Exploring Transnational Black Women's Leader Identity Development

• In Event: Reimagining Leadership Learning Experiences for Black College Women

Short Description

The purpose of this study was to explore what motivated transnational undergraduate Black women to engage in leadership on campus. Participants were motivated to engage in leadership because they were interested in observing how Black women co-existed in community, finding role models to provide guidance, and finding a space to develop their leadership capacity.

Detailed Abstract

The purpose of this critical qualitative inquiry was to explore what motivated transnational undergraduate Black women (UBW) to engage in “Sister Circle”- type student organizations—or groups that center race and gender. Additionally, the study explored how these Black women developed a leader identity and engaged with leadership on campus. Using a critical race feminist theoretical lens, data were collected through a combination of one-on-one interviews and focus groups. Through this project, we found that participants were motivated to engage in leadership because they were interested in observing how Black women co-existed in community, finding role models who may have had similar experiences to provide guidance, and finding a space to develop their capacity in leadership. This study demonstrates that external factors influenced by interlocking systems of oppression are pushing transnational Black women to find and create spaces where they can resolve negative experiences with racism and sexism in productive ways that builds their leadership efficacy.

RESEARCH DESIGN

The epistemological underpinnings for this study are informed by constructionism (Crotty, 1998) and standpoint theory (Collins, 2009; Dillard, 2000). Namely, we believe that knowledge and realities are constructed in and through community/ies and our socio-politically and socioculturally situated positionalities (i.e., intersections of race, gender, etc.) in the world. The inquiry at hand was approached from both an interpretivist and critical lens (Kincheloe & McLaren, 2002). We situated this study within an interpretivist lens because we sought to understand and name participants’ motivations for engagement in leadership. Simultaneously, we situated this study within a critical paradigm, given our interest in naming and critiquing oppressive structures that facilitate engagement and in an effort to create more equitable opportunities for UBW on college campuses.

We employed a critical race feminist lens to understand and articulate how racism and sexism are operationalized and experienced in higher education contexts and UBW’s experiences. Informed by critical legal, critical race, and legal feminist theories, the following tenets of critical race feminist were drawn upon in this study: (a) Racism, sexism, and classism are endemic, and (b) Intersectionality and anti-essentialism. The first tenet acknowledges the pervasive existence of oppressions embedded within college and university structures and practices (Harris, 2003; Wing, 2003). In addition to its usefulness in the development of the interview protocol, we also used this tenet in the analyses processes to name instantiations of racist and sexist institutional practices and participant experiences. Intersectionality and anti-essentialism addresses the convergence of systems of oppression (i.e., racism, sexism, etc), histories, and perceptions that create unique experiences and outcomes for Women of Color (Crenshaw, 1991; Dill & Zambrana, 2009; Wing, 2003). Often conflated with theories of multiple dimensions of identity (Abes, Jones, & McEwen, 2007), which describe how multiple social identities become salient, this tenet was used to consider individual experiences and systems as inextricably connected to those group memberships, which mediate experience and choice. Additionally, this tenet led us to collect data in focus groups in order to capture the diverse experiences of the participants, recognizing that although they may share similar group membership, their experiences would vary.

Methodology

Using a critical race feminist qualitative approach, we focused on (a) building relationships with participants, (b) centering discussions of race/racism and gender/sexism, (c) centering participants’ stories and voices, and (d) using data collection methods, such as focus groups, to coconstruct knowledge between the researchers and participants.

Six UBW participated in this study. They were recruited through purposeful sampling (Patton, 2002) and selected with the assistance of student affairs educators familiar with “sister circle”-type organizations. Majors varied across the participants and included students in STEM, humanities, and social sciences. Three were from a large, public, research, predominantly White, primarily residential, land-grant university and the other three were from a mid-size, public, master’s-level, “majority-minority,” Hispanic-serving (HSI), commuter, urban university, both in the Midwest. The three women matriculating at the PWI were involved in a student organization established for students identifying as Women of Color, while the three students at the HSI were involved in an organization established for Black women specifically. Each participant was also active in a variety of other academic and social student organizations at their respective institutions. Students shared stories of their experiences through two semi-structured, one-on-one interviews, lasting between 45 and 90 minutes, and one focus group at their respective institutions, lasting between 60 and 90 minutes. Analytic memos were constructed to capture emergent insights throughout the interviews and focus groups. Interview and focus group data were transcribed by members of the research team.

FINDINGS

As participants reflected on what motivated them to participate in their organizations, many shared experiences of microaggressions, blatant racist and sexist encounters, and a need to find and/or build communities within which to belong on campus. Many experiences they shared are reflected in previous research about Students of Color and Black womyn and men in college. The findings are presented here through three themes that represent motivating factors for the participants in this study. The themes are (a) Observation—participants named wanting to observe how Black women and/or other Women of Color interacted with one another, (b) Finding Role Models—participants were interested in role models who could support them in navigating both the academic and the social, and (c) Being Whole—participants wanted spaces where they could be more of their whole selves.

Participants

• Brittany Brewster, Florida State University
  Presenter

• Cameron C. Beatty, Florida State University
  Presenter