She persisted: the pursuit, persistence, & power of African American women in social work graduate programs at Historically Black Institutions (HBI)

Abstract

Social work graduate programs have long grappled with ways to attract and retain students at the intersection of race and gender. The central structure of this analysis is a hermeneutic phenomenological qualitative study on the pursuit and persistence of African-American women in graduate Social Work programs at a Historically Black Institution (HBI). The data in this article were derived from the responses of 13 participants written in their own words. The themes that emerged around the pursuit of a social work degree were (a) service to Black communities, (b) resistance to misrecognition, and (c) a seat at the table. After sharing the salient characteristics of the findings, the article opens a discussion around the significance of HBIs in educating social workers to work in urban communities and the implications for policy and practice.

Keywords:

• Social work
• Black feminism
• women
• graduate student
• Historically Black Institution (HBI)
• intersectionality
• higher education
• college attainment
• Black social workers
• social work education