The fact that African Americans are under represented in the natural
resource professions is well known and commonly acknowledged. Terms such
as conspicuously absent, manifest imbalance and zero representation have all
been used to describe the current status of African American natural resource
professionals. The data suggests that in the past 20 years, the numbers have
been as low as two-tenths of one percent nationwide. There is no clear
understanding as to why there are so few African Americans in this field,
moreover, there is a shortage of practical suggestions for improving the
situation in the future.
It was the intent of this study to provide the critical and useful
information needed to understand the inhibitions, biases and barriers
that are related to the underrepresentation of African Americans in this
field. In order to accomplish the goals and objectives of this research, 10
oral history interviews were conducted and a mail out survey was
designed.
The survey was mailed to 80 natural resource professionals
nationwide. A total of 61 usable replies (76%) were received and included
in the study. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the individual
questions and the chi square test was used to test four alternative
hypotheses. The level of significance was set at .05.
The findings in this study point to several critical factors that
contribute to the underrepresentation of African American in natural
resource professions. These findings include: systematic racism, feelings of
isolation, too few mentors and role models (regardless of ethnicity) and lack of
cultural awareness in the workplace. In order for the underrepresentation to
be corrected these factors must be made known and addressed. Only after a
clear understanding of the problem is represented can long term solutions be
considered. The information presented here will be beneficial to the entire
natural resource community and its endeavor to increase career options for
under represented minorities in the coming years. / Graduation date: 1994
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/36362 |
| Date | 17 May 1993 |
| Creators | Ponds, Phadrea D. (Phadrea Denese) |
| Contributors | Li, Hiram |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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