Black Female Faculty and Professional Socialization: Constraints,Enablements and Enactments.

Higher Education;Professional Socialization;Women"s Studies;Professional Socialization;Feminist Theory;African American Studies;Social Sciences;Education

Sule, Venice ThandiYoung Jr, Alford A. ;

University of Michigan

关键词: Higher Education;    Professional Socialization;    Women";    s Studies;    Professional Socialization;    Feminist Theory;    African American Studies;    Social Sciences;    Education;   

Others  :  https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/61695/vthandis_2.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y

瑞士|英语

来源: The Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship

【 摘 要 】

Professional socialization is the process of learning and employing the culturalperspective of the workplace. Informed by Black Feminist Thought and Critical RaceFeminism, this study examines the professional socialization experiences of tenuredBlack female faculty at four predominately White Research institutions (PWIs). In doingso, this research captures the trajectory from graduate school to associate professor andanalyzes how tenured Black women define and enact their role in the academy.Traditional views of professional socialization do not fully explain what happenswhen a socially subordinated group like Black women enters spaces defined by theexperiences of a socially dominant group. Therefore, the theoretical framework for thisstudy considers a) how socially marginalized groups access spaces where the prevailingnorms and values disadvantage them, b) how structural and agential factors promote orhinder career advancement, and c) how individuals can alter institutions in ways that aremore aligned with their values.Agency, the ability to identify and implement choices to achieve a self-definedgoal, allowed the participants to mediate the vestiges of institutional racism. The keyagential factors were self-efficacy and self-advocacy (e.g. seeking mentoring). However,structural opportunities were vital to their career success. Key structural factors were (a)recruitment initiatives (e.g. Affirmative Action), (b) critical mass of people of color oncampus, and (c) intellectual support. These enabling aspects of structure made accessingPWIs possible and made finding a space for intellectual production less complicated.The participants contributed to their institutions through a series of criticalenactments. The term enactment is meant to capture how the participants manifestmultiple ways of maneuvering through academe. These enactments are critical becausethey are concerned with naming and subverting social injustice. The participantsembodied critical enactments by employing critical pedagogy, challengingepistemological paradigms and advocating on behalf of the most vulnerable groups incollege settings. Essentially, for the participants, professional socialization meansenacting norms that are aligned with their standpoint, discarding norms that conflict withtheir standpoint, and transforming norms to encourage agreement with their standpoint.With this knowledge, institutions can better address norms that undermine theprofessional development of underrepresented groups.