Professional socialization is the process of learning and employing the cultural
perspective of the workplace. Informed by Black Feminist Thought and Critical Race
Feminism, this study examines the professional socialization experiences of tenured
Black female faculty at four predominately White Research institutions (PWIs). In doing
so, this research captures the trajectory from graduate school to associate professor and
analyzes how tenured Black women define and enact their role in the academy.
Traditional views of professional socialization do not fully explain what happens
when a socially subordinated group like Black women enters spaces defined by the
experiences of a socially dominant group. Therefore, the theoretical framework for this
study considers a) how socially marginalized groups access spaces where the prevailing
norms and values disadvantage them, b) how structural and agential factors promote or
hinder career advancement, and c) how individuals can alter institutions in ways that are
more aligned with their values.
Agency, the ability to identify and implement choices to achieve a self-defined
goal, allowed the participants to mediate the vestiges of institutional racism. The key
agential factors were self-efficacy and self-advocacy (e.g. seeking mentoring). However,
structural opportunities were vital to their career success. Key structural factors were (a)
recruitment initiatives (e.g. Affirmative Action), (b) critical mass of people of color on
campus, and (c) intellectual support. These enabling aspects of structure made accessing
PWIs possible and made finding a space for intellectual production less complicated.
The participants contributed to their institutions through a series of critical
enactments. The term enactment is meant to capture how the participants manifest
multiple ways of maneuvering through academe. These enactments are critical because
they are concerned with naming and subverting social injustice. The participants
embodied critical enactments by employing critical pedagogy, challenging
epistemological paradigms and advocating on behalf of the most vulnerable groups in
college settings. Essentially, for the participants, professional socialization means
enacting norms that are aligned with their standpoint, discarding norms that conflict with
their standpoint, and transforming norms to encourage agreement with their standpoint.
With this knowledge, institutions can better address norms that undermine the
professional development of underrepresented groups.Ph.D.EducationUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/61695/1/vthandis_1.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/61695/2/vthandis_2.pd
