Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online 2022-6
Being “Diverse” in the Midst of a Pandemic and Protests: Understanding Misalignments between Institutional and Individual Values for Women of Color Academics
Marginalization of women in academia can lead to feelings of isolation, questioning of legitimacy, and cultural taxation. As women of color at a predominantly White institution we have engaged in duoethnography to analyze and understand these experiences, and to ask whether the COVID–19 pandemic and #BlackLivesMatter protests of 2020 have influenced how we navigate those experiences. Our work is guided by theories of congruence, notions of (in)visibility, and previous autoethnographic work by women professors of color. In our dialogic work we have come to understand how our ideas and our institution's ideas of diversity and justice work are misaligned. In this paper we share how these misalignments existed before 2020 and how they have shifted in the era of COVID–19 and #BlackLivesMatter. We hope this work can support our Black and Brown women colleagues and broader human resources development efforts for supporting diversity and justice in higher education and adult education.
AdamsT. L., & McBrayerJ. S. (2020). The lived experiences of first–generation college students of color integrating into the institutional culture of a predominantly white institution. The Qualitative Report, 25(3), 733–756. https://nsuworks.nova.edu/tqr/vol25/iss3/12
2.
AgathangelouA. M., & LingL. H. (2002). An unten(ur)able position: The politics of teaching for women of color in the US. International Feminist Journal of Politics, 4(3), 368–398. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461674022000031562
3.
AnayaR. (2011). Graduate student mothers of color: The intersectionality between graduate student, motherhood, and women of color. Intersections: Women's and Gender Studies in Review Across Disciplines, 9, 13–31.
4.
ArieliS., SagivL., & RoccasS. (2020). Values at work: The impact of personal values in organisations. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 69(2), 230–275. https://doi.org/10.1111/apps.12181
5.
DobbsC. L., & LeiderC. M. (2020). The perils of notional membership. Journal of Professional Capital and Community, 5(3/4), 273–280. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPCC–06–2020–0029
6.
DobbsC. L., & LeiderC. M. (2021). Does this happen to everyone?”: Women professors of color reflect on experiences in the academy, A Duoethnography. International Journal of Qualitative Research, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2021.1930255
7.
BardiA., & GoodwinR. (2011). The dual route to value change: Individual processes and cultural moderators. Journal of Cross–Cultural Psychology, 42(2), 271–287. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022110396916
8.
BergB. L., LuneH., & LuneH. (2004). Qualitative research methods for the social sciences (Vol., 5). Pearson.
9.
BourdieuP. (1973). Cultural reproduction and social reproduction. In BrownR. (Ed.), Knowledge, education, and cultural change (pp. 71–112). Tavistock.
DassP., & ParkerB. (1999). Strategies for managing human resource diversity: From resistance to learning. Academy of Management Perspectives, 13(2), 68–80. https://doi.org/10.5465/ame.1999.1899550
12.
Delgado BernalD., & VillalpandoO. (2002). An apartheid of knowledge in academia: The struggle over the “legitimate” knowledge of faculty of color. Equity and Excellence in Education, 35(2), 169–180. https://doi.org/10.1080/713845282
13.
EvansS. Y. (2007). Women of color in American higher education. Thought & Action, 23, 131–138.
14.
EvansA., & ChunE. B. (2007). Are the walls really down? Behavioral and organizational barriers to faculty and staff diversity. ASHE Higher Education Report, 33(1), 1–139.
15.
FordK. A. (2011). Race, gender, and bodily (mis) recognitions: Women of color faculty experiences with white students in the college classroom. The Journal of Higher Education, 82(4), 444–478. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2011.11777212
16.
GasmanM., AbiolaU., & TraversC. (2015). Diversity and senior leadership at elite institutions of higher education. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 8(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038872
17.
GopinathM., NairA., & ThangarajV. (2018). Espoused and enacted values in an organization: Workforce implications. Management and Labour Studies, 43(4), 277–293. https://doi.org/10.1177/0258042x18797757
18.
Gutiérrez y MuhsG., NiemannY. F., GonzálezC. G., & HarrisA. P. (Eds.). (2012). Presumed incompetent: The intersections of race and class for women in academia. University Press of Colorado.
19.
HollandJ. L. (1997). Making vocational choices: A theory of vocational personalities and work environments (3rd ed.). Psychological Assessment Resources.
20.
Johnson–BaileyJ., & LeeM. (2005). Women of color in the academy: Where's our authority in the classroom?Feminist Teacher, 15(2), 111–122. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40545917
21.
JosephT. D., & HirshfieldL. E. (2011). ‘Why don't you get somebody new to do it?’ Race and cultural taxation in the academy. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 34(1), 121–141. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2010.496489
22.
KellyB. T., & McCannK. I. (2014). Women faculty of color: Stories behind the statistics. The Urban Review, 46(4), 681–702. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256–014–0275–8
23.
KingJ. E., & GomezG. G. (2008). On the pathway to the presidency: Characteristics of higher education's senior leadership. American Council on Education.
24.
LinA., GrantR., KubotaR., MothaS., SachsG. T., VandrickS., & WongS. (2004). Women faculty of color in TESOL: Theorizing our lived experiences. TESOL Quarterly, 38(3), 487–504. https://doi.org/10.2307/3588350
25.
Martinez AlemánA. M. (2000). Race talks: Undergraduate women of color and female friendships. Review of Higher Education, 23(2), 133–152. https://doi.org/10.1353/rhe.2000.0006
26.
MilfontT. L., MilojevP., & SibleyC. G. (2016). Values stability and change in adulthood: A 3–year longitudinal study of rank–order stability and mean–level differences. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 42(5), 572–588. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167216639245
27.
MoralesE. E. (2008). Exceptional female students of color: Academic resilience and gender in higher education. Innovations in Higher Education, 33, 197–213. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755–008–9075–y
NorrisJ. (2008). Duoethnography. The SAGE Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods, 1, 233–236.
31.
NorrisJ., & SawyerR. D. (2016). Toward a dialogic methodology. In NorrisJ., SawyerR. D. & LundD. (Eds.), Duoethnography (pp. 9–40). Routledge.
32.
OngM., SmithJ. M., & KoL. T. (2018). Counterspaces for women of color in STEM higher education: Marginal and central spaces for persistence and success. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 55(2), 206–245. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21417
33.
PadillaA. M. (1994). Research news and comment: Ethnic minority scholars; research, and mentoring: Current and future issues. Educational Researcher, 23(4), 24–27. https://doi.org/10.2307/1176259
34.
PittmanC. T. (2010). Race and gender oppression in the classroom: The experiences of women faculty of color with white male students. Teaching Sociology, 38(3), 183–196. https://doi.org/10.1177/0092055x10370120
35.
SandlerB. R., & HallR. M. (1986). The campus climate revisited: Chilly for women faculty, administrators, and graduate students. Association of American Colleges, Washington, D.C. Project on the Status and Education of Women. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED282462.pdf
36.
SawyerR. D., & NorrisJ. (2013). Duoethnography. Oxford University Press.
37.
SchwartzS. H. (1992). Universals in the content and structure of values: Theoretical advances and empirical tests in 20 countries. In ZannaM. (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol., 25, pp. 1–65). Academic Press.
38.
SettlesI. H., BuchananN. T., & DotsonK. (2019). Scrutinized but not recognized: (In) visibility and hypervisibility experiences of faculty of color. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 113, 62–74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2018.06.003
39.
StanleyC. A. (2006). Coloring the academic landscape: Faculty of color breaking the silence in predominantly White colleges and universities. American Educational Research Journal, 43(4), 701–736. https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312043004701
40.
TranN. A. (2014). The role of mentoring in the success of women leaders of color in higher education. Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning, 22(4), 302–315. https://doi.org/10.1080/13611267.2014.945740
41.
TurnerC. S. V. (2002). Women of color in academe: Living with multiple marginality. Journal of Higher Education, 73(1), 74–93. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1558448
42.
TurnerC. S. V., GonzálezJ. C., & WongK. (2011). Faculty women of color: The critical nexus of race and gender. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 4(4), 199–211. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0024630
VecchioneM., SchwartzS., AlessandriG., DöringA. K., CastellaniV., & CapraraM. G. (2016). Stability and change of basic personal values in early adulthood: An 8–year longitudinal study. Journal of Research in Personality, 63, 111–122. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2016.06.002
45.
WoodJ. L., HiltonA. A., & NevarezC. (2015). Faculty of color and white faculty: An analysis of service. Journal of the Professoriate, 8(1), 85–109.
46.
Yoshinaga–ItanaoC. (2006). Institutional barriers and myths to recruitment and retention of faculty of color: An administrator's perspective. In StanleyC. (Ed.), Faculty of color: Teaching in predominantly white colleges and universities (pp. 344–360). Anker.
