Creating Their Own Inclusion: Black Women Doctoral Social Work Students

Background: As a result of their feelings of in/hypervisibility, women of color in the academy often experience a sense of heightened scrutiny and surveillance as they bear the burden of representation of the groups to which they belong rather than being seen as individuals. These experiences are in stark contrast to the six values espoused in the National Association of Social Worker's (NASW) Code of Ethics.

Gaps remain in the literature with regards to understanding the experiences of Black women doctoral students at research-intensive schools of social work. This paper helps to fill these gaps by studying this demographic as a single case within the broader history of the relationship between higher education and Black women as understood through prior empirical evidence in other disciplines.

Methods: A content analysis of the doctoral student profile pages on the websites of the top 20 schools of social work according to U.S. News and World Report ("Best Schools," 2020). The content analysis was conducted to gather emails for participant solicitation. Initially seeking 20 participants, at the conclusion of data collection, twenty-five of those solicited did not respond to the request. However, there was a purposeful sample (n=11) from eight different institutions completed in-depth, semi-structured interviews. Participants were both doctorate students and doctorate candidates ranging from being in their second to their fifth year in the programs.

Interviews sought to understand the inclusion they experienced or were denied related to the culture and climate of their respective institutions. Their experiences ranged from orientation practices, academic advising, daily interactions and their research/teaching assistant opportunities. The qualitative data were transcribed and analyzed using deductive coding which was guided by theory and prior empirical studies.

Results: When studying Black women doctoral students at top-ranking, research-intensive schools of social work as a single case of the relationship between higher education and Black women, prior empirical findings are withstanding. This study found that the challenges of exclusion faced by these women can be understood within the primary themes of ambiguity surrounding research expectations, graduation requirements, imposter syndrome, professional mentoring, and professional development. These findings provide insights into patterns of behavior and experiences that may be applicable in similar situations.

Conclusion and Implications: This case study on the experiences of eleven Black women doctoral students at research-intensive schools of social work has shown that the cultures are more often than not inequitable and unnecessarily exhausting at best. There are many ways in which administrators can intervene to work towards change that will reduce the gap between the experiences of those with dominant identities and those with marginalized identities. One potentially impactful change institutions can implement is to consider the racial make-up of their doctoral student cohorts. Students who were not the only Black woman in her cohort were often able to have healthier experiences throughout their program. Additional opportunities for improvement include but are not limited to an increase in Black women faculty member’s retention, clarity of research expectations and graduation requirements.