graduate students ranging in age from 41 to 60 years, who began their graduate school journey after many years of working in their respective careers. Open-ended in-depth interviews were conducted and analyzed for common themes to garner a rich understanding of the co-researchers' graduate school experience from the vantage point of middle-adulthood. Six themes and three sub themes emerged from the data. The themes included: (a) The pursuit of knowledge and self-fulfillment, (b) Overcoming feelings of insecurity as a middle-aged student, (c) Navigating through the reality of normalized racism, (i) Encountering racism and microaggressions, (ii) Deciphering and dispelling stereotyped biases, (iii) Bearing the… [Direct]
(2017). The Heterogeneity of Resistance: How Black Students Utilize Engagement and Activism to Challenge PWI Inequalities. Journal of Negro Education, v86 n3 p204-219 Sum. The national prevalence of systemic bias, such as police brutality, has influenced resistance to institutionalized racism on college campuses. Because of the daily microaggressions Black students experience at predominantly White institutions, they often utilize various forms of engagement and activism to hold institutions accountable for equity in higher education. Through this study the authors examined how Black student leaders challenge inequitable policies through their individual as well as collective efforts. Using a social identity framework and case study methodology, Black student leaders' reflections on their strategies in invoking change on campus are explored. Through heterogeneous approaches of engagement and activism, participants called attention to the greater need of communities of color being included in institutional reform…. [Direct]
(2014). Faculty of Color in Higher Education: Exploring the Intersections of Identity, Impostorship, and Internalized Racism. Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning, v22 n4 p354-372. Mentoring for faculty of color is critical given their underrepresentation in American colleges and universities. However, the ways in which faculty of color internalize racialized oppression and how it affects their success remains understudied. In this manuscript, the authors juxtapose a literature synthesis concerning faculty of color against a critical review of impostorship theory and impostor syndrome as these phenomena are found to contribute to disparate success trends among marginalized groups in higher education. More specifically, the authors discuss the ways impostor syndrome is shaped among faculty of color and how this disorder is potentially reproduced through their relationships with students in postsecondary education. The authors conclude with implications for mentoring and developing faculty of color, proffering new ways of thinking about relevant frameworks and approaches…. [Direct]
(2022). Social Support at the Intersection of Minoritized Identities: An Exploration of the Ego Networks of Latinxs with Dis/Abilities at One Hispanic Serving Institution. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh. As a result of constantly grappling with systemic forces of oppression such as racism, ableism, and disablism Latinx students with dis/abilities may experience anxiety, loneliness, and frustration in higher education contexts. Social support has been shown to improve the health, well-being, and persistence for Latinx college students and college students with dis/abilities. The purpose of this study was to understand the social support networks of Latinx students with dis/abilities at one Hispanic Serving Institution (Robles Private University; RPU) using critical ego network analysis. Guided by DisCrit, this study prioritized intersectional ontology and sought to highlight the voices of minoritized students while considering the interaction between the individual and their historical, socioeconomic, and cultural environment. The study revealed that Latinx students with dis/abilities have unique social support needs; they may look to faculty and staff for emotional support,… [Direct]
(2020). 'I Always Live in a "quebrada" [Favela] and Today I Am Here. So, You Can Be Also Here One Day': Exploring Pre-Service Teachers' Perceptions of Love for Youth from Socially Vulnerable Backgrounds. European Physical Education Review, v26 n4 p1006-1022 Nov. In recent years, socially critical scholars have argued that love, as a moral basis for socio-critical work, should not be colorblind or power blind and that marginalized populations may understand caring within their sociocultural context, creating spaces for youth and teachers to challenge the racism, sexism, class exploitation and linguicism imposed on their communities. While there is advocacy of love in education and physical education, there is little research that aims to explore how pre-service teachers' (PSTs') conceptions change across time. The aim of this study was to explore PSTs' changing perceptions of love as they worked in an activist sport project with youth from socially vulnerable backgrounds. Participatory action research framed this four-semester research project. Participants included the lead researcher, four PSTs and 110 youth. Data collected included the following: (a) the lead researcher's field notes; (b) collaborative PSTs' group meetings; (c) PSTs'… [Direct]
(2024). "Second-Class Citizens:" Exploring the Perceptions of Racially Marginalized Staff at a PWI. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, The Florida State University. Staff members in institutions of higher education who are not faculty, such as those who work in student affairs, information technology, student business services, and other areas, may feel invisible and unappreciated. This sense of obscurity for racially marginalized staff can be intensified by discrimination and oppression that persist within these institutions, despite the implementation of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Unfortunately, higher education literature that examines perceptions and experiences related to racism, oppression, and DEI initiatives tends to focus on students or faculty, neglecting the experiences of professional staff. This qualitative case study delved into the perspectives of racially marginalized professional staff concerning a predominantly White institution's (PWI) endeavors to establish a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment, employing a critical race theory (CRT) framework. Utilizing a two-phase interview approach,… [Direct]
(2016). Making the Emperor's New Clothes Visible in Anti-Racist Teacher Education: Enacting a Pedagogy of Discomfort with White Preservice Teachers. Equity & Excellence in Education, v49 n4 p454-467. The failures of university-based teacher education programs in the United States with regard to the preparation of White preservice teachers for engagement with students who embody marginalized racial identities in public schools are well documented. One such shortcoming is the inadequate attention paid to the unholy trinity of race, racism, and White supremacy. This article details how I, a Black teacher educator, performed a self-study on my utilization of a pedagogy of discomfort (Boler, 1999) in a course housed in a social justice-oriented program that enrolled primarily White preservice teachers. Using critical theories on race and affect in my analysis of a racialized, affectively-charged classroom incident, I find that enacting discomfort as pedagogy provoked both the preservice teachers and me to individually and collectively make meaning of the contours of racial oppression by noticing and listening to the interactions between our bodies and emotions. Additionally, employing… [Direct]
(2017). The Vicious Circle: Effects of Race and Class on University Entrance in Brazil. Race, Ethnicity and Education, v20 n6 p851-864. Brazil has high levels of socio-economic inequality and an inequitable distribution of access to higher education. How much of this inequality is associated with race or class is an important question in light of the current debate over affirmative action and the suitability of race and social targeted policies. There are those who claim that racial disparities in the educational system are a result of students' social status and not a result of racism, while others believe race is an important factor that superposes the effect of class. This study uses national survey data from Brazil's "Exame Nacional do Ensino M√©dio" (National Secondary Education Exam [ENEM]) to examine the relationship between race and access to higher education of high school students between 2004 and 2008. The results document a vicious circle which connects the schooling of the young with their race, socio-economic status, and university attendance…. [Direct]
(2022). Asian American Student Identities and Experiences in Higher Education. ProQuest LLC, D.Ed. Dissertation, American University. With a population of over 24 million, Asian Americans are the most misunderstood and oversimplified racial and ethnic group in the United States. In higher education, Asian American college students are a rapidly growing population, yet their challenges in navigating their Asian American identity in college environments and surroundings have often gone unnoticed. Existing racial, structural, and systemic racial inequities in higher education have constrained Asian American students. One of the biggest educational issues facing Asian American college students today involves misunderstandings about their Asian American identity. This research sought to examine how Asian American students make sense of the ways that race and racism impact their experiences and identities. To assess and address this reality, I used Asian Critical Theory (AsianCrit) as a tool to understand the racial and racialized experience of Asian American students in higher education. In conducting my research, I… [Direct]
(2014). "We Were Not Part of Apartheid": Rationalisations Used by Four White Pre-Service Teachers to Make Sense of Race and Their Own Racial Identities. South African Journal of Education, v34 n2 Article 778. Despite fundamental reforms to South African education, large performance gaps still prevail between former black schools and former white schools. Nineteen years into a democracy and education in post-apartheid South Africa still retains a strong racial dimension between poorer communities and more affluent communities. Differential access to power and privilege in post-apartheid South Africa is the logical consequence of a racialised society, and the latter constitutes the context in which pre-service students have to make sense of their racialised subjectivities that ultimately affect their decisions and active agency to bringing about a less polarised society. In this paper, Bonilla-Silva's "structural theory of racism" is used as a theoretical lens to unpack the rationalisations used by four white pre-service teachers to make sense of race and their own racial identities. By claiming that they were not part of apartheid, the participants use various rationalisations to… [PDF]
(2020). Protecting the Future of Academic Freedom during a Time of Significant Change. Position Paper. Adopted Fall 2020. Academic Senate for California Community Colleges Academic freedom is a fundamental concept that exists to ensure that institutions of higher education function for the public good and that colleges are constructed on the foundations of genuine trust. For over a century, members of The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) have been agile guardians, careful stewards, and erudite experts regarding the principle of academic freedom and its application in the faculty profession. The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges began a deep and sustained conversation on academic freedom. California community colleges are in a period of significant and systemic change. Faculty are engaging with and challenging each other to act in adopting culturally responsive teaching, in eliminating racism in all its forms–interpersonal, institutional, systemic–and in serving the whole student in ways that provide care and support as well as ensure a clear and direct path toward reaching an educational goal. The purpose of this… [PDF]
(2021). Conjugating Selves: Thinking-Making Difference, Whiteness, and Relational Orthographies in Higher Learning. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Minnesota. There has been little work on entangled intra-actions, or the simultaneous constitution of subjectivities and performances, between these discursive and material understandings of racial difference in higher learning. As a result, research and practice endorse a binary narrative either privileging discursive constructivism (looking to what discourses signify as basis for critique) or materialism (looking to how discourses emerge and work). Without adequate analysis of the content that inheres relational/pedagogical events that broach racial difference, including bodies, spaces, orientations, discourses, and objects, we foreclose opportunities to think carefully of the complex ethics and politics of living within the uneven distributions of precarious life. My project addresses this gap by analyzing the intra-actions of varied becomings (myself and with my students) around diversity work in the present conjuncture of political emergency. Through a rhizomatic (auto) ethnographic and… [Direct]
(2021). Developing Positive Identity of Women Administrative Leaders: A Sequential Explanatory Mixed Methods Study on the Impact of A Leadership Development and Mentoring in Higher Education. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Drexel University. Aspiring women leaders in academia encounter numerous barriers to advancement related to sexism and racism that contribute to their underrepresentation (Acker, 2006; Johnson et al., 2008). As a result, they are immensely susceptible to impostor phenomenon that hinders their ability to develop a positive leader identity (Clance & Imes, 1970; Karelaia & Guillen, 2014). Through a sequential explanatory mixed methods approach that utilized an intersectionality lens, the purpose of the dissertation work was to explore the leader identity development process of women leaders in higher education. Specifically, the data collection methods of surveys and interviews helped to unpack the impact of formal and informal leadership development opportunities on the leader identity development process, as well as the role of relational support from a network of mentors. The findings revealed that aspiring women leaders engaged in a claiming and granting process to develop a positive leader… [Direct]
(2023). A Social Justice Biology Curriculum to Strengthen Community College Students' Critical Consciousness. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Illinois at Chicago. The existing body of research presents two contrasting views of community colleges, one portraying them as a "second chance" for individuals, offering an accessible route to higher socioeconomic status. The second views community colleges as a deceptive cover designed to divert marginalized people away from prestigious colleges and to "blue-collar" occupations. Drawing inspiration from Paulo Freire's concept of critical consciousness, I propose a third perspective, a liberatory viewpoint. This approach involves offering an education that raises students' awareness and empowers them to enact positive transformations in their lives. Looking to nurture critical consciousness in science majors, I infused the traditional biology curriculum with social justice issues in two Biology II sections at a community college in the Midwestern U.S. with an institutional focus on healthcare careers. Based on conversations with students, I selected issues directly connected to… [Direct]