African American female professors’ strategies for successful attainment of tenure and promotion at predominately White institutions: It can happen

Abstract

In their pursuit of tenure and promotion, African American female faculty members continue to prevail over workplace adversities such as ridicule, marginalization, alienation, isolation, and lack of information. In this descriptive phenomenological study, the lived experiences of five African American female professors who successfully navigated the tenure and promotion process at predominantly White institutions were explored through the lens of Black feminist thought and relational-cultural theory. Data analysis through a phenomenological reduction process revealed participants' experiences with systemic oppression, as well as the internal coping mechanisms and external supports they relied on to navigate the tenure process. Research implications and recommendations are discussed, ideally, to give hope to African American female faculty pursuing tenure and provide strategies for how higher education leaders can actively support these faculty members.

Telling of Institutional Oppression: Voices of Minoritized Counselor Educators

“…Deacon and Hope expressed feeling "watched," or placed under a microscope, as a consequence of their experiences. Jones et al (2015) pointed out that minoritized faculty facing microaggressions and discrimination may in fact feel placed under such a microscope and held to standards their majority-identity colleagues do not face. Hyacinth and Eartha spoke to these standards and the experience of cultural taxation as they were expected to mentor students of color and address diversity issues on a regular basis.…”

“…This renewed specificity illuminates the need within the discipline for research on MCE experiences and strategies for systemic change. Jones, Hwang, and Bustamante (2015) found that African American female faculty (N = 5) in their study felt set up to fail, placed under an institutional microscope, and held to higher standards compared with their majority-identity colleagues. For minoritized faculty, microaggressions feel commonplace and challenging them seems futile (Louis et al, 2016).…”

“…A gap still exists in counselor education scholarship: Whereas MCEs may steadily join the ranks of the professoriate, increasing the number of minoritized faculty in a program is alone not enough (Gasman, Kim, & Nguyen, 2011;Monzó & SooHoo, 2014). Counselor education must be prepared to recognize that institutional and cultural barriers exist for MCEs, that oppressive experiences affect teaching excellence, and that institutional support and leadership are critical for creating lasting change (Jones et al, 2015;Louis et al, 2016). In this inquiry we aimed to understand and describe MCEs' experiences by answering the question: What encounters have MCEs had with existing institutional forms of oppression?…”

Gender and Race Differences in Faculty Assessment of Tenure Clarity: The Influence of Departmental Relationships and Practices

“…Given the above discussion, and the fact that URMW faculty members are most likely to experience tenure expectations as vague (Britton and Logan 2008; Roth and Sonnert 2010), it is likely that URMW should benefit most from a more formalized process, which includes formal feedback regarding progress toward tenure (Kelly and McCann 2014; Jones, Hwang, and Bustamante 2015). We hypothesize as follows:…”

“…Ideally, the tenure process would be uninfluenced by departmental politics and decision makers’ biases, and the most decisive factors in understanding the tenure criteria and tenure expectations (which should match) would be receiving formal feedback on progress toward tenure and formal mentoring (Jones et al 2015). Although annual evaluations and third-year reviews are a common practice at research universities, the extent to which junior faculty members receive formal feedback on an ongoing basis varies across departments (Jones et al 2015). Regarding formal mentoring, its value for tenure clarity and its availability across academic units may vary (Diggs et al 2009).…”