Since the summer of 2020, following the execution of Mr. George Floyd, many institutions of higher education established or strengthened their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. In attempting to create more equitable, diverse, inclusive, and antiracist campuses to foster student success and belonging on campus, another inequity is born. Higher education institutions have failed to center the wellbeing of educators tasked with leading these efforts. This qualitative study used semistructured interviews with 10 Black women leading DEI efforts throughout the California Community College system to explore the impact of racialized stress and trauma on holistic wellbeing. Central questions guided this study: 1) How does racialized stress and trauma impact the wellbeing of Black women community college educators? 2) What are the most common sources of racialized stress and trauma experienced by Black women community college educators? and 3) What coping and healing strategies do Black women community college educators currently leverage to address racialized workplace stressors and trauma? Findings indicate racialized stress and trauma in the workplace negatively impact the physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing of Black women leading diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts. DEI leaders may encounter equity scapegoating and the stigma of equity in their work. On the other hand, Black women leverage many coping mechanisms to buffer the effects of racialized stressors. This study xi supports the need for practitioners and leaders to address systemic issues of racism through critical self-reflection, critical actions, and building sustainable support for DEI leaders.

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Private and public sector organizations have become increasingly interested in promoting diversity. Due to barriers attributed to race and gender, women and minorities often find it hard to break through the glass ceiling. Mentoring is a tool to assist with breaking through the glass ceiling. This interest has led to extensive growth in mentoring research and the design of a more expanded concept, developmental networks. Little empirical research informs our understanding of Black women in developmental networks and their political identities within those networks. This qualitative study, within the framework of grounded theory method and of case study research, examines two research questions: (1) What do Black women federal senior executives value within their developmental networks? (2) How do Black women federal senior executives construct political identity within their developmental networks? Applying the conceptual framework of Black feminist thought and developmental network support theories the study examined the developmental relationships of three Black women senior executives. This research highlights the development of a group of high achievers and the contributions of their self-identified support systems. Data analysis from unstructured person-to-person interviews, a questionnaire, and researcher theoretical memos identified the themes support network, self-definition and self-determination, and ecology of life. The most visible codes were significant friendship, workplace behavior, social network composition, and Black woman. In conclusion, the women valued relationships that produced psychosocial outcomes such as friendship, trust, honesty, direct feedback, and reciprocity. They also valued relationships where they received workplace guidance and career exposure from mentor, friend, sponsor, and ally developers within or outside of the workplace. The women developed networks that provided closeness and consisted of developers from different social arenas. They defined their political identities, roles, coping strategies for life challenges and fostered relationships that recognized the importance of ethnic/racial respect, and understanding personal strength. In addition, the women preferred informal developmental relationships with Black and male developers of different ages. Due to a small sample size, self-reported data and the application of grounded theory method, the findings of this study were interpreted with caution. Provided were recommendations for future research and practice. / Ph. D.

Thesis advisor: Patrick Proctor / Jacqueline Woodson has been writing for children, young adults, and adults for thirty-two years. She has won numerous national and international awards for her writing for young people. Her books grapple with topics like teen pregnancy and incarceration with sensitivity and compassion. Her young adult literature deserves closer examination for their potential as instructional tools for English teachers. The purpose of this dissertation was to explore the history of African American children’s literature, the nature of Woodson’s contribution to contemporary African American young adult literature, and to make direct links to teaching Woodson’s YA literature in contemporary high school English classrooms. To these ends, this dissertation has three analytic chapters. In Chapter One, I present a history of African American children’s literature to situate Jacqueline Woodson’s work in the tradition of African Americans writing culturally and racially affirming text for Black children. The chapter highlights Black women who were actively writing during the Harlem Renaissance, the Chicago Black Renaissance, and the Black Arts Movement, and whose work undergirds much of Jacqueline Woodson’s success. Specifically, I highlight the works of Jessie Fauset, Effie Lee Newsome, Gwendolyn Brooks, June Jordan, and Virginia Hamilton. In Chapter Two, I analyze a set of young adult literature written by Jacqueline Woodson. Specifically, I analyzed 10 of Woodson’s YA texts with Black girl protagonists through the lenses of Black Feminist Thought, Black Queer Theory, and Black English. I identified three themes that ran through Woodson’s work and were related to the theoretical lenses: (1) claiming and naming oneself, (2) finding community and belonging, and (3) remembering. Finally, in Chapter Three I provide four sample unit plans derived from the analyses in Chapters 1 and 2. The first unit plan uses Woodson’s text as a mentor text for student self-reflection. The second unit pairs Woodson’s text with a text written by Virginia Hamilton to understand the impacts of coal mining. The third unit uses Black Feminist Thought to analyze and compare one of Woodson’s texts with an adult text written by a Black woman. In the final unit plan, students study Woodson’s memoir in verse to understand how authors use their own lived experiences to create stories. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

Despite the increasing research that lists cultural incongruence in the classroom among the top factors that speaks to the disproportionate numbers of Black females obtaining STEM degrees there is limited research on the actual number of Black female science teachers at the secondary level in education and the impact this plays on Black females in science, technology, engineering, and math classrooms (STEM). The consequence of all this is that we find ourselves with Black female science teachers “missing in action,” and only 5% of Black females receiving a STEM degree. I employ critical pedagogy, critical race theory, and Black feminist thought to answer: (a) What do the stories of Black female secondary science teachers tell us about issues related to their recruitment and retention within the science teaching force? (b) How do Black female secondary science teachers explain the shortage of Black females entering the STEM field? What do they believe should be done to increase the number of Black females in the field? (c) What contributions do Black female secondary science teachers make or potentially would like to make to increase the number of Black females entering and remaining within the science teaching force? This study explores how Black women are absent in the conversation about recruitment and retention of secondary science teachers. To answer the research questions in a humanizing way, this study was conducted collectively with my participants using the qualitative methodologies of critical narratives and decolonizing methodology. Therefore, this study represents an effort to address this phenomenon by listening to the voices of Black female secondary science teachers and engaging their stories, which often have remained absent from recruitment and retention discussions, to contribute to the scholarship on the recruitment and retention of Black science teachers.

In the Arthurian romances of the Middle Ages, the character of Morgan le Fay was transformed dramatically from her Welsh original, the goddess Modron. The effect was to vilify the enchantress so that medieval Christians would not be sympathetic to her character. This study consults the oldest available Welsh mythological and historical texts as well as the medieval romances surrounding King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Also consulted are some of the top contemporary Arthurian scholars. By unraveling Morgan’s transformation and the reasons for such change, it is revealed that medieval demonizing of old pagan deities was not limited to male deities. Instead, the most ancient deity of all, the Great Mother Goddess slowly became one of the most infamous characters in literature, Morgan le Fay.

Thesis (M.A.)--Indiana University, 2010. / Title from screen (viewed on February 26, 2010). Department of Communication Studies, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Advisor(s): Catherine A. Dobris, Ronald M. Sandwina, Kim D. White-Mills, Kristina H. Sheeler. Includes vitae. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 68-70).

The rationale of color-blind ideology in the socializing space of the early childhood classroom encourages that racial, cultural, and ethnic differences remain unrecognized. Demographic shifts of diverse marginalized populations within majority, White suburban schools require the analysis of dominant ideologies that potentially leave biases unchallenged. This photovoice project centered the voice of three Black, early childhood educators working within majority White suburban schools in the South to explore how they rationalized the discourse of color-blind ideology in their professional and personal lives. Findings showed that Black women's critical social location within a racialized society and their historical engagement with Black oppositional knowledge structured oppositional knowledges and embodied critiques of suburban spaces. They crafted wisdoms for engaging and navigating tensions with colleagues, parents, and administrators and nurtured embodied perspectives, resisting stereotypical images of Black women and girls. Deconstructed dominant ideologies in the socializing space of the early childhood classroom extend and modify our understanding of racialized knowledge in our educational spaces and offer transformative readings of color-blind ideology.