Date of Award

Spring 5-1-2008

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Educational Leadership

First Advisor

Mary Howard Hamilton

Second Advisor

Kandace Hinton

Third Advisor

LaVada Brandon

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to understand the complex phenomena of African American doctoral persistence. Specifically, this study described the experiences of eight African American women in terms of how they preserved, persisted, and succeed in their doctoral programs. This research study used the Critical Race Theory as a theoretical foundation with insights particularly from Black Feminists (Collins, 1990, 1994; Forman, 1997; Hooks, 1984) and rising minority scholars (Green & Scott, 2003; HowardHamilton, 2003; Jarmon, 2003; Johnson-Bailey, 2003; Jones, 2005). Grounded theory methodology (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Strauss & Corbin, 1990) was used to generate a theory of doctoral persistence based on participant's experiences as portrayed in in-depth, semi-structured interviews. Both, critical theory perspective and grounded theory methodology was used to analyze and collect the data for this study. It is important to study this topic because African Americans represent I 2% of the American population. However, they represent less than 5% of all doctoral degree recipients. Their retention rate in doctoral programs is 50% lower than the majority. Most of their degrees are in the field of education and 57% of those that finish their coursework in education, never write dissertations and complete their degrees. Worse, yet, data on the experiences of African American doctoral students are still very limited. The women that participated in this study were interviewed individually. The women varied in age, academics, business and health academic programs, marital status, and motherhood. Few African American women have had the opportunity to share their personal doctoral experiences for research purposes. From their vantage point, this study gave African American women an opportunity to talk about what the African American doctoral journey was Iike for them and the strategies they developed and used to persist in their programs. This research study resulted in a main theme: Good, Bad, and Ugly and nine subthemes: 1) Mentor/ Advisor/Dissertation Chair Relationship-Motivation 2) Cohort Member(s) Influence-African American Groups 3) University Support 4) Family and Community Influence 5) Spiritual/Faith Inspiration 6) Isolation/Invisibility 7) WritingAcademic Abilities 8) Lack of Finance/Debt and 9) Racial-Institutional/External.

Download

Share

COinS