This research study is part of a larger study that examines the experiences of Black women in physics graduate programs to identify priorities for departmental change initiatives to remove structures that keep out and/or push out Black women. This research also reinforces the ongoing necessity to raise awareness about the impact of stereotypes on how Black women are perceived and how stereotypes affect the matriculation of Black women in physics graduate programs. Black women represent the lowest percentage of students in physics graduate programs and often contend with stressors like microaggressions, bias, and stereotype threats that impede their success and well-being. Employing the Photovoice research method, we collected photos representing their journey in their physics PhD program from 13 participants who were either currently in or recently attended graduate physics programs at U.S. institutions. Additionally, we conducted individual semi-structured interviews with each participant and focus group interview sessions to allow for the elaboration and consolidation of common themes. Our goal is to offer the participants the opportunity to provide the strategies and recommendations they deem most effective in supporting Black women in physics programs from their firsthand experiences and voices. We found that negative stereotypes severely impact Black women in physics graduate programs. They carry the persistent burden of navigating through their programs while tending to their speech, behavior, and other personal characteristics to avoid the threat of being stereotyped. Conversely, to survive in environments that restrict them from the privilege of showing up as their authentic selves, they sometimes inadvertently impose stereotypes on themselves. These findings along with discussions about the differences between HBCU institutions and their PWI graduate programs reveal how Black women struggle to find a sense of belonging and adequate academic and personal support in physics PhD programs.

<p>Black women’s underrepresentation in STEM disciplines remains an urgent problem of major concern in higher education institutions across the United States. The purpose of this investigation was to explore Black women’s experiences in an active learning STEM Human Centered Design course at a Predominantly White Institution. It also examined how these experiences influenced Black women’s intent to persist in STEM educational pathways. Black Feminist Thought Theoretical Framework was used to conceptualize and interpret the experiences of five Black female first year undergraduate students at a Predominantly White Institution in the Midwestern region of the United States. This qualitative case study research utilized semi structured interviews, direct observations, and documents to gather and triangulate data for this study. The findings from this study revealed that: (a) <i>Imposter Syndrome: An Enduring Internalized Question of Competency, </i>(b) <i>Undermining of Academic Abilities</i>: <i>Cross Examination of Intellect,</i> (c) <i>Lack of Diversity: A Colorless Norm,</i> (d) <i>Isolation: Intrinsic Sensitivity of Separation from Others</i> were the salient experiences facing these five undergraduate Black women. This investigation contributes to the dearth of scholarship on Black women in STEM by highlighting their undergraduate experiences in a STEM course, and describing ways to ensure their persistence towards STEM educational pathways.</p>

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine how African American female band directors create and utilize counterspaces for African American female musicians to share collective and individual experiences, maintain involvement, form positive self-definitions about themselves, and to counter intersecting forms of oppression in bands. In this study, I also examined the African American female band directors’ perceptions about counterspaces in bands. To illuminate the experiences of the 17 African American female band directors who participated in this study and their use of counterspaces as an activist response to resist intersecting forms of oppression perpetuated within the band world, Black feminist thought (BFT) as a framework was employed. The following research questions guided this study: (1) What are the African American female band directors’ perceptions and knowledge about counterspaces, and how do they utilize counterspaces to counter intersecting forms of oppression that African American female musicians face in bands?; (2) How do the African American female band directors utilize counterspaces to help the African American female band students form positive self-definitions about themselves, and to share their individual and collective experiences of involvement in bands?; and (3) How do counterspaces help African American female band directors understand common themes in the lives of African American female musicians that contribute to their sustained involvement in bands? The findings of this study revealed that counterspaces are essential for countering the perpetuation of intersecting forms of oppression and negative stereotypical images of African American females. This study further revealed that counterspaces functions as a mechanism where African American female band directors are able to foster the interconnected dimensions of self-definitions, collective and self-empowerment, and oppositional consciousness among their respective African American female band students. This study also provided insight into the current status of African American females within the field of instrumental music education in the U.S and dimensions of power structures that are continuously perpetuated to negate African American female’s equal stance within the field.

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Even with the rise of racial diversity in the workplace, African American women remain underrepresented in upper management and organizational leadership positions, making up only 1% of U.S. corporate officers. The purpose of this qualitative narrative inquiry study was to explore the daily experiences of African American women middle managers in regard to stereotype threat and the effect of these experiences on their engagement with leadership aspirations. The narrative inquiry method was used to address this gap and answer the research question, through storytelling from African American women in middle-management positions. This study was framed by 2 key concepts that focus on minority group workplace experiences with stereotype threat and the implications of these experiences on minority group members for their engagement with leadership aspirations: Inzlicht and Kang’s concept of stereotype threat spillover and Major, Spencer, Schmader, Wolfe, and Crocker’s concept of psychological disengagement. The data-gathering process involved semistructured telephone interviews with 7 college-educated African American women, in U.S.-based organizations, in which participants told the story of their stereotype threat experiences in middle management roles. Two of the 5 key themes uncovered were impact of stereotype threat spillover and disengagement from leadership and career aspirations. The information gathered from the narrative study will help drive social change by bringing awareness to the issue and reducing threat experiences of disadvantaged groups across organizations.

Thesis (MBA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2011. / This research report is an autoethnographic narrative that gives a first-hand account of life as experienced by a young Black South African woman living in post-apartheid South Africa. It is a story of her life as a young child who was adopted after the death of her mother and the subsequent abandonment by her biological father. It is also the story of a Black professional woman who struggles to negotiate her way through the corporate world after having had negative experiences in some of the organisations that she has worked for. It highlights the plight of Black professionals all over South Africa who resort to job hopping as a means with which to escape unfair treatment in the workplace. The narrative also deals with issues that are specific to women only. Her experiences of these issues include unfair treatment due to the fact that she was pregnant and later on unfair treatment due to the fact that she is a single mother. They also include the abuse that she has suffered at the hands of certain men in her life. All of these issues have gone a long way towards shaping her perceptions of the country in which she lives as well the role that she feels she is expected to fulfil in it. The narrative is an honest and authentic account of the events that have shaped her perception of corporate South Africa as it struggles to incorporate Employment Equity and Affirmative Action policy into their organisational culture. She highlights the fact that the organisational policies and systems in themselves may be perfect but due to the fact that they have to be implemented by people they often reflect some of the prejudice that exists in society. In sharing her story it is her hope that other Black people would make their stories known for she believes that it is only when these stories are let out in the open can we begin to have meaningful dialogue about them and in so doing come to a resolution that will benefit all of us as a nation. She believes that our failure to talk to one another can only serve to widen the gap that currently exists between Black and White South Africans.

The Black community within the foster care system has received minimal empirical attention as it pertains to the impact of media intake, caregiver navigation and levels of self-perceptions. A quantitative, cross-sectional study was conducted to examine the correlations between these variables. The nonrandom snowball sampling method was used to recruit 18 Black women, who were eighteen years old or older and former foster youth, to participate in a self-administered online survey. The nonparametric test, Spearman's Rho, was chosen to analyze both research questions due to the sample size violating a Pearson's Correlation assumption. The relationship between media intake and levels of self-perceptions had a p value of .394, whereas, the relationship between caregiver navigation and levels of self-perceptions had a p value of .109. Therefore, the findings for research question one revealed that there were no correlations between levels of self-perceptions and media intake. Similarly, research question two identified no significant relationships among the levels of self-perceptions and caregiver navigation. This study highlights the importance for additional research, as Black foster care youth are an underserved population with many unidentified needs; this includes that of parental guidance to heighten self-perceptions and buffer the potentially negative impact of the media.

Women of color in general and Black women in particular who pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in mathematics are nearly invisible in the mathematics education research literature (Borum & Walker, 2012). The majority of research published in the mid-to-late twentieth century that explored the mathematics education of women was limited not only by failing to explore the unique mathematical experiences of women of color but also by employing quantitative methodologies in positivist frames (see, e.g., Benbow & Stanley, 1980; Fennema & Sherman, 1977; Hyde, Fennema, Ryan, Frost, & Hopp, 1990). Therefore, the purpose of this narrative inquiry project was to come alongside Black women who earned an undergraduate degree in mathematics and conduct an inquiry into their mathematics teaching and learning experiences. Specifically, the study explored the life and schooling experiences of mathematically talented Black women who attended Spelman College from the 1980s to 2000s. While theoretical and methodological elements from both Black feminist standpoint theory (e.g., Collins, 1986) and womanist theory (e.g., Phillips, 2006) have framed my thinking, in the end, both theoretically and methodologically, narrative inquiry grounded the project, affording my participants (and me) the opportunity to tell stories of their (our) mathematical experiences. Initially, three central questions guided the research: (1) What were the life and schooling experiences of Black women who pursued their undergraduate degree in mathematics at Spelman College from the 1980s to 2000s? (2) How did larger socio-historical and -cultural contexts and life experiences (on and off campus) affect their image of themselves as mathematicians? and (3) How did relationships with other Spelman students, faculty, and staff influence their short- and long-term goals in the field of mathematics? As I employed narrative inquiry and developed my research puzzle, I focused on particular moments in my participants’ mathematical lives—their sacred stories—identifying common threads across experiences. I share my participants lived experiences in the hope that readers will engage in “resonant remembering” as they “rethink and reimagine” relationships and “wonder alongside” my participants and me (Clandinin, 2013, p. 51). My participants’ stories highlight the importance of familial support and influence on education, the role and academic experience of Black women mathematics majors, and mentorship of caring faculty and staff and positive peer relationships. Implications for mathematically talented Black women are discussed.

Thesis advisor: Janet E. Helms / Black women are often confronted with social-systemic barriers and differential treatment based on the shade of their skin color. Colorism, a derivative of racism, is the use of skin-color shade as the basis for interactions with and evaluations of Black women. Some theoretical and empirical literature suggests that Black women may encounter and respond to colorism in various social contexts. Nevertheless, without an adequate measure to assess these contextually based experiences, it is difficult to explore the complex dynamics of the colorism that Black women face. In the present study, socioecological theory (Brenner, Zimmerman, Bauermeister, & Caldwell, 2013) was adapted to frame a contextual model of colorism in order to develop a measure that assesses Black women’s perceptions of and responses to colorism across social contexts, including in their families, within and outside of their racial community, and in society. Black women (N = 299) responded to 98 contextual items derived from personal accounts of colorism, focus groups, and theoretical literature. Various scale development techniques including item analysis, exploratory factor analyses, and parallel analyses yielded four dimensions of perceived colorism experiences (i.e., racial out-group, family, racial in-group, society) and seven dimensions of perceived colorism responses (i.e., racial out-group/society, family and racial in-group cognitive-emotional reactions, family and non-family positive colorism, negative self-concept, attractiveness). To investigate validity evidence, multivariate multiple regression analyses (MMRAs) and hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine relationships between the factor-derived subscales of the Perceived Colorism Scale and internalized colorism, racial identity, and self-esteem. Overall, results of the analyses supported the importance of four contexts for colorism experiences (racial out-group, family, racial in-group, and society). However, context-related responses to colorism were more complex than initially hypothesized. The factor-derived PCS subscales were predictive of internalized colorism, racial identity and self-esteem. Nonetheless, the subscales varied in the extent to which they were related to the validity measures and some of the significant relationships were not in hypothesized directions. Methodological limitations, along with implications for future theory, research, and practice are discussed. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2017. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Counseling, Developmental and Educational Psychology.