Mapping the margins and searching for higher ground: examining the marginalisation of black female graduate students at PWIs

This study provides a nuanced look at the experiences of Black graduate students who engage with a Black cultural center (BCC) at a historically White institution in an urban center. Combining the theoretical perspectives of critical race theory and graduate developmental networks, the three main findings unearth how (1) the BCC staff act as developers by diversifying graduate students' networks; (2) the BCC space provides opportunities for community that strengthens network ties; and (3) even though the BCC has taken on additional responsibilities to assist graduate students, a lack of institutional support ultimately burdens the center.

Section: Black Graduate Student Experiencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“We're drawn to this place”: Black graduate students’ engagement with a Black cultural center.

Hypolite

2022

“…Moreover, for the past two decades, researchers have shown that emerging cohorts of faculty in the United States, which are increasingly diverse, aspire to faculty careers that are qualitatively different than the careers modeled by their mostly White, mostly middle class, and predominantly men professors (Bieber & Worley, 2006; Chang, Welton, Martinez, & Cortez, 2013; Gay, 2004; Green, Pulley, Jackson, Martin, & Fasching-Varner, 2016; Johnson, Boss, Mwangi, & Garcia, 2018; Rhoades, Marquez Kiyama, McCormick, & Quiroz, 2008). For example, many aspiring and early career faculty members reject the notion that their professional work should override all other aspects of their lives (Kachchaf, Ko, Hodari, & Ong, 2015; Sallee, 2012).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

On their own terms: Women’s pathways into and through academe.

Gonzales¹,

Terosky²

2020

In this qualitative study, we highlight the stories of a diverse group of 27 women academics who rebuffed many of academia's taken-for-granted pathways and approaches for success. To share their pathways and approaches, we offer a counternarrative composed of 3 themes: challenging linearity, refusing dualism, and rejecting individualism. Given our intersectional analysis, we show that even within a powerful counternarrative, there are differences, that these differences might best be understood in connection with gender, race, and class, and that these differences yield distinct experiences and outcomes among women.

“…Several studies focus on how Black women must contend with representing themselves and the Black community in classroom spaces (Johnson-Bailey, 2004; Robinson, 2013; Shavers & Moore, 2014). Black women graduate students are often pushed to the margins of the classroom through experiences of microaggressions that result in their ideas or abilities being ignored or dismissed due to gender and racial biases (Ashlee et al, 2017; Green et al, 2018).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Imagine paying for a course, then you end up teaching: Black woman doctoral students in equity, social justice, and diversity courses.

Roland¹,

Hughes²,

Simmons³

2023

There has been an increasing emphasis on equity, social justice, and diversity (ESD) curriculum in higher education graduate programs. Nevertheless, Black women in doctoral programs at historically white institutions (HWIs) often experience various challenges in classroom environments and with various curriculum and instruction approaches that distort their intelligence and preserve the myth of racial and gender inferiority. Intersectionality as a theoretical framework and methodology was employed to understand Black women’s experiences as students in Higher Education Administration doctoral courses with espoused ESD learning outcomes and objectives. Findings for this study suggest that Black women doctoral students served as both learners and educators in these classroom spaces; they had to navigate surveillance and stereotypes from both peers and professors; and (non)critical classroom communities created challenges and opportunities for deepening their learning on ESD. Implications for doctoral courses with espoused ESD learning outcomes and objectives are to center subjugated knowledge that honors different ways of knowing and being by creating genuinely inclusive learning experiences to foster all students’ development of critical consciousness.