Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons Dissertations Theses and Dissertations 2015 Shifting Narratives in Doctoral Admissions: Faculty of Color Understandings of Diversity, Equity, and Justice in a Neoliberal Context Dian Drew Squire Loyola University Chicago Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss Part of the Higher Education Administration Commons Recommended Citation Squire, Dian Drew, "Shifting Narratives in Doctoral Admissions: Faculty of Color Understandings of Diversity, Equity, and Justice in a Neoliberal Context" (2015). Dissertations. 1972. https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/1972 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Copyright © 2015 Dian Drew Squire LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO SHIFTING NARRATIVES IN DOCTORAL ADMISSIONS: FACULTY OF COLOR UNDERSTANDINGS OF DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND JUSTICE IN A NEOLIBERAL CONTEXT A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY PROGRAM IN HIGHER EDUCATION BY DIAN D. SQUIRE CHICAGO, IL DECEMBER 2015 Copyright by Dian D. Squire, 2015 All rights reserved. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to take this space to thank the various families who have been integral in getting me to where I am today. First, I have to thank my biological family for their sacrifices and encouragement throughout my many decades of schooling. My family include: Matt and Colin Bourgois, Cindy Fuller, Snow and Chase Townsend, Bill, Thi, Sean, Sage, and Stirling Squire. In particular, I thank my mother, Van Bourgois, for her unwavering support, sacrifice, tenacity, creativity, perseverance, resilience, and love. Second, I have to acknowledge my family gained during my time at the University of Maryland; their faith in me has never wavered: Dr. Gerry Strumpf, Drs. Sharon Fries-Britt, Noah Drezner, Steve Mobley, and Rebecca Villarreal, and the students of the Orientation Office and The One Project. Lots of love and admiration to my lifelong friends and confidantes: Lauren Norris, Chelsea Truesdell, and Laila Shishineh. My time at Maryland has provided me the opportunities to grow and learn about my values, and helped me to develop how I perceive more socially just institutions to look like. Third, my family at Loyola University Chicago has supported me, nurtured me, and pushed me to become the scholar I am today. I would first like to thank my committee, Dr. Bridget Kelly (dissertation chair) and Drs. OiYan Poon and Ron Martin (committee members). Additionally, I would like to thank Drs. John Dugan, Mark Engberg, and Blanca Olave-Torres. A special acknowledgement is extended to Drs. iii OiYan Poon, Bridget Kelly, and Terry Williams for providing me a multitude of opportunities to develop personally, and refine my worldview and scholarly skillset. I am forever indebted to these people. You have placed your trust in me and have dedicated much time and energy into helping me develop into the person I am today. You have guided me to become a better writer, reader, thinker, scholar, and human. You have helped me develop my perspective and encouraged me to continue learning. Thank you. There would be no me without the rest of the “Fab 5,” T.J. Jourian, Michael Bumbry, Lester Manzano, and Ajani Byrd. You will forever be a part of my journey and I am so grateful to have you in my life as friends, confidantes, colleagues, classmates, and scholars. I must recognize Megan Segoshi, Lisa Davidson, Brett Stachler, Shannon Howes, Kristin McCann, and Symone Simmons for their support with completing this project. Thank you to Devita Bishundat, Amy Weatherford, Sadika Sulaiman Hara, and the many others who have always been by my side throughout this process. Lastly, thank you to those who made “the journal” such a huge success. Lastly, I would like to thank the 14 participants who shared their stories with me for this project. A big thank you is extended to Drs. Z. Nicolazzo, Jason Garvey, Christina Linder, Daniel Tillapaugh, and Bryce Hughes. Much love is extended to Zara Frankel for being a sounding board, respite from academia, cultural guru, and great friend. I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge my lifelong friends Gino Campodonico, Andres Duque, Kimone Kocica, Lynette Roqueta, and Michelle Horwitz. “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it” – Aristotle. #PhDian iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii LIST OF FIGURES vii LIST OF TABLES viii ABSTRACT ix CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1 Problem Statement 2 Study Scope 13 Defining Core Concepts 17 Overview of Dissertation 27 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW AND FRAMEWORK 28 U.S. Doctoral Education 28 History of Higher Education and Student Affairs Preparation Programs 37 Practices That Facilitate Racially Diverse Graduate Recruitment and Enrollment 43 Influencers on the Graduate Admissions Process 60 Faculty of Color Experiences 83 Summary 92 Conceptual Framework 93 Neoliberalism and Globalization 95 Institutional Orders 98 Fields (Universities) 99 Disciplines (Higher Education and Student Affairs) 102 Actors 104 Critical Race Theory 107 Decision-Making, Action, and Resistance 111 Civility and Collegiality 114 Conclusion 115 CHAPTER THREE: METHODS 116 Critical Transformative Research 118 Rationale for a Qualitative Approach 119 Epistemology 120 Researcher Positionality and Reflexivity 121 Research Methods 124 Data Analysis 134 Establishing Trustworthiness 137 Data Presentation 140 Conclusion 142 v CHAPTER FOUR: DAY ONE: MAKING THE ADMISSIONS DECISION 144 Characters 146 Workshop Introductions 149 Going Sword 164 CHAPTER FIVE: DAY TWO: BROAD CONSEQUENCES 187 I Don’t Wanna Recruit No Students of Color Here 189 And The Whole Interest Convergence Piece 199 CHAPTER SIX: CONCLUSION 212 Discussion 214 Implications 239 Limitations 249 Future Research 250 Reflection and Conclusion 252 APPENDIX A: EMAIL TO POTENTIAL PARTICIPANTS 254 APPENDIX B: CONSENT TO PARTICIPANT IN RESEARCH 256 APPENDIX C: DEMOGRAPHIC FORM 260 APPENDIX D: INTERVIEW PROTOCOL 262 APPENDIX E: FOCUS GROUP PROTOCOL 266 APPENDIX F: GEE'S BUILDING TASKS OF LANGUAGE 269 APPENDIX G: CODES 272 REFERENCE LIST 276 VITA 303 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. A Critical Race Institutional Logics Perspective 111 Figure 2. Interest convergence in international doctoral education 228 vii LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Percent post baccalaureate enrollment by race: 2011/2012 5 Table 2. Schools of education percentage doctoral degree conferral by race: 2013 7 Table 3. Schools of education percentage doctoral degree conferral by sex: 2013 7 Table 4. Doctoral degrees conferred in higher education/higher education administration and college student counseling and personnel services, by race/ ethnicity and gender: 2012-13 9 Table 5. Participant demographics 126 Table 6. Composite character background characteristics 148 viii ABSTRACT Little is known about how faculty make decisions in the doctoral admissions process or how they conceptualize diversity, equity, and justice in those same processes. Understanding how students are selected into graduate programs is increasingly important to supporting diverse leadership bodies and shaping a dynamically diverse campus cultural context. This qualitative study utilized semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and critical discourse analysis to explore how faculty of color understand diversity, equity, and justice norms, values, and behaviors in the doctoral admissions process in Higher Education and Student Affairs (HESA) doctoral programs in Predominantly White Institutions (PWI) and how professors of color navigate those norms, values, and behaviors with their multiple intersecting identities. Data reveals that faculty of color resist the utilization of standardized measures of success, are attracted to students of color and students aiming to do conduct equity work, and consider diversity at all times in the admissions process. Faculty also feel constrained in their ability to fully engage in the admissions process due to marginalization of their identities and their tenure status. Relatedly, faculty understand the values of their university through (in)actions taken when critical community incidences occur and find tensions in conflating international students of color with domestic students of color. ix CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION Understanding how students are selected into doctoral programs and how faculty navigate institutional norms, values, cultures, and behaviors related to diversity, equity, and justice within the graduate admissions context is increasingly important to supporting diverse leadership bodies and student populations, and to shaping a dynamically diverse campus context (Bowen, Bok, & Shulman, 1998; Garces & Jayakumar, 2014; Smith, 2009). Bowen and Rudenstine (1992) called doctoral education the “apex” (p. 3) of the United States education system and Holley and Joseph (2013) argued, “the doctorate holds a key role in the country’s scientific ambition, future economic security, and knowledge production” (p. 2). These two realities make the analysis of doctoral education integral to ensuring the success of United States postsecondary education and of greater society. Research on doctoral education is also important because