Date of Award

12-2022

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Executive Leadership

First Supervisor

Dr. W. Jeff Wallis

Second Supervisor

Dr. Byron Hargrove

Abstract

Black faculty members are often underrepresented and suffer lower academic status at United States institutions with predominately White faculty. This is primarily because racism and racial microaggressions continue to be barriers. Unfortunately, academia has not adequately addressed race and privilege, pointed out the racist policies and actions of educators and administrators, or held perpetrators accountable. As a result, black faculty, especially those not protected by tenure, often face isolation, are overburdened with teaching and other responsibilities, are devalued for their research and teaching contributions, experience biased performance reviews, and endure other discriminatory incidences. This phenomenological narrative study explored the perceptions of five Black non-tenure-track faculty (NTTF) who had prior experience with incidents of racial microaggressions at institutions in New York State. Employing critical race theory as the theoretical framework, the purpose of this study was to reveal their first-hand experiences with various racial microaggressions. The participants also shared their perceptions of the effectiveness of their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Offices and recommended solutions to help mitigate microaggression incidents within departments and institutions. Summarized emergent findings were as follows: (a) institutions are not aligned with their espoused values; (b) the convergence of racial microaggressions and the treatment of contingent faculty lend themselves to the totality of the Black NTTF experience; (c) Black NTTF seldom confront unfair treatment; (d) DEI offices are not positioned to impact racial microaggression-centered conditions or occurrences directly, and (e) Blacks NTTF desire policy changes including directly related consequences for racial microaggression infractions.

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