A Balm in Gilead: Portraits of African American Women Faculty Bearing Witness to Striving, Surviving, and Thriving at Predominantly White Institutions in the Deep South
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Authors
Lee, Rochelle Bornett
Issue Date
2018-12
Type
Dissertation
Language
en_US
Keywords
Dissertations, Academic--United States , Southern States , African American Women , Universities and colleges--Faculty , Spirituality , Spiritual life--Christianity , Race relations , Education--Research--Methodology
Alternative Title
Abstract
The purpose of this of research was to identify the strategies used by six African American women faculty members and how they bore witness to striving, surviving, and thriving at predominantly White institutions (PWIs) in the Deep South while teaching, serving, and performing research. A qualitative research design guided this study. Data were obtained through three sequential audio recorded interviews with each participant in addition to researcher memoing, transcript review, and member checking. Descriptive data from an interview guide were analyzed. The analysis of the data yielded four themes, (a) The participant’s reliance on God and the Scriptures to direct their lives, (b) Intersectionality is so complex, participants could not clearly identify interactions as racist or sexist, (c) Credit and job expectations are not the same for everyone, and (d) Establishing a working identity within the academy. Using Sara Lawrence Lightfoot’s portraiture method each participant’s counter-narrative was filtered through the lenses of critical race theory and womanism. The counter-narrative of each participant was presented in the individual portraits. Results of the cross-case analysis were presented in a family (collective) portrait to excavate the search for goodness which is the objective of portraiture and to identify strategies used by the participants. The findings when compared to the professional and scholarly discourse, suggest that the climates of Deep South PWIs do not differ from those of PWIs throughout the United States. The climates of American PWIs in general require that African American women faculty contend with personal, professional, and institutional racism in many of their encounters with administrators, colleagues, and students. The answers to the research questions are associated with the identified themes and are found in Chapter 7 of this dissertation.
Keyword 1: African American Women; Keyword 2: Faculty; Keyword 3: Spirituality; Keyword 4: Portraiture; Keyword 5: Critical Race Theory; Keyword 6: Womanism;
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This dissertation is protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States (Public Law 94-553, revised in 1976). Consistent with fair use as defined in the Copyright Laws, brief quotations from this material are allowed with proper acknowledgement. Use of the materials for financial gain with the author's expressed written permissions is not allowed.