scholarly journals Catch Me When I Fall! Resiliency, Freedom and Black Sisterhood in the Academy

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-104
Author(s):  
Delores V. Mullings ◽  
Amoaba Gooden ◽  
Elaine Brown Spencer
Keyword(s):  
Academic Success ◽  
Black Women ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Women Faculty ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Service Work ◽  
Women Academics ◽  
Common Thread ◽  
Black Women Faculty

Many Black women academics feel caged in their ‘subject position[s]’ within the academy. They are challenged by lack of opportunities and mentorship, isolation, explicit racism, micro-aggressions and stereotyping. Despite the ways in which their bodies are marked by racist sexism, Black women faculty take on an inordinate amount of unrecognized, differentiated labour and service work in the academy. They tend to assist other racialized colleagues, graduate and undergraduate students to achieve academic success. There is a common thread of resiliency among these women who successfully navigate their paths in the academy through applications of the concept of Radical Black Academic Sisterhood. This is an interpretive praxis that utilizes both an oppositional stance and creates brave spaces to deal with experiences of being caged.

“Where is Our Space Within this Ivory Tower?” The Teaching Experiences of Black Women Faculty in Education Programs

2021 ◽  
pp. 194277512110022
Author(s):  
Tomika L. Ferguson ◽  
Risha R. Berry ◽  
Jasmine D. Collins
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Black Women ◽  
Culturally Relevant ◽  
Organizational Structures ◽  
Women Faculty ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Education Programs ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
Culturally Relevant Practices ◽  
Black Women Faculty

Black women faculty represent a small percentage of full-time faculty in higher education and are often invisible, marginalized, and expected to perform duties beyond teaching, research, and service. Yet, their success in higher education positions them as possibility models for change on their campuses. The purpose of this study is to investigate the experiences of three Black women faculty who teach in graduate education programs. Specifically, we examined how teaching using culturally relevant practices may cause Black women faculty to negotiate their identity within higher education organizational structures. Using a theoretical framework informed by Black feminism and the Culturally Relevant Leadership Learning Model, three salient themes were identified: roles and responsibilities, resistance, and limitations within the academy. Implications for practice include the creation of identity specific support for Black women faculty and attention be given to faculty and student readiness prior to engaging in culturally relevant practices beyond critical self-reflection.

scholarly journals Give Yourself Permission to Rest

Genealogy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 17
Author(s):  
Kareema J. Gray ◽  
Latoya B. Brooks
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Black Women ◽  
Historically Black ◽  
Self Care ◽  
Women Faculty ◽  
Women In Higher Education ◽  
Emotional Needs ◽  
Social Unrest ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
Black Women Faculty

Black women in higher education have always been under pressure to prove that they belong in their positions, and often have taken on more work to prove this. The events of 2020—the COVID-19 global pandemic and the racial and social unrest that swept through the country increased this pressure on Black women in higher education. Historically, Black women have taken on the roles of mother, professional, and caretaker of all who were around them. The events of 2020 added to those roles for Black women faculty, working from home, homeschooling online, checking on the welfare of students, and addressing the emotional needs of their families who have been stuck indoors for months. Self-care is more important now more than before for Black women faculty. To employ these self-care strategies, Black women faculty must first give themselves permission to need them.

Finding a Voice in Predominantly White Institutions: A Longitudinal Study of Black Women Faculty Members’ Journeys toward Tenure

2017 ◽  
Vol 119 (6) ◽  
pp. 1-36
Author(s):  
Bridget Turner Kelly ◽  
Rachelle Winkle-Wagner
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Predominantly White ◽  
Research Design ◽  
Longitudinal Research ◽  
Women Faculty ◽  
Predominantly White Institutions ◽  
Tenure Track ◽  
White Institutions ◽  
Longitudinal Research Design ◽  
Black Women Faculty

Background/Context Amidst scholarship that underscores the importance of Black women faculty in higher education, Black women are often not being retained in faculty positions at research universities. There is a gap in the research relative to how Black women experience the tenure process at predominantly White institutions, and this may have important implications for both recruitment and retention of Black women faculty. Purpose This analysis attempts to fill a gap in the literature on the recruitment and retention of faculty of color by asking: What are the experiences of Black women faculty on the tenure track at PWIs who are the only woman of color faculty member in their academic program? Drawing on data from qualitative longitudinal research with Black women faculty who were on the tenure track at PWIs, the primary purpose of this analysis was to understand four Black women's longitudinal reflections on their journey toward tenure at PWIs where they are “othered” by gender and race. Setting and Participants This project was part of a larger study of 22 women faculty who were on tenure-lines in two predominantly White research universities. This study focused on four Black women from this larger study. Research Design This study employed a qualitative longitudinal research design. Data Collection and Analysis: As part of the qualitative longitudinal research design, interviews were conducted each year for five years with each participant. Findings The findings of this analysis with Black women faculty on the tenure-line suggests that despite being the only person of color in their academic programs, they found ways to use their voice in and outside the academy. Finding and using their voices in the academy became a way to push back and resist some of the isolation and racism that the women experienced in the academy, and often the women did so in collectivist spaces with other Black women. Conclusions/Recommendations These findings of this study call into question predominantly White and male spaces in academia and ways that these spaces should be challenged to change. The Black women in this study coped by creating collectivist spaces and finding/ using their voices. Rather than focusing on how to encourage Black women to cope and survive in academia, there should be more emphasis on how to change institutional and departmental structures to make these spaces more inclusive and collectivist.

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