Surviving the Doctorate and Thriving as Faculty: Latina Junior Faculty Reflecting on Their Doctoral Studies Experiences

Abstract

This study examines the experiences of Latina faculty during their doctoral education. Twelve semi-structured interviews were conducted with tenure-track Latina faculty (who primarily self-identified as Chicanas, Latinas, and Mexican Americans) across the west and southwest United States. Resiliency theory was used to help structure and understand the findings. Findings show the nature and experiences of Latinas' resiliency during their doctoral programs in the areas of social competence, problem-solving, autonomy, and sense of purpose. The study concludes with a discussion on how academic leaders and institutional change agents can begin to address the education roadblocks experienced by academic Latinas.

Juan Carlos González is an assistant professor of higher education and educational foundations at the University of Missouri—Kansas City. His research and teaching interests include educational policy and history, Latina/o and Chicana/o educational issues, higher education students and faculty, and qualitative research methods.

Notes

NOTE

1. Hispanic, as defined by the U.S. Census (2007a), refers to people whose origins are Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central or South American, or from other Hispanic/Latino countries, regardless of race. Due to the term's association “with a history of colonialism and continued new-colonist action by the United States government” (Rodriguez, Guido-DiBrito, Torres, & Talbot, 2000, p. 511) toward the people it identifies as Hispanic, the term “Latina” (the feminine of the masculine Latino) will be used throughout this research.

2. The choice to use “Latina” through the paper was because it was the term used by the majority of interviewees when asked to self-identify their race/ethnicity—five self-identified as Latina, four as Chicana, two as Mexican American, and one as Puerto Rican. González and Gándara (2005) state that the term was “coined by the Mediterranean countries to resist Anglo dominance in the 19th century [and] is currently being used by people of Spanish-speaking ancestry in the United States to express ethnic pride” (p. 392).