Sista Circles: Black Femme Student Retention Through Intragroup Community

• In Event: 61.071 - Sheraton Roundtable Session 10 - Grand Centre
  In Roundtable Session: 61.071-5 - Student Identity Development in Higher Education

Abstract

This prospective inquiry seeks to understand how Black femme students experience positive psychosocial development through intragroup relationships while matriculating at predominately-White institutions, to support their persistence. The study follows research that I have begun on the spiritual identity development of this subpopulation. I will collect data using endarkened feminist epistemology. I will also employ Optimal Theory Applied to Identity Development, as both an analytical framework and process through which Black womxn experience development. From my analyses, I will critique student development models with regards to ways in which they fail to capture and respond to the uniquely intersectional experiences of Black femme collegians. This study uniquely focuses exclusively on strategies that Black womxn use when in community with each other.

Author

• e alexander, The Ohio State University