Mentoring African American Women at Historically Black Colleges/Universities

2018 ◽  
pp. 97-125
Author(s):  
Tammara Petrill Thomas ◽  
Michelle Lee Maultsby
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African American Women ◽  
Historically Black ◽  
Black Colleges ◽  
Women Faculty ◽  
Tenure Track ◽  
New Faculty ◽  
American Women ◽  
Tenure Track Faculty ◽  
Tenure Process

This chapter describes how a considerable milestone for new faculty entering academia has been awarding tenure by the institution of higher education. This is often referred to as the Academy. Tenure-track faculty working towards tenure spend several years honing their craft in the areas of teaching, research, and service. Senior colleagues assume the lead in determining activities, and others who are considered authorities and leaders in the chosen field of scholarship. While HBCUs have provided an enormous source of support for African-American women who are tenure-track faculty, they continue to be underrepresented in the academy and are adversely impacted by the tenure process. Barriers that impede the tenure process of African-American women faculty include societal biases, stereotypes, systemic oppression, and lack of mentorship. This chapter seeks to provide awareness, discuss unique challenges specific to African American women faculty, and existing strategies to negotiating the tenure and promotion processes.

The Double-Edged Sword of “Othermothering” for African American Women Faculty With Families

2018 ◽  
pp. 151-178
Author(s):  
Kyla Marie Sawyer-Kurian ◽  
Wanda B. Coneal
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African American Women ◽  
Historically Black ◽  
Black Colleges ◽  
Women Faculty ◽  
Mentoring Program ◽  
Historically Black Colleges ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Healthy Environment

Historically Black Colleges or Universities (HBCUs) have historically been both vital and beneficial as they have educated, trained, and nurtured many African Americans throughout the years. Research indicates that there are some disparities between men and women faculty at HBCUs. The chapter will review research which discusses factors that may impact African American (AA) women faculty specifically AA women faculty with families (AAWFWF) within the academy at HBCUs. AA women faculty report spending a great amount of their time supporting, mentoring and nurturing students on academic and personal matters also called “othermothering.” While HBCUs have been a haven for students, some challenges and barriers arise for AAWFWF including bias toward caregiving, bias avoidance, unequal pay, collegial incivility, and difficulty maintaining work/life balance. Formal mentoring has been shown to be beneficial for AA faculty. Strategies to create a healthy environment for AAWFWF are presented and recommendations for an AAWFWF mentoring program at HBCUs are given.

Negotiating Intersectionality

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-33
Author(s):  
Angela White ◽  
Jessica T. DeCuir-Gunby ◽  
Cailisha Petty
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Racial Identity ◽  
African American Women ◽  
Historically Black ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Quantitative Data ◽  
Science Achievement ◽  
Black Colleges ◽  
Science Identity ◽  
American Science

This concurrent mixed methods study sought to unveil how historically Black colleges and universities assist African American women with negotiating intersectional experiences within science disciplines. The authors sought to determine the relationship(s) between racial identity, science identity, and science self-efficacy beliefs of African American science students enrolled at HBCUs. The quantitative data revealed a statistically significant positive correlation between science self-efficacy and science identity for women and men. While the quantitative data indicated that racial identity (assimilation) is positively correlated to science identity for the women, the same relationship was not significant for the men. The findings indicated that science identity significantly predicted college science achievement for men but not women.

scholarly journals "It's gonna be some drama!" : a content analytical study of the portrayals of African Americans and historically black colleges and universities on BET's College Hill

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Siobhan Smith
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
African American Women ◽  
Historically Black ◽  
Reality Television ◽  
Black Colleges ◽  
Historically Black Colleges ◽  
Academic Goals ◽  
Negative Stereotypes ◽  
Black Entertainment Television

One way the mainstream public comes to learn about Historically Black Colleges or Universities is through the media. Reality television show College Hill, aired by Black Entertainment Television, appeared to have the goal of presenting the unique aspects of HBCU life. In spite of this objective, some critics and scholars argued the program fell short, relying on familiar and negative stereotypes to present the majority African-American casts, to the detriment of the reputation of these institutions. To explore this possibility, a content analysis of Seasons 3 and 4 of the program (30 episodes) was conducted. It was found that in general, behaviors and traits of the African-American cast members both supported and contradicted previously established, culturally-based stereotypes of African Americans, and that their appearances suggested normalcy. However, African-American women were portrayed in a significantly more negative manner than their male counterparts. In addition, out of the 327 scenes, only 43 (13.1%) had a reference to the HBCU; 30 scene-level references (69.8%) were to academic goals. Further, while the show mostly depicted the cast members interacting independently of the HBCU backdrop, it appears when the HBCU was referenced on the scene-level, most of these references portray academic, rather than social, concerns. Contrary to the literature regarding College Hill, instances of goals occurred statistically significantly more than instances of anti-goals. In addition, all of these references were considered positive on the episode-level. These findings suggest it is possible that some of the negative portrayals of the cast members might become inseparable from the portrayal of the HBCUs in the mind of the viewer.

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