Centering Black Women with Dis/Abilities
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BECAUSE I AM HUMAN: CENTERING BLACK WOMEN WITH DIS/ABILITIES IN TRANSITION PLANNING FROM HIGH SCHOOL TO COLLEGE Mercedes Adell Cannon Submitted to the faculty of the University Graduate School in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in the School of Education, Indiana University February 2019 Accepted by the Graduate Faculty of Indiana University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Doctoral Committee ______________________________________ Kathleen Thorius Ph.D., Chair ______________________________________ Chalmer Thompson, Ph.D. November 8, 2018 ______________________________________ Jomo Mutegi, Ph.D. ______________________________________ Patricia Rogan Ph.D. ______________________________________ Seena Skelton Ph.D. ii © 2019 Mercedes Adell Cannon iii DEDICATION To Black women with dis/abilities at multiple intersections of oppressions, I pray that your spirit, soul, mind, and body is built-up by faith. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENT To my dear heavenly Father. Thank you for Jesus, your Son, my Savior, and the Holy Spirit. The life I live daily is that of faith, hope, and inexpressible joy! Thank you for your providential provision throughout the process of attaining to this Ph.D. To my husband. Thank you for loving, supporting, and encouraging me throughout this arduous feat. Over these last several years, your love has helped to anchor me as I progressed in my educational trajectory. I thank God for giving you to me, and I look forward to many more years spent together. To my wonderful children – two that their mother and my dear sister and friend Kim Pulliam’s, shares. To Eryn, Steven, Danielle, Yogi, and Shentoia, individually and collectively, you bring me joy, and I love you all very much! My prayers for all of you is that our heavenly father blesses your lives in ways I cannot imagine and that goes beyond all that you could ever ask or think. To Kathleen Thorius, my dissertation chair. I love you and I am thankful to God for sending you into my life. I am at a loss for words to express my love for, respect of, gratitude to and admiration for you. Your commitment to me and my academic growth goes over and beyond what I could have ever expected. I am a better scholar because of the time, energy, dedication, and scaffolding you have extended to me over these last five years. You have graciously allowed me to pave the path of my dissertation. As I worked to privilege BWD perspectives of their lived and transition education in this dissertation, you have gently exhorted and guided me along the bumpy terrains, thank you. To my dissertation committee members, Dr. Mutegi, Dr, Thompson, Dr. Rogan, and Dr. Skelton. Thank you for your time and energy you have invested in me achieving v this dissertation. Your availability and guidance aided in my perseverance through this process. As each of you listened to and coached me in the particular areas of my interest and your domain, I have grown as a critical scholar. Your wonderful scholarly feedback challenged as well as has pushed me towards the rigors of Ph.D. scholarship. Your knowledge, wisdom, and professionalism have strengthened this dissertation, thank you. To the Black women with dis/abilities who participated in this dissertation study, thank you for sharing some of the most intimate stories of your life and your education. It is an honor to have met each one of you. I hope and pray that your stories make a difference in the lives of other Black women and women of color transitioning from high school to college. Your narrative to “just be yourself” as Black women with dis/abilities transitioning through life and education deserves to be acknowledged and honored. To the two Transition Coordinators. Thank you for your willingness to share your passion and devote your time, talent, and passion for transition work conducted in urban schools. Your service makes a difference in the lives of students with dis/abilities. To my dear friend and colleague Dr. David Hernández-Saca. What a journey we have been on since we first met five years ago! So much to say and loss for words, and I know through the providence of God that He has placed us together for such a time as this and I look forward to many more years of professional scholarship as friends and colleagues. To my writing coach, Dr. Tyra Seldon. Thank you for working with me on my writing style and the initial editing of my dissertation. Your coaching made a difference in the finalization of this document and for that, I am grateful. vi To my siblings, Lamont, Missy, and Leon. I am thankful that God gave each one of you to me as siblings. In your way, each one of you have been a constant encouragement to me towards the completion of this doctorate degree—you are love tremendously and are forever in my prayers! To my in-laws: Jerod and Clarisa Cannon, Jerod Jr. and Shelly Cannon, Patrick and Tempest Cannon, and Leisha Cannon. Thank you all for your prayers and support during my pursuit of this Ph.D., and I love each one of you. To my dear friends and sistas’ in Christ: Annetta Coleman, Shara Gardner, and Marti Justice, I love each one of you dearly, and each of you “hold” a special place in my heart. Thank you for allowing me to come unglued and vulnerable but remain in a safe place during this dissertation process. I love each one of you beyond words! To Christa Sanders, a dear sister, friend, and support from the start of my program and all the way through the completion of this dissertation. For all the time you took to assist me in my academic progression, I pray God’s blessings be poured out in abundance in all you do in life to add to solving the problems in our K-12 educational system. To Ronda, Devon, Kari, Racquel, Carolyn, Robin, Camille, and Jasmine. Thank you for our once a month-4-hour-long fellowship and bible study time, I have learned so much from each of you and I cherish you all dearly. To all the women in the different women’s groups that I facilitate on IUPUI’s campus and TPCC Northwest location, and in women’s homes, I love you all dearly and appreciate the relationships we have formed. Thank you for walking alongside me in my journey to this Ph.D. Always remember ladies what God said, “Eyes have not seen, ears have not heard, nor have it entered into the heart of man the things God has in stored for those who love Him” (1st Corinthians, vii 2:9). To my spiritual mom, June Moss, and to my dear beloved friend/sister Daisy Ross (who is now with the Father) thank you both for loving our God and for allowing His Son’s precious love for you to overflow into my life. To the Woman-to-Woman Prayer Breakfast Committee, thank you for your prayers, love, and support over the many years I have attended your prayer meetings and served on your committee. Your love for Jesus and teaching of God’s word have been a staple in my life. To my TPCC every other Wednesday night study group members thank you for your prayers and support while I pursued this degree. I love you all. To both of my dear Church Family’s: Trinity Baptist Church and Traders Point Christian Church—Northwest Campus. To Trinity. You have been the foundation of my Christian growth for the last twenty-three years. I love each one of our members, and I am grateful for your prayers and support over the last twenty plus years, and as I pursued and attained this Ph.D. To Trader’s Point Christian Church. I thank God for the work of the ministry He has called me to in collaboration with you and for His Kingdom purposes. Thank you for praying for me, listening to me, hearing me, and sharing my academic-spiritual journey with me. To Pam King. Working at AES has been a pleasure as well as challenging. Through God’s providence, He put you in my life to assist in my matriculation through the academy as a student, first, and then, as a professional staff. Thank you for all your support and mentoring, and for helping locating some of the participants for my study. Finally, thank you for working with as I progressed towards the completion of writing my dissertation. viii I also extend many thanks to Leslie House my wordsmith, and to Elena Silverman, who read, collaborated with, and helped to clarify muddled and awkward sentences in my writing. To Marica Stevenson who was an excellent cheerleader and awesome administrator of AES during my time as the interim director and beyond – you rock! In addition, to AES’s newest employee – our Director, Kevin McCracken, thank you for your support and encouragement since you have been in your role. Many thanks to “who? Cohort-2” Urban Education Studies (UES) students and across all of the rest of the UES Cohort friends and colleagues, as well as all of my other friends and colleagues at IUPUI who have spent endless hours supporting me throughout my academic development. I also want to thank IUPUI’s School of Education and the Faculty in the Urban Education Studies (UES) program. Finally, I am considerably appreciative of my copy editor, Stephanie McBride, for her time and expertise in editing this dissertation. Her edits are reflective of my intended meaning and her encouragement of me after I completed each chapter and doing my revision process, you are truly God sent.