Thesis advisor: Lauri Johnson / The purpose of this individual study was to address the gap in research and answer the following research question:  How do educators of color perceive the evaluation process and its impact on their professional growth and development?  It was part of a larger group case study that sought to capture the perceptions of educators of color related to racial disproportionality and its impact on the educator pipeline and schools.  As educators of color work to maintain a presence within the educational system, it is essential to study how perceived biases related to race may impact the evaluation process. This single case study attempted to capture how five administrators of color and five teachers of color employed by the Cityside Public School District perceived the evaluation process used within their district.  Additionally, a document review of union contracts was used to ascertain the evaluation process used by Cityside. The Critical Race Theory tenets of permanence of racism, counter storytelling and critique of liberalism provided a theoretical framework to analyze the responses given by each participant who participated in semi-structured interviews. Findings reveal that the majority of the participants do not believe the evaluation process has improved their growth and development.  Other findings revealed that the racial identity and the level of cultural competency of the evaluator impacted whether or not participants believed their race was a factor in how they were evaluated. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

A viewpoint of the intersectional and complex nature of identity is seen to be integral to the understanding of the identities of black female students. ‘Identity constructions of black South African female students’ is an exploratory study with a view to understand the identities of black South African women in institutions of higher learning and education. The study investigated the experiences of 16 female South African black students; with a focus on their race category, gender as well as class subject positions. The study is placed within the context of the Historically White University (HWU) and was specifically conducted in a HWU situated in Johannesburg. The students’ articulations of their university experiences were explored qualitatively, within three focus group discussions through an open-ended interview guideline. Results show that their education is accounted for as a significant influence in their subjectivity given the social mobility it grants as the women’s experience of self shifts as does their position in society. Furthermore it was found that with the cultural capital attained through education, notions of class, racial and gender identities are affected and a multiplicity of identities exists as a result.

Narratives of successful navigation are the personal stories of 13 Latin@ undergraduate students who navigated the public school system and completed high school in the United States. Their words recount their individual journeys resulting in their enrollment at a 4-year research university in the Pacific Northwest as opposed to a 2-year community college. More than half of the study respondents begun their postsecondary studies at a community college. The navigation of these particular individuals were experienced differently than those respondents whose trajectory led them straight into the university. Three categories corresponding to the study’s three research questions were analyzed. First, common challenges produced two themes, low social economics status (SES) and ethnic identity. Second, the category on persistence characteristics formulated only one construct, academic self-efficacy. Third, three interlocking themes of supportive factors fostering academic success were identified, the support of parents/ family members/peers, non-familial agents in the form of teachers, and lastly college readiness including AP or honors coursework. The thematic analysis of the respondents’ stories was influenced by the literature that documents challenges historically impeding Latin@ academic achievement and by the research on both persistence and supportive factors. The analyses of the individual navigational experience of the study participants found similarities within their experiences, but it also revealed the complexity of their own singular stories. The study centered more on the aspirations of Latin@ students rather than the damaging effects of their schooling experiences. While some of the respondents’ stories contain examples of challenges, the premise was in representing examples of successful navigation of the Chican@/Latin@ education pipeline (Solórzano, 1998).

Thesis advisor: Karen Arnold / Despite an increasing number of Asian American women earning the advanced degrees necessary to qualify them for senior administrative positions such as dean, vice president, provost and president, this group remains severely underrepresented in the upper administrative ranks in American higher education. The purpose of this qualitative study was to determine if mentoring relationships, which research has shown to be vital to the success of other women administrators of color, would prove important to Asian American women administrators at critical career junctures. Eleven Asian American senior women administrators from four different ethnic backgrounds were interviewed. Two theoretical frameworks were used to interpret the data: relational cultural theory to analyze each interview from the participant's point of view, and; critical race theory to review the data from the institutional perspective. Many of the women experienced factors reported by other women administrators of color: a culture dominated by White men; sexism and racism; feelings of isolation, and; gender-typed family concerns. Most of the women also faced the model minority stereotype of being perceived as passive, yet analysis of their interviews revealed that they did not behave passively. Also contrary to what research has shown to be the experience of other women administrators of color, several reported more instances of sexism than racism. The majority of the women had White male mentors, which is consistent with the literature. For the women who had both male and female mentors, several experienced more career than psychosocial mentoring from their male mentors, a pattern opposite what is typical for other women administrators of color. No clear patterns emerged with regard to how the women utilized their mentors at critical career junctures. The interviews revealed that the women in this study were distinctly different from each other, which disputes the assumption that all Asian American women are similar. This study challenges how these women are currently perceived, and institutions must re-examine their current policies and practices to better support this population. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Higher Education Administration.

Thesis advisor: Diana Pullin / In recent years, critical race theory (CRT) has garnered much attention in education scholarship as a way to examine the racialized practices that persist in U.S. schooling. This study was a grassroots attempt at using CRT as the theoretical framework to engage a group of administrators and teacher leaders at one urban school in inquiry-based discourse that focused on raising the educators' race consciousness and co-constructing an antiracist pedagogy. A combined method of action research and critical case study was used as the research methodology. This dissertation reports on three notable findings that surfaced from the study. One, the participants largely perceived racism an individual pathology, not as a system of privilege. Because the participants regarded themselves as educators who were committed to social justice, they were often deceived by their activism to recognize their own complicity in the perpetuation of racist ideologies in their practice. Two, despite the overwhelming criticisms against NCLB in scholarly literature, the participants at this low-income, racially-diverse, urban school were passionately in favor of the goals behind the statute. With the recent push toward the development of common core content standards through the Race to the Top program, increased dialogue regarding what knowledge should be considered "common" and "core" needs to occur in order to breach the impasse between the divergent curricular viewpoints held by all stakeholders. Three, although culturally relevant pedagogy is widely espoused and utilized in educational research and practice, it is often not commonly understood as a conceptual framework that advocates the three-pronged elements of academic success, cultural competence, and sociopolitical consciousness. Findings revealed wide misconceptions and misuse of the theory that stemmed from teachers' cultural bias, the nature of racism in school settings, and the lack of support to adequately implement theories into practice. ` All of these findings revealed issues of power, positionality, and privilege that were deeply entrenched in the policies and practices of the school, which suggested that greater collaboration between scholars and practitioners was necessary in order to engender ongoing critical self-reflection and reconceptualization of theories as viable pedagogical tools to begin the work of antiracism. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Administration and Higher Education.

Thesis advisor: Lauri Johnson / This qualitative case study explored how educators of color experienced recruitment and hiring practices in the Cityside Public School District (pseudonym). It was part of a larger group case study that sought to capture the perceptions of educators of color related to racial disproportionality and its impact on the educator pipeline and schools. Two research questions guided this individual study: (1) How do Cityside educators of color experience Cityside’s recruitment and/or hiring processes? (2) What practices and policies might Cityside school and district level leaders utilize to increase the number of educators of color recruited and hired? Data for this study were collected from semi-structured interviews with nine Cityside faculty of color and with six Cityside administrators (of different races), as well as from a document review. Analysis of these data through the lens of Critical Race Theory (CRT) revealed study participants’ perception that implicit racial bias had the potential to negatively impact Cityside's hiring of educators of color. Additionally, leveraging social networks as an essential recruitment strategy to increase the presence of educators of color, and the benefits of hiring committees with a racially diverse membership, emerged as key findings. Finally, this study illuminated counter narratives that powerfully captured instances of microaggressions and perceived racism experienced by Cityside educators of color. Recommendations include requiring professional development with an anti-bias focus for all hiring committee participants, increasing the utilization of social networks to enhance recruitment efforts, ensuring a racially diverse composition of hiring committees, and actively seeking the counter narratives of Cityside educators of color. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

Thesis advisor: Lisa (Leigh) Patel / With the increasing racial diversity of the United States and the growing economic and health disparities among racial groups, there is a growing need for health professionals of color (Montoya, 2006). However, people of color are significantly underrepresented in the health professions and make up only 14% of those admitted to medical schools and only 6% of the physician workforce (US Department of Health and Human Services 2009). Much of this disparity can be linked to very high attrition rates for students of color in their first two years of undergraduate science programs (Cohen & Steinecke 2006; Smith 1993; Tobias 1990; US HHS 2009). To better understand the complexity of the disparity, this ethnographic case study used Critical Race Theory to examine the experiences of eight students of color during their first year in a pre-medical program at a predominantly white research university. Critical Race Theory as a framework facilitates the examination of the various iterations of systemic racism including the intersecting forms of oppression and the dominant narratives used to explain and justify the relative educational success or failure of one group over another (Ladson-Billings, 1998; Solorzano & Yosso, 2001). The major areas of analytic focus included: Assumptions and dominant narratives about students of color in science, pedagogical approaches employed by instructors in college science classes; the role and impact on students of the academic science language in course textbooks and exams; the ways that race, class, language, and immigration status impact students in the science classes and the larger university; the impact on students of various university structures and practices such as financial aid policies, science course structures, and grading practices. This analysis shows how these multiple factors function as interlocking systems of institutionalized oppression that disadvantage students of color in the science courses. In addition, the counterstories of these students show the valuable knowledge and experience these students can bring to the medical profession. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

Thesis advisor: Ana M. Martínez Alemán / College-choice studies have long been conducted to help colleges improve their recruitment strategies (Chapman, 1981; Hossler & Gallagher, 1987; Jackson, 1982; Litten, 1982). The dominant college-choice models and studies have, however, focused solely on traditional aged students seeking to enroll in four-year colleges/universities upon high school completion (Bers & Smith, 1987; Cabrera & La Nasa, 2000). Neglected from these established models has been the other student populations enrolled in other sectors of higher education in the U.S., specifically the community colleges. Critical Race Theory (CRT) provided the conceptual framework for this qualitative study that explored the college-choice phenomenon for a group of documented Chinese immigrant students at one urban public community college. This study examined the participants' experiences to determine factors that contributed to their college-choice decision making. The stories shared by a sample of 16 participants (ages 19 to 39) revealed four overarching factors that impacted their college-choice decision making: 1) their experiences as immigrants in the U.S.; 2) their experiences as members of the working class in the U.S.; 3) their educational experiences prior to their immigration to the U.S.; 4) their educational experiences while in the U.S., which raised concerns about equity in access to college knowledge. Participants negotiated all these factors to decide that they would enroll at a community college. The findings from this study contributed to the literature of college-choice from the perspective of a group of documented Chinese immigrants. In part, participants reported they chose to enroll at community college because they wanted a college that offered them opportunities to improve their English language skills; was affordable; conveniently located; had a community of Chinese/API immigrant students. Overwhelmingly, participants chose to attend a community college because they were not informed that there were other options. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Administration and Higher Education.

Thesis advisor: Diana Pullin / It is widely accepted that school leadership has both a direct and indirect impact on student achievement. Hitt and Tucker’s (2016) unified leadership framework summarized a decade of work by numerous researchers identifying the five most effective leadership domains that influence student learning. Using that work as a conceptual framework, this qualitative case study analyzed one of the five interdependent leadership domains in an urban elementary school that succeeded in educating traditionally marginalized students and outperformed other schools with similar demographics in the district. Scholars Hitt and Tucker (2016) state that effective leadership practice includes conveying, communicating and implementing a shared vision. This study focused on the mission-driven leadership practices at the district level and the school level that could have influenced the improved academic outcomes for urban students of color. Another focus of this study was achieving equity for marginalized student populations and whether the district designed policies or programs specifically for students of color in order to eliminate achievement gaps. This study found aligned practices and beliefs at both the district and school level. Findings included a shared understanding of goals and daily practices to achieve the goal. There were expectations in place to observe implementation as well as reliable structures to communicate about goals to maintain a focus on priorities. This project also aimed to learn whether these same practices were engaged if there were initiatives in place to attain equitable outcomes when working with specific marginalized populations. This study found consistency throughout the organization of a resistance to focusing on race. This resistance materialized in the form of taking a color-blind approach to instruction. This approach is in direct contrast to practices called for in the literature for meeting the needs of all students, especially students of color. Recommendations include taking courageous steps as a district by engaging transformational and social justice leadership practices to create an organization that is responsive to the needs of students of color. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

The primary purpose of this ethnographic study is to contextualize Mexican American surfers experiences with sport as a lens into race, gender and class relations. Specifically, it seeks to understand how a history of gender, race, and class oppression has played out in this understudied terrain of sports. This study offers empirical insight into the ways in which Mexican Americans navigate and (un)successfully infiltrate predominantly white, male, middle-class sporting arenas. In this study I also examine the relationship between access and barriers, specifically how access to public recreational spaces are constricted by participants’ real and imagined barriers. By exploring Mexican American surfers’ everyday experiences, I unearthed the varying ways Mexican American surfers experienced discrimination and marginalization across intersecting and interlocking identities.