MISUNRE: Navigating the Doctoral Journey as an Exceptionally Gifted Black Woman

• In Event: Black Women in Defense of Ourselves and Our Work

Abstract

Within the education space, Woodson (2012) popularized the term miseducation to describe how the educational system in the United States inadequately prepared Black people for the world in which they lived. Education, just like every other system, was racist and could not be leveraged for social mobility for Black people in its current form. Cooper (2016) added the layer of gender in her analysis of educational opportunities for Black people: there could be no social uplift for Black people without attention to Black women and their education. Being a gifted Black woman, then, was a contradiction: the racist system both uplifts and praises me as inferior and as an exception to other Black people. As scholars research the various forms of miseducation, the barriers to education for minoritized populations, and the ways in which we should approach their education, I further am marginalized as the concept of being “at-risk” is not applied to my situation. This chapter details my journey as an accelerated student, attending a private parochial school, and ways my development as a gifted student followed me as a graduate student.
The educational systems in which I engaged were not built for me in mind. I was exceptional to the norms created around my peers. Differently than other conceptualizations of miseducation, my exceptionality was praised as a standard for which others could compare but unfairly never reach. Through this chapter, I discuss feelings of isolation, risk-taking, unleaning, and fear of failure while navigating the doctoral program. Using Dillard’s framework, the author positions re(membering) as a means of establishing scholarship collectives, accountability, and affirmation during her doctoral journey.

Author

• Jillian A. Martin, Washington University in St Louis
  Presenting Author