I'm a Black Female Adult Community College Student: Navigating and Resisting Gendered and Racial Microaggressions

• In Event: 72.065 - Roundtable Session 30
  In Roundtable Session: 72.065-3 - Student Issues in Higher Education: Race and Gender

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine how age, race, and gender impacted the post-secondary educational experiences of Black women attending a community college. Black Feminist Thought (Collins, 2000) and Critical Race Theory were utilized as they provided theoretical lens for understanding the intersecting oppressed identities of race and gender, and acknowledged the connections between knowledge and power. The emphasis on narrative inquiry provided space to 1) analyze the narratives of the individuals and 2) focus on the social critique of systemic and institutional concerns surrounding Black women. This study identified how participants combated academic experiences where they were made to feel like “outsiders within” their academic settings and ways in which they resisted such encounters.

Author

• Glennda M. Bivens, Iowa State University