Still passed over: race and the forgotten professors and students of color

ABSTRACT

This study shines a light where attention is needed; it is an assessment of our progress in our search for and improvement of pedagogical knowledge. More specifically, we address how well we have responded to Hendrix and Wilson’s (2014) call in Virtual Invisibility: Race and Communication Education to move away from the same topics: thereby, seeking new and productive ways to address issues like the diversity that reflect current societal changes and classroom demographics. The results of this blended thematic/content analysis of 262 publications in Communication Education from 2014 to 2019 reveal that, while the body of instructional communication scholarship has evolved and expanded into more complex areas, race is still passed over.

KEYWORDS:

• faculty of color
• race
• intersectionality
• higher education
• academic publishing

Acknowledgment

This manuscript is stronger thanks to the feedback from colleagues Dr. Amanda Young (University of Memphis), Dr. Jake Simmons (Missouri State University), Dr. Shawn Wahl (Missouri State University), and the anonymous reviewers. We especially thank Reviewer 1 who took the time to offer additional substantive, constructive feedback on manuscript revisions along with the editor, Dr. Joseph Mazer.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Hendrix et al. (2003) analyzed articles from 1952 to 2002. Hendrix and Wilson”s content analysis spanned 2000–2013. The current themes were drawn from CE publications from 2014 to 2019.

2 The Public Speaking theme in Hendrix and Wilson (2014) was expanded to include Debate. Their 2014 Teacher/Instructor to Student theme was subsumed under an umbrella theme labeled Communication Interaction along with Student-to-Student and Student-to-Teacher.

3 Although illustrative of a nuanced perspective, the Wahl et al. (2016) article entitled “Diversity matters” continued: Student learning outcomes in communication are part of a forum on learning outcomes and not placed within the Identity theme but instead kept in place within that forum.

4 More attention should be focused on our community college students and colleagues.

5 There is no way to know the number of manuscripts addressing the role of race in academia submitted to and rejected by CE reviewers. However, Hendrix’s 2002 survey of the African American Communication and Culture Division and Black Caucus members within the National Communication Association revealed problems with the journal review process.