As they see it: Black Women’s conceptualizations of professional socialization in education graduate programs

ABSTRACT

This paper presents findings from a larger study that explored how Black graduate women (BGW) who matriculated through a highly regarded college of education (College), at a prestigious predominately white research institution in the American Midwest (Midwest University or Midwest), were located socially and spatially in their educational environments with regards to professional socialization. In doing so, it theorizes BGW’s understandings of professionalization as anti-Black and colonial violence. I conducted the study using a bricolage approach; Black Feminist Thought, Black Critical Race Theory, and postcolonialism supported analysis. Themes emerged regarding misogynoir, political strategy, survival, and triumph. The study has implications for understanding how graduate students from minoritized groups conceptualize socialization in(to) academia, in relation to sociohistorical violence and experiences that are specific to their groups.

KEYWORDS:

• Professionalization
• graduate students
• Black students
• Black women
• education
• socialization

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by Midwest  University.