"A Lot of People Are Not Going to Look Like You": Students of Color Use Place Consciousness to Navigate Graduate School

• In Event: 66.041 - Graduate Students: Surviving and Thriving in Higher Education

Abstract

The purpose of this proposal is to understand the narrative stories of doctoral students of color and humanize their engagement of place-consciousness within structural and institutional barriers that may or may not inhibit their educational outcomes (Solorzano, Villalpando, & Oseguera, 2005). This paper uses Critical Race Theory (Delgado & Stefanicic, 2012; Parker & Villalpando, 2007) to explore the experiences of graduate students of color within a challenging institutional environment. In illustrating a counternarrative based on the data, we outlined three major themes including, 1) participant’s deliberate decision to attend a highly selective institution, 2) the significance and role of “soft skills” (i.e. communication, enthusiasm, etiquette, teamwork, networking, critical thinking, and professionalism), and 3) place consciousness.

Authors

• Osly J. Flores, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Oscar Patron, University of Pittsburgh

• Øscar Medina, University of Missouri - Columbia