DOCSLIB.ORG

Gendered Racism: a Phenomenological Study of African American Female Leaders in Counselor Education

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Gendered Racism: a Phenomenological Study of African American Female Leaders in Counselor Education GENDERED RACISM: A PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY OF AFRICAN AMERICAN FEMALE LEADERS IN COUNSELOR EDUCATION A Dissertation Presented to The Graduate Faculty of the University of Akron In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Yvette L. Lester May 2019 GENDERED RACISM: A PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY OF AFRICAN AMERICAN FEMALE LEADERS IN COUNSELOR EDUCATION Yvette L. Lester Dissertation Approved: Accepted: _________________________________ _________________________________ Advisor Interim School Director Dr. Delila Owens Dr. Vaurnee Faii Sangganjanavanich _________________________________ _________________________________ Committee Member Interim Dean of the College Dr. Dana Matthews Dr. Elizabeth A. Kennedy _________________________________ ________________________________ Committee Member Executive Dean of the Graduate School Dr. Robert C. Schwartz Dr. Chand Midha _________________________________ _________________________________ Committee Member Date Dr. John Queener _________________________________ Committee Member Dr. Yue Dang ii ABSTRACT The purpose of the transcendental phenomenological study was to understand the experiences of gendered racism in African American female leaders in Counselor Education. The sample consisted of nine African American women in the field of counselor education. There were two research questions and six semi-structured interview questions which were created to reflect the theoretical framework of Critical Race Theory. The semi-structured interviews were conducted via phone and were recorded and later transcribed. Seven themes and several implications for the field of counselor education were derived from the study. The seven themes found were as follows: Multidimensional institutional experiences, leaders being advocates and educators, having to represent one’s race, managing expectations (internal and external), developing mechanisms for survival, patriarchal spaces and the need for counter spaces. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank God for giving me the ability, the faith and the confidence to begin and complete this huge undertaking. Along with those things and even more importantly, I want to thank my Heavenly Father for guiding my steps and exposing me to people who would instill in me the confidence, the support and the understanding that I would need to accomplish this goal. To my mother, Sarah Boles, I thank you for always being there to support, to listen and to pray for me. I miss you more than words can ever express. My husband David J. Lester, thank you for being my friend, my confidante, my protector, and my biggest supporter. Thank you to my sons, Spencer and Johnathan Lester for supporting me. Thank you to my sisters for being understanding when I could not “go junkin” because I had to work on my dissertation. Sandra Faye (my eldest sister), thank you for giving me guidance and direction when needed. Thank you to my two brothers for loving me and making me laugh when I needed it most. Thank you, Jessica Russo, for giving me the nudge I needed to get back to working on my dissertation and Stefani Young for reminding me to keep going. Thank you, Dr. Queener for all you have done throughout the years. Thank you, Dr. Owens, for convincing me that completing the dissertation was possible. I want to acknowledge and humbly thank my dissertation committee: Chair, Dr. Delila Owens, Dr. John Queener, Dr. Yue Dang, Dr. Dana Matthews, and Dr. Robert Schwartz. Thank you to Dr. Marie Michelle Rosemond, Indiana University South Bend, iv for your assistance. Finally, I want to thank the nine women that allowed me to interview them and tell their stories. I want to thank them for the work they do and hope they know the value they bring to their students/supervisees. v TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES............................................................................................................................ x CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................... 1 Leadership in Counselor Education ......................................................................................... 1 Ethnocentric Monoculturalism .............................................................................................. 11 Introduction to Systemic Oppression ..................................................................................... 13 Introduction to Critical Race Theory ..................................................................................... 14 Statement of the Problem ........................................................................................................... 18 Purpose of the Study .................................................................................................................. 21 Research Questions: ............................................................................................................... 22 Significance of the Study ....................................................................................................... 22 Definition of Terms: .............................................................................................................. 23 SUMMARY ........................................................................................................................... 25 II. LITERATURE REVIEW ......................................................................................................... 27 Critical Race Theory .............................................................................................................. 27 African American Women in the Academia .......................................................................... 38 African American Female Leaders in Counselor Education ................................................. 42 African American Women and Racism ................................................................................. 47 III. METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................................... 53 vi Research Questions ................................................................................................................ 54 Rationale for Research Questions .......................................................................................... 54 Research Method ................................................................................................................... 55 Research Design .................................................................................................................... 56 Researcher’s Role in the Study .............................................................................................. 59 Researcher Bias...................................................................................................................... 59 Confidentiality ....................................................................................................................... 60 Setting .................................................................................................................................... 60 Participants ............................................................................................................................ 61 Sampling Size ........................................................................................................................ 61 Recruitment Procedures ......................................................................................................... 62 Data Collection ...................................................................................................................... 63 Semi-structured Interviews .................................................................................................... 64 Data Analysis ............................................................................................................................. 64 Data analysis procedures ....................................................................................................... 65 Trustworthiness ...................................................................................................................... 67 Dependability ......................................................................................................................... 68 Credibility .............................................................................................................................. 68 Transferability ........................................................................................................................ 69 SUMMARY ........................................................................................................................... 69 IV. PARTICIPANTS AND FINDINGS ........................................................................................ 70 vii Description of Participants ......................................................................................................... 71 Interpretation of Findings........................................................................................................... 75 Multifaceted Institutional Experiences (Theme #1)............................................................... 75 Leaders Being Advocates and Educators (Theme # 2) .......................................................... 77 Race Representative (Theme #3) ..........................................................................................
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Black-Jewish Coalition” Unraveled: Where Does Israel Fit?
    The “Black-Jewish Coalition” Unraveled: Where Does Israel Fit? A Master’s Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Brandeis University Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program Professors Ellen Smith and Jonathan Krasner Ph.D., Advisors In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts by Leah Robbins May 2020 Copyright by Leah Robbins 2020 Acknowledgements This thesis was made possible by the generous and thoughtful guidance of my two advisors, Professors Ellen Smith and Jonathan Krasner. Their content expertise, ongoing encouragement, and loving pushback were invaluable to the work. This research topic is complex for the Jewish community and often wrought with pain. My advisors never once questioned my intentions, my integrity as a researcher, or my clear and undeniable commitment to the Jewish people of the past, present, and future. I do not take for granted this gift of trust, which bolstered the work I’m so proud to share. I am also grateful to the entire Hornstein community for making room for me to show up in my fullness, and for saying “yes” to authentically wrestle with my ideas along the way. It’s been a great privilege to stretch and grow alongside you, and I look forward to continuing to shape one another in the years to come. iii ABSTRACT The “Black-Jewish Coalition” Unraveled: Where Does Israel Fit? A thesis presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Brandeis University Waltham, Massachusetts By Leah Robbins Fascination with the famed “Black-Jewish coalition” in the United States, whether real or imaginary, is hardly a new phenomenon of academic interest.
    [Show full text]
  • Proposal for the Seventh Annual Diversity Challenge
    CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS th The 19 Annual Diversity Challenge Race, Culture, & WHMP: Survival, Resistance, and Healing in the Current Social Climate October 25-26, 2019 Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts 1 Diversity Challenge Committee: Janet E. Helms, Diversity Challenge Chair Kahlil DuPerry Kathleen Flaherty Susan Ginivisian Taylor Stewart Eva Wilson Courtney Wright Lianzhe Zheng Grant Zitomer Sponsored by: The Institute for the Study and Promotion of Race and Culture Carolyn A. and Peter S. Lynch School of Education and Human Development 2 Table of Contents Invited Speakers .................................................................................................................................... 4 Abstracts Individual Presentations ...................................................................................................................... 5 Workshops .......................................................................................................................................... 18 Structured Discussions ....................................................................................................................... 24 Symposia ............................................................................................................................................ 31 Posters ................................................................................................................................................. 33 3 Invited Speakers Immigration Law and Undocumented Students' Fates in
    [Show full text]
  • Territorial Stigmatisation, Gendered Racism and Young People's Agency
    Territorial stigmatisation, gendered racism and young people’s agency in a multi-ethnic school Suvi Keskinen Introduction Young people belonging to racialised minorities are at the centre of many problem filled discourses and moral panics in today’s Europe. Minority youth are mentioned as a problem in public discussions of school drop-out and unemployment, the hijab and other Muslim women’s bodily coverage, and riots and other disturbances in the minority-dense impoverished residence areas. The problems have often been located in minority families and the generational relations within these. Scholars have identified a ‘crisis of multiculturalism’ discourse that has characterised media and politics in several European countries during the last decade (Grillo, 2007; Lentin & Titley, 2011; Vertovec & Wessendorf, 2010). Within this discourse, circulating across national borders with only a few local modifications, especially Muslims and non-western minorities are claimed to have established ‘parallel societies’ with illiberal cultures, oppression of women and fertile ground for terrorism, a process allegedly made possible by the politically correct and naïve proponents of multiculturalism among the (white majority) elite. As a result, racialised minorities have been confronted with increasing scrutiny and demands on integration and assimilation by leading politicians and authorities. In this chapter, I will look at how minority young people search for ways to build their lives, gain respectability and perform agency in a societal context characterised by the previously mentioned processes. The focus will be on the gendered and sexualised aspects of racism, as they are lived out by young people in a multi-ethnic suburb in Finland, and the different strategies they develop to question, ignore and disturb such practices.
    [Show full text]
  • Emotional Labor: How Gendered Racism Affects African American Women Working in Mental Health Crisis Response
    California State University, San Bernardino CSUSB ScholarWorks Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations Office of aduateGr Studies 6-2020 EMOTIONAL LABOR: HOW GENDERED RACISM AFFECTS AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN WORKING IN MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS RESPONSE Dana N. Sandoval Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd Part of the Social Work Commons Recommended Citation Sandoval, Dana N., "EMOTIONAL LABOR: HOW GENDERED RACISM AFFECTS AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN WORKING IN MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS RESPONSE" (2020). Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations. 1017. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd/1017 This Project is brought to you for free and open access by the Office of aduateGr Studies at CSUSB ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of CSUSB ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. EMOTIONAL LABOR: HOW GENDERED RACISM AFFECTS AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN WORKING IN MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS RESPONSE A Project Presented to the Faculty of California State University, San Bernardino In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Social Work by Dana N. Sandoval June 2020 EMOTIONAL LABOR: HOW GENDERED RACISM AFFECTS AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN WORKING IN MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS RESPONSE A Project Presented to the Faculty of California State University, San Bernardino by Dana N. Sandoval June 2020 Approved by: Gretchen Heidemann-Whitt, PhD, Faculty Supervisor, Social Work Armando Barragan, PhD, M.S.W. Research Coordinator © 2020 Dana N. Sandoval ABSTRACT The research uses the framework of emotional labor to analyze the effect of gendered racism on mental health, physical well-being, and burn out of African American women who provide mental health crisis response.
    [Show full text]
  • Application of Critical Race Feminism to the Anti-Lynching Movement: Black Women's Fight Against Race and Gender Ideology, 1892-1920
    UCLA UCLA Women's Law Journal Title The Application of Critical Race Feminism to the Anti-Lynching Movement: Black Women's Fight against Race and Gender Ideology, 1892-1920 Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1kc308xf Journal UCLA Women's Law Journal, 3(0) Author Barnard, Amii Larkin Publication Date 1993 DOI 10.5070/L331017574 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California ARTICLE THE APPLICATION OF CRITICAL RACE FEMINISM TO THE ANTI-LYNCHING MOVEMENT: BLACK WOMEN'S FIGHT AGAINST RACE AND GENDER IDEOLOGY, 1892-1920 Amii Larkin Barnard* INTRODUCTION One muffled strain in the Silent South, a jarring chord and a vague and uncomprehended cadenza has been and still is the Ne- gro. And of that muffled chord, the one mute and voiceless note has been the sadly expectant Black Woman.... [Als our Cauca- sian barristersare not to blame if they cannot quite put themselves in the dark man's place, neither should the dark man be wholly expected fully and adequately to reproduce the exact Voice of the Black Woman. I At the turn of the twentieth century, two intersecting ideolo- gies controlled the consciousness of Americans: White Supremacy and True Womanhood. 2 These cultural beliefs prescribed roles for people according to their race and gender, establishing expectations for "proper" conduct. Together, these beliefs created a climate for * J.D. 1992 Georgetown University Law Center; B.A. 1989 Tufts University. The author is currently an associate at Bowles & Verna in Walnut Creek, California. The author would like to thank Professor Wendy Williams and Professor Anthony E.
    [Show full text]
  • The Relationship Between Racism-Related Stress and Binge Eating
    THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RACISM-RELATED STRESS AND BINGE EATING AMONG BLACK FEMALE STUDENTS IN GRADUATE AND PROFESSIONAL PROGRAMS OF STUDY: EXAMINING THE ROLE OF DEPRESSION AS A MEDIATOR Kayla N. Cody A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Social Work University of Washington 2019 Committee: Gino Aisenberg Stephen T. Wilson Program Authorized to Offer Degree: Social Work © Copyright 2019 Kayla N. Cody i University of Washington Abstract The Relationship between Racism-Related Stress and Binge Eating among Black Female Students in Graduate and Professional Programs of Study: Examining the Role of Depression as a Mediator Kayla N. Cody Chair of Supervisory Committee: Associate Professor Gino Aisenberg School of Social Work Anti-Black racism is a social toxin that not only violently affects people’s individual and collective access to resources, but significantly impacts the quality of life of those who are targeted, including the onset and maintenance of adverse psychological and physical health outcomes, such as depression and binge eating. Research finds that across the United States, experiences of racism can lead to racism-related stress, which is conceptualized as the cumulative psychological and emotional distress that can result from racial discrimination. Centering Black women in this narrative, this study explores how institutionalized racism-related stress in academia impacts the health and wellbeing of Black female graduate and professional studies students across the United States. Building upon existing research, the current study examines levels of institutionalized racism-related stress, in addition to gendered racism-related stress, reported by a sample of Black women in graduate and professional programs of study.
    [Show full text]
  • Individual Activism Week 9 Introduction
    Week 9 Policy Highlight As the nation focuses on vote counts and outcomes, consider the work of protecting voting rights and making voting accessible to all. Of voting rights, Dr. Kendi writes: “Racist voting policy has evolved from disenfranchising by Jim Crow voting laws to disenfranchising by mass incarceration and voter-ID laws. Sometimes these efforts are so blatant that they are struck down: North Carolina enacted one of these targeted voter-ID laws, but in July 2016 the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit struck it down, ruling that is various provisions ‘target African Americans with almost surgical precision.’” (p.22). “Assure Every American Can Vote” is a program of the Brennan Center at NYU. The Brennan Center works “to make voting free, fair, and easy. The Brennan Center's reforms are modernizing American elections, starting with automatic voter registration and measures to ensure election security. And we fight restrictive voting policies that make it harder to vote.” You can explore the Center’s work here: https://www.brennancenter.org/. Wondering how to talk with students, friends, family about the elections? While aimed at supporting teachers’ work in classrooms, this issue of Teaching Tolerance offers practices and ideas that could also be useful when talking with friends and family: https://www.tolerance.org. Week 9: Individual Activism Referencing the Black Lives Matter movement, and sharing his own path to queer antiracism, Dr. Kendi asserts that, “We cannot be antiracist if we are homophobic or transphobic” (p. 197). Black trans women must be protected in the ALL Black Lives Matter antiracist work.
    [Show full text]
  • Gender Differences Among Arab Americans
    ORIGINAL RESEARCH published: 20 February 2017 doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2017.00023 Discrimination and Psychological Distress: Gender Differences among Arab Americans Shervin Assari1,2* and Maryam Moghani Lankarani3 1 Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA, 2 Center for Research on Ethnicity, Culture and Health, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA, 3 Medicine and Health Promotion Institute, Tehran, Iran Background: Despite the existing knowledge on the association between discrimina- tion and poor mental health, very few studies have explored gender differences in this association in Arab Americans. Objective: The current study aimed to investigate whether gender moderates the association between the experience of discrimination and psychological distress in a representative sample of Arab Americans in Michigan. Edited by: Mercedes Lovrecic, Methods: Using data from the Detroit Arab American Study (DAAS), 2003, this study National Institute of Public Health, recruited Arab Americans (337 males, 385 females) living in Michigan, United States. The Slovenia main independent variable was discrimination. The main outcome was psychological Reviewed by: Sebastian Fischer, distress. Covariates included demographic factors (age), socioeconomic status (educa- Leuphana University, Germany tion, employment, and income), and immigration characteristics (nativity and years living Rohan Dexter Jeremiah, in United States). Gender was the focal moderator. We used multivariable regression University of Illinois at Chicago, USA with and without discrimination gender interaction term. *Correspondence: × Shervin Assari Results: In the pooled sample, discrimination was positively associated with psycholog- [email protected] ical distress [B = 0.62, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.22–1.03, p = 0.003].
    [Show full text]
  • Falling Through the Cracks: Black Girls and Education
    Falling through the Cracks: Black Girls and Education Shawn Arango Ricks Winston-Salem State University The needs of Black girls are often overlooked by teachers, administrators, and policy makers. This oversight has contributed to a lack of educational programming and policies that address the impact of the intersection of racism and sexism on the educational experiences of Black girls, with some attention to the achievement gap. Policies simply focusing on race or gender ignore the unique positionality in which Black girls live and learn. Compounding this discussion is the recent focus on post- racialism in America. This article addresses this neglect, and suggests a framework to assist teachers and administrators in bridging this gap in educational programming and policies. Keywords: Black girls, achievement gap, racism, sexism, post-racialism Black males and females are at risk for many types of school failure such as poor test scores, high dropout rates, achievement gap, low grades, high suspension rates, however, promises of educational reform are on the forefront. The federal government is increasing its focus in this area with initiatives such as Race to the Top, My Brother’s Keeper, and a sweeping reform of No Child Left Behind (Koebler, 2012; The White House, 2014); and philanthropists are supporting educational initiatives (e.g., Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, 2012; Perez-Pena, 2010). Although well-intentioned, oftentimes these initiatives ignore the complexity of systemic and interlocking forces at work in education, which can sometimes lead to a band-aid approach. Band-aid approaches neglect the individual and combined impact of variables such as race, racism, sexism, and gendered racism on educational experiences and outcomes of underrepresented groups.
    [Show full text]
  • Black Women Account for Their Experiences Engaging with White and Non-Black Men on Online Dating Applications
    “It’s like you’re trying to conquer me”: Black women account for their experiences engaging with white and non-black men on online dating applications Student Name: Valerie Ntinu Student Number: 502271 Supervisor: Dr. Mélodine Sommier Media, Culture & Society Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication Erasmus University Rotterdam Masters of Arts Thesis June 2019 Abstract The purpose of this research was to provide insight into the lived experiences of black women that engage with white and non-black men on online dating platforms through their own narratives. The posed research questions sought to understand two precise processes; firstly, how black women experience their interactions with white and non-black men online, paying close attention to instances of anti-blackness and secondly, how these women receive and respond to this. The motivation for incorporating the second research question precisely was to extend the positionality of black womanhood outside the confines of victimhood and demonstrate the agency they possess in constructing their own perceptions of certain experiences. Ten semi-structured, informal interviews were conducted with ten self-identifying black women that were in use or had been in use of online dating platforms in the preceding six months at the time of the interviews. Online dating applications were operationalized as dating platforms with locative sensibility, defined as applications that are user’s location-aware and downloadable on a smartphone; examples included Tinder, OkCupid and Bumble. The interviews demonstrated a commitment to existential phenomenology and post-colonial feminist research in prioritizing the sentiments of the respondents and limiting the influences of the researcher.
    [Show full text]
  • Confronting Institutional Gendered Racism—Again Deirdre Cobb-Roberts University of South Florida, [email protected]
    University of South Florida Scholar Commons Educational and Psychological Studies Faculty Educational and Psychological Studies Publications 2011 Betwixt Safety and Shielding in the Academy: Confronting Institutional Gendered Racism—Again Deirdre Cobb-Roberts University of South Florida, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/esf_facpub Part of the Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education Commons Scholar Commons Citation Cobb-Roberts, Deirdre, "Betwixt Safety and Shielding in the Academy: Confronting Institutional Gendered Racism—Again" (2011). Educational and Psychological Studies Faculty Publications. 8. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/esf_facpub/8 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Educational and Psychological Studies at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Educational and Psychological Studies Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Betwixt Safety and Shielding in the Academy: Confronting Institutional Gendered Racism—Again Deirdre Cobb-Roberts1 University of South Florida Abstract This article represents a critical reflection of a Black African American female associate professor who, while teaching a diversity course, unknowingly enabled systems of power and privilege to undermine her faculty role in the course and in the academy. The author revisits a story of this experience and its vestiges using Critical Race Theory (CRT) and an autoethnographic approach. In doing so, she comes to terms with her complicity in supporting White supremacy and patriarchy and reclaims a voice previously suppressed yet still vulnerable in the matrix of institutional power. Two significant shifts are captured in this account--a narrative shift from the individual to one that includes the institutional and a political shift from a position of naiveté to critical consciousness.
    [Show full text]
  • Coping at the Intersection: a Transformative Mixed Methods Study
    COPING AT THE INTERSECTION: A TRANSFORMATIVE MIXED METHODS STUDY OF GENDERED RACISM AS A ROOT CAUSE OF MENTAL HEALTH CHALLENGES IN BLACK COLLEGE WOMEN by WANDA MARTIN BURTON DAVID A. BIRCH, COMMITTEE CHAIR ANGELIA M. PASCHAL, COMMITTEE CO-CHAIR KELLY W. GUYOTTE JAMES D. LEEPER ADAM P. KNOWLDEN A DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Health Science in the Graduate School of The University of Alabama TUSCALOOSA, ALABAMA 2017 Copyright Wanda Martin Burton 2017 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ABSTRACT Background. Racism negatively impacts the mental health of people of color. Racial identity has been suggested as a buffer against racism. But women of color are at increased risk for mental health challenges due to gendered racism; it is based on intersectionality theory. The purpose of this study was to understand the impact of and coping strategies used to deal with gendered racism on the mental health of Black college women. Methods. The mixed methods design included a nonrandom sample of 213 Black college women. Mental health was operationalized as depression (PHQ-9) and psychological distress (K- 6). Correlation and regression analyses tested the impact of gendered racism on mental health; examined the role of racial identity; and, explored coping strategies. Through intensity sampling, the qualitative phase included individual interviews (n=12) and a focus group (n=6). Narrative inquiry was used to construct composite counter-narratives, using thematic narrative analysis. Findings. Quantitative results suggested that 84% of the sample require mental health treatment. Gendered racism negatively correlated with mental health; the most significant correlation was between depression and the frequency of gendered racism, r(95) = .405, p ≤ .01.
    [Show full text]