Shining the light: Black women thriving in graduate school

Abstract

In this article, authors examine literature on the enrollment, degree attainment, and experiences of Black women graduate students. Authors use socialization to examine the failures of academia to account for Black women's intersectional identities and identify ways administrators and faculty can further support these women's success.

“Against all odds”: A collective Black feminist autoethnography of Black women doctoral students’ experiences in higher education programs.

“…One of the documented ways Black women doctoral students have expressed potentially thriving at PWIs is through external mentorship (Jones et al, 2023). When recounting the past 20 years of academic literature related to Black graduate women’s experiences, Jones et al (2023) identified the significant role of external mentorship to unpack academia’s hidden curriculum. However, an overall systemic issue of lack in Black women faculty representation still leads Black graduate women to retain each other through peer mentoring and supports created by Black graduate women themselves (Jones et al, 2023).…”

“…When recounting the past 20 years of academic literature related to Black graduate women’s experiences, Jones et al (2023) identified the significant role of external mentorship to unpack academia’s hidden curriculum. However, an overall systemic issue of lack in Black women faculty representation still leads Black graduate women to retain each other through peer mentoring and supports created by Black graduate women themselves (Jones et al, 2023). Though research has shown mentorship and faculty support to be critical to the success of Black women doctoral students (Patton, 2009; Patton & Harper, 2003), they still must create networks beyond their program, as they are rarely offered these supports within their doctoral programs, and in many cases, their institutions.…”

“…To do so, however, a cultural shift in academia would need to occur when considering the training of doctoral students. The “perceived” knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed for success in the academy rarely, if at all, honor the collectivist nature and cultural knowing of Black women (Jones et al, 2023; Porter, Green, et al, 2020; Twale et al, 2016). Particularly, when examining the inadequacy of current socialization models, Black women’s aspirational capital (i.e., cultural wealth) related to pursuing graduate education can no longer be the only element that determines their ability to thrive in academia (Jones et al, 2023).…”

“…While the participants experienced challenging environments, they chose to thrive in spaces where they were marginalized. One of the documented ways Black women doctoral students have expressed potentially thriving at PWIs is through external mentorship (Jones et al, 2023). When recounting the past 20 years of academic literature related to Black graduate women's experiences, Jones et al (2023) identified the significant role of external mentorship to unpack academia's hidden curriculum.…”

“…When thinking about the possibilities of thriving for Black women doctoral students, we recognize how necessary Black joy is to “the experiential core of college life” (Stevens et al, 2008, p. 131). In addition to the ways Tichavakunda’s (2021) scholarship outlines Black joy, we believe that obtaining this can potentially lead to thriving in higher education for Black women doctoral students (Jones et al, 2023). Yet as Love (2019) cautioned, “Black joy is finding your homeplace and creating homeplaces for others” (p. 120).…”