The Central Educational Center is a product of multiple visions, desires, and hopes. The ideal vision is outlined in a book entitled “The Eden Conspiracy” (Harless, 1997). Other perspectives include a requirement from local business that basic skills of high school graduates need to be rapidly improved, the desire of a growing local school system to provide costly industry-standard career-technical education to all high school students, the vision of a regional technical college to “dual enroll” high school students and make technical college a viable post-secondary option, and the hopes of a Governor looking for a viable model to support his desire to reform education partly through a new infusion of technical education opportunities

Castillo, Milagros

Felder, Pamela

English

Fort Hays State University

Academic Leadership: The Online JournalVolume 9Issue 1 Winter 2011 Article 31-1-2011A Commentary about the Black and LatinoDoctoral Experience in the United StatesPamela FelderMilagros CastilloFollow this and additional works at: https://scholars.fhsu.edu/aljPart of the Educational Leadership Commons, Higher Education Commons, and the TeacherEducation and Professional Development CommonsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by FHSU Scholars Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Academic Leadership: TheOnline Journal by an authorized editor of FHSU Scholars Repository.Recommended CitationFelder, Pamela and Castillo, Milagros (2011) "A Commentary about the Black and Latino Doctoral Experience in the United States,"Academic Leadership: The Online Journal: Vol. 9 : Iss. 1 , Article 3.Available at: https://scholars.fhsu.edu/alj/vol9/iss1/3academicleadership.org http://www.academicleadership.org/1270/a-commentary-about-black-and-latino-doctoral-student-experience-in-the-united-states/Academic Leadership JournalDoctoral education is a special segment of our educational system because it produces the nextgeneration of scholars who use their expertise to inform policies, conduct research, and facilitate thedevelopment of future scholars. In an increasingly diverse and global society, it is imperative thatdoctoral education be pursued and completed by more diverse students. Currently, there is significantdisparity in doctoral degree completion evident by the fact that in 2008 Blacks and Latinos representedless than 4,000 of the total number of 48,802 doctoral degree recipients (Hoffer, Hess, Welch, andWilliams 2008).The importance of hiring diverse faculty and staff is noted as more critical now than ever before.Consequently, the challenge of diversifying faculty is correlated to the doctoral degree production“pipeline problem” characterized by the lack of qualified doctoral graduates of color to move intoacademic positions (Villalpando and Bernal, 2005). In addition to the pipeline problem, Allen,Jayakumar, Griffin, Korn and Hurtado (2005) and Villalpando and Bernal (2005) acknowledge attentionmust also be given to the pervasive issues associated with racialized structures and practices thatmarginalize students and faculty of color. To address the need to improve doctoral student persistence,particularly for Black and Latino students, these issues must be considered along with those pervasiveissues that might be impeding their socialization at the doctoral level.Several researchers have discussed the importance of understanding the experiences of diversegraduate students (Bonner & Evans, 2004; Cherwitz, 2005; Gaston, 2004; Hughes, 2004; Milner, 2004;Felder, 2010). For instance, in their exploration of the doctoral student experience in the United States,Nettles and Millett (2006) suggest that there is more to learn about the socialization experiences ofdoctoral students from various cultural backgrounds. They state:Consequently, the socialization of the growing and diverse population of doctoral students in the UnitedStates is a much more nebulous component of graduate education … As university graduate programenrollments grow and become more racially diverse, the variation in the socialization of students fromdifferent backgrounds who are expected to provide academic and research productivity and leadershipin the nation and around the globe becomes increasingly interesting.  (Nettles and Millett, 2006, pgs.89-90).It is this variation in the socialization of students from racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds thatneeds more attention in educational research (Castellanos & Jones, 2003).The Pipeline ProblemThe paucity of Blacks and Latinos with doctoral degrees contributes to the lack of representation ofBlack and Latino faculty at American colleges and universities. In 1977, Blacks earned 3.8% of alldoctoral degrees and by 2005 that increased to a mere 5.8% (DOE, 2006). In 2003, Blacks comprised6% of all full-time faculties, with 5.4% as full professors, 6.2% as assistant professors, 7.3% asinstructors, and 5.1% as lecturers (DOE, 2006; DOE, 2005).In comparison, the Latino population is growing at a much faster rate than the general U.S. populationand has a younger age distribution than non-Latinos in the U.S (Hurtado, 2005). The U.S. Latinopopulation increased 58% between 1990 and 2000, and increased another 17.3% between 2000 and2005 (U.S. Census, 2006). The median age for Latinos is 26 years, whereas the general populationmedian age is 35 years (Guzman, 2001). This means that one of the fastest growing segments of oursociety is also of school age, making them the next generation of possible scholars. Yet, Latinoscomprised 1.6% of those who received doctoral degrees in 1977 and 3.5% of those in 2005 (DOE,2006). Overall, the majority of faculty members (80%) continue to be White and highlights the need toimprove the persistence of doctoral students of color in an effort to create a pool of diverse faculty(DOE, 2009).Concern Over PersistenceThese statistics suggest that there is much to consider regarding the impact of racialized structuresand pipeline issues on the Black and Latino doctoral student experience. Previous research identifiessocialization as playing a significant role on doctoral experiences for Black and Latino students (Ellis,2001; Gonzales, 2006).  Higher education research largely contextualizes the Black and Latino studentexperience in the aftermath of the Brown Decision of 1954 and the Civil Rights Movement of the mid-1960′s. This literature often discusses the impact of racialized institutional structures that contributes tostudents’ experience of isolation, alienation, marginalization and discrimination (Allen et al., 2005;Hurtado et al., 1998; Nettles, 1990; Solorzano, 1998; Solorzano, Ceja, & Yosso, 2000).  Little researchexists regarding factors that contribute to the successful experiences of these students including theirresiliency and navigation towards to doctoral degree completion.Research about the Black doctoral experience has slowly evolved over the last two decades. Thisstudent experience is often addressed within the historical framework of Black underrepresentation inhigher education due to centuries of racial and systemic oppression (Allen et al., 2005). Literatureabout doctoral education has focused largely upon matriculation trends and predictions of studentperformance in graduate school with little emphasis on student belief systems about degreecompletion.In their work, African Americans and the Doctoral Experience:  Implications for Policy Willie, Grady &Hope (1991) examine the Black doctoral experience by exploring the impact of the historical exclusionof African Americans in doctoral education and its evolution out of historically Black colleges anduniversities; with the exception of a few, these were the only institutions offering graduate training forBlacks (Willie et al., 1991). Willie et al. (1991) present findings from 65 faculty scholars who werefaculty at HBCUs and pursued doctoral degrees through the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) facultydevelopment program. Out of the 65 participants in the program 8 were White faculty members whoattended predominately White universities to complete their graduate work while on leave from theirHBCU posts. One significant finding in Willie et al.’s work is the lack of mentoring received by the Blackfaculty scholars. In their study, mentoring was characterized Willie et al. found that half of theparticipants in the study did not have mentors and may have been at a grave disadvantage for doctoraldegree completion when compared to their White counterparts.Similar to the literature on the Black student experience, the Latino student experience is characterizedby racialized structures of exclusion in higher education. The literature captures these exclusions byfocusing on the demographic progression of this group and the nature of higher education accesswithin policy (Gándara and Contreras, 2009; Hurtado, 2005). In particular, states that serve the greatestnumber of Latino/a students in higher education (New York, California and Texas) tend to be in theforefront on debates about access policies and affirmative action (Hurtado, 2005). Other scholars havesought to better understand the experiences of exclusion present through campus climate (Hurtado etal., 1998) and interpersonal experiences with peers and/or faculty; Gonzalez, 2006).Additionally, the cultural experiences of the Black and Latino students are rich and include meaningfulinformation that translates into belief systems about commitment to educational achievement. Forexample, previous research has highlighted the significant contributions of family and spirituality to thesuccess of Black doctoral students and call for additional studies to be conducted to understand theseaspects of a student’s experience (Gasman, Hirschfield, & Vultaggio, 2008).The demographics of students participating in higher education have changed dramatically in the lastseveral decades. As a result the potential of evolving trends in research interests that are progressiveand culturally adaptive to the needs of a changing doctoral student population. Recognition of thistransition is essential in moving the discussion of emerging leadership towards a culturaltransformation in higher education where discussions of diversity move beyond the conceptual idealstowards the practice of cultural competence.One of the most striking catalysts of this transformation is the election of President Barack Obama andhis nomination of the first Latina to the Supreme Court, Judge Sonia Sotomayor. These dramaticpolitical events will indubitably shape new discussions about the Black and Latino experience in theUnited States. In fact, Gumport (2005) mentions that the “changes in political and economic contextsduring the last three decades of the twentieth century also altered the operation of graduate programs,both directly, in research training practices, and indirectly, through academic research” (p. 427). Inkeeping with Gumport’s notion on the impact of politics on doctoral education, it is interesting to ponderthe way in which the first African American President and the firstLatina Supreme Court Justice will shape the belief systems and doctoral degree progress of students.In addition, future research should consider assessing the ways that peer mentoring could be used toimprove institutional climate for doctoral students of color. This includes learning more about facultywith successful mentoring relationships with students of color and providing recommendations for otherfaculty looking to achieve that similar success (Davidson & Foster-Johnson, 2001; Felder, 2010;Gasman et al., 2008).As our country changes demographically, colleges and universities have an obligation to heed the callto social justice; ensuring that we are an educated and well prepared nation. 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A Commentary about the Black and Latino Doctoral Experience in the United States

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A Commentary about the Black and Latino Doctoral Experience in the United States

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