This paper focuses on the experiences of African American students enrolled in a graduate program at an Ivy League institution, specifically those pursuing master's and doctoral degrees in the field of education. With a goal of helping to improve the persistence, retention, and success rates of African American graduate students, this study seeks to understand the following questions: What has been the nature of the graduate school experience for African American students in the field of education at an Ivy League institution? What types of support do African American students have for succeeding in graduate school at an Ivy League institution? And finally, how are African American graduate students socialized for future faculty and professional roles at an Ivy League institution? Specifically, the authors use socialization theory to analyze the experiences of African American graduate students and draw their results from a qualitative survey. Overall, themes regarding the significance of mentoring and advising, peer support, academic isolation, financial stress, and spirituality were most prevalent in the survey results.

In this study, we use the case study methodology to examine the faculty recruiting and hiring practices within a school of education at a highly selective private research university. The research question was, what are the practices and policies at the school of education that either promote or detract from recruiting and hiring of faculty of color? In order to answer this question, we conducted a review of the extant literature pertaining to the recruitment of faculty of color to research universities, looking for specific strategies that are considered to have a substantial impact on this practice. Then we collected and analyzed institutional data on faculty recruitment practices in one school of education for the past 5 years, looking at applicant pools, advertising strategies, and hiring practices. Lastly, we conducted qualitative interviews with past search committee chairs, school administrators, and recently hired faculty of color to understand the decision-making processes as they pertain to general faculty recruitment as well as hurdles to, and incentives for, recruiting faculty of color.

Exploring the experiences of African American students engaged in doctoral studies reveals disturbing realities. In this article, we use narrative inquiry to engage in a collaborative project between two White faculty members and three African American graduate students. Transgressive pedagogy provided a conceptual framework for both our initial study and our subsequent reflections on the need to create supportive networks for graduate students of color in the academy. In the project we conversed and reflected about how our understanding of race and status had an impact on our experiences in the academy. Our study contrasted student experiences in environments in which students expressed feeling like “casualties of war” with those in which they expressed feeling like valued colleagues. We found that unspoken assumptions about race and status often created a turbulent climate for the participating African American doctoral students and White faculty members who shared values of inclusivity.

Since the late 1980s, there has been a significant increase in the number of doctoral degrees conferred upon underrepresented minority (URM) students. However, White students still account for the vast majority -approximately 80 percent -of all doctoral degrees conferred in the United States. As education stakeholders seek to diversify the professoriate, an updated examination of the baccalaureate origins of successful URM students is warranted to improve our understanding of where they are best prepared for doctoral degree programs. We used data from the Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED) and the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) to identify the baccalaureate origins of African American, Latina/o, and Asian/Pacific Islander students who received doctoral degrees between 1995 and 2005, distinguishing the top ten producing institutions for each racial/ethnic group. Using extant research, we then identified and examined institutional characteristics of those top ten producers. Findings both confirm and build upon past research showing that institutional characteristics such as sector, racial/ethnic composition, selectivity, and geographic location matter in terms of producing successful URM doctoral students. The implications of the findings are discussed and suggestions for future research are presented for institutions that wish to recruit and retain URM students to their doctoral degree programs.Material published as part of this publication, either on-line or in print, is copyrighted by the Informing Science Institute. Permission to make digital or paper copy of part or all of these works for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that the copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage AND that copies 1) bear this notice in full and 2) give the full citation on the first page. It is permissible to abstract these works so long as credit is given. To copy in all other cases or to republish or to post on a server or to redistribute to lists requires specific permission and payment of a fee.

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Qualitative data from 11 African American doctoral degree completers in the field of education are analyzed to identify how race intersects with faculty advising and mentoring, faculty behavior, and faculty diversity and the ways in which they support or hinder doctoral student socialization. Race is considered as an influence on the academic processes associated with socialization during doctoral study. Previous research highlights that racial experiences are a significant aspect of academic success and persistence for specific racial and ethnic groups. However, very little is known about race as it relates to doctoral student socialization, specifically. A racial socialization framework serves as a guide for examining the confluence of race and doctoral student socialization. This study is guided by the following questions: In what ways are racial experience engaged during the doctoral process? How does the racial experience support or hinder doctoral student socialization? In what ways does the racial experience influence doctoral student degree completion and success? The faculty-student relationship is highlighted as a key feature of understanding racial experience as it relates to the doctoral student socialization. Findings present several situations where race is considered as intellectual and identity priorities as students experience doctoral student socialization. Several strategies are presented to support students who consider race during the doctoral process in an effort to promote their academic success and degree completion.

Exploring the experiences of African American students engaged in doctoral studies reveals disturbing realities. In this article, we use narrative inquiry to engage in a collaborative project between two White faculty members and three African American graduate students. Transgressive pedagogy provided a conceptual framework for both our initial study and our subsequent reflections on the need to create supportive networks for graduate students of color in the academy. In the project we conversed and reflected about how our understanding of race and status had an impact on our experiences in the academy. Our study contrasted student experiences in environments in which students expressed feeling like “casualties of war” with those in which they expressed feeling like valued colleagues. We found that unspoken assumptions about race and status often created a turbulent climate for the participating African American doctoral students and White faculty members who shared values of inclusivity.

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