1. TEMPLATE DESIGN © 2008
www.PosterPresentations.com
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Intensive, semi-structured interviews using open-ended questions
were employed to facilitate one-sided conversations about the
experiences of women and black male higher education
professionals with microaggressions.
Higher education professionals who worked at a large university
during the 2014-2015 school year, including:
Research participants answered open-ended questions about
their definition of, experiences with, and feeling about
microaggressive language and behaviors they experienced at a
large, research university.
• What behaviors, comments, looks, or gestures do you notice
from your colleagues?
• Can you detail a professional experience in which your
effectiveness as a professional was called into question
because you are a woman or black male? How did you feel or
react?
• Can you detail a professional experience in which your
professional knowledge and experience was called into
question because you are a woman or black male? How did
you feel or react?
• During your professional experience, do you think your
colleagues have used language or behavior to encourage or
diminish confidence in your professional ability? Please
explain.
• What impact do these kinds of language or behavior have on
your authority as a higher education professional?
• How does your response impact your authority as a higher
education professional?
• What is your understanding of the term “microaggressions”?
• Do you believe you’ve experienced microaggressions in your
professional life?
This poster presentation illustrates the lived experiences of female
and black male professionals in higher education with
microaggressive language and behaviors.
• Define microaggressions;
• Examines how participants perceived their experiences
throughout their careers; and
• Provides women and black male professionals in higher
education administration a voice regarding their professional
experiences.
• During the nineteenth century, educational institutions for women
and, later, for blacks emerged as a means by which to educate
women and blacks in their respective socially constructed
professional and social roles and by which to improve individual
and collective social and political status, as well as a means by
which to improve collective self-perception.
• During the 1960s and 1970s, female and black students protesting
the existing social order (including colleges and universities) as
hostile or repressive environments (Nelson 2000) demanded
increased numbers of female and black professionals in positions
of authority to encourage, mentor, and promote them within the
postsecondary educational environment (Aldridge & Young 2000).
• While student demands created space for female and black
professionals, the intentional inclusion of women and black men in
the faculty and administration in America’s predominantly white
institutions is still emerging (NCES, 2014).
o 1.5 million full-time instructional faculty in Fall 2011:
• 35% white female
• 6% black
• Microaggressions are languages and behaviors shaped by
socially-supported individual attitudes that reinforce the idea that
women and blacks, particularly black males, have a discrete place
in society in which they must be kept (Pierce et al, 1978; Sanders,
2013; Sue et al, 2007).
Megan Sunga, Claudine Turner, and Lauren I. Murray
College of Education and Human Performance, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM METHODS
REFERENCES
INTRODUCTION
SUMMARY & CONCLUSIONSMETHODS
OBJECTIVE
• 10 women
o 3 white women
o 5 black women
o 2 Hispanic/Latino women
• 7 men (black)
• 5 executive level
professionals (Assistant
Dean or Vice President and
higher)
• 9 mid-level professionals
(Directors and Asst.
Directors)
• 3 entry level/graduate
students
• Authenticity, Self-Advocacy, & Playing Politics
o “We as women undercut what we do so well sometimes
which is relationship building”
o [When considering whether or not to take a higher
position while being a single parent and woman of color]
There is a cost for everything that you have to pay.
o When I rose into leadership, I realized that I needed to
advocate for myself in the absence of a supportive
supervisor… play the politics, listen, but also find
someone else who would support me and help me grow.
o “I had to prove myself: How do you show you can be
taken seriously from all aspects: from being a woman,
Hispanic, a younger professional, and being attractive?”
• Professionalism or credentials called into question
o “… your opinion is not really valid because you do not
understand the Black experience…. you don’t know what
its like to really be Black.”
o My interim director would constantly question how I got
particular awards, who picked me to be on certain
committees, or who wanted me there?
o When it came to former female colleagues close in age in
the field, if I had an opinion, people would perceive it as
challenging.
o “Are you on a track scholarship because you are a little
short to play basketball?”
o When people found out that the director of [Greek Life]
was an African American, white Greeks assumed ‘you
don’t know anything about us... you’re Black’.
• Diminishing or undermining confidence in professional ability
o “When I was passed over in favor of others who had less
credentials, and arguably less experience, than I had, I
started to question my worth to the organization.”
o An AVP asked, “Why does your program have such great
retention?” and my boss at the time said, “Oh its because
… is sleeping with all the students.
o I have heard from a woman that the only reason I am in
my position is because I am a Latina and they needed a
Latina for job.
o Can you take notes?’ because the admin assistant was
absent.
o Dissuaded from pursuing positions where men typically
dominate: “…you want to make sure you be strategic.
Well they tend to favor powerful men so you may want to
be careful for that.”
Microaggressions are the “brief, unintended, and often
unconscious” (Sanders, 2013) expressions and exchanges that
minimize or subordinate historically marginalized ‘others’. Continuous
exposure to microaggressions throughout a lifespan damages the
self-perception and undermines the authority of those subject to it.
Women and black male professionals in higher education are
personally or professionally charged with mentoring future
generations toward academic, personal, and professional success.
Microaggressive languages and behaviors, though, negatively impact
their self-perceptions and effectiveness. They find it difficult to
maintain their authenticity and advocate for themselves or their
students without seeming biased or working against the system. Their
credentials and experience are often ignored, questioned, or simply
invalidated without cause, leaving them to question their fit or worth to
the organization. These participants encouraged future higher
education professionals from historically underrepresented
communities to:
• Produce impeccable work that will counter any attempts to
diminish your worth;
• Find your voice and be intentional about how you utilize it; and
• Encourage and mentor others with your successes.
Interview transcripts and observational notes are analyzed for
commonly repeated statements about how participants
experiences microaggressive language or behaviors. These
statements reflect thematic patterns that express the essential
components of the participants’ common experiences with
microaggressive language and behaviors.
Faculty, staff, and administrative mentors encourage the persistence
and retention of college students (Komives et al, 2003; Kuh et al,
2005), and particularly with women and students of color (Cuyjet,
2006, 1997; Harper, 2012; LaVant et al, 1997). College student
educators instituted formal and informal mentoring programs that
prepare students for academic and professional success by
encouraging the students to think about and engage their experiences
in new ways that reinforce or reflect socially acceptable standards.
Best and promising practices in college student mentoring are
commonly and formally shared (Solorzano et al, 2000), but research
about the lived experiences of those who are charges with mentoring
students is much less plentiful.