EXPLORING BLACK WOMEN’S HESA DOCTORAL EXPERIENCES AT HWIS: AN ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL MEDIA ENGAGEMENT USING CRITICAL NARRATIVE INQUIRY

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore Black women’s experiences in higher education and student affairs (HESA) doctoral programs at historically white institutions (HWIs). More specifically, this study explored how Black women connected their HESA doctoral experiences with their social media engagement. Limited literature has captured Black women doctoral students’ experiences in the academy broadly, and there exists even less for Black doctoral students in HESA. Nascent research highlighted Black women’s colleges experiences, undergraduate and graduate students (master and doctoral), with strategies for navigating HWIs. One strategy for navigating HWIs is through community building with other Black women. Through digital technology, such as social media, community building has a wide reach to connect with other women, and other Black women college students. As such, social media was explored to understand how Black women college students connected their education to social media engagement. Employing digital Black feminism as the theoretical framework, this study contributed new knowledge for understanding how Black women connected their HESA doctoral experiences and social media engagement. This study complicated notions of agency and authenticity in Black women’s HESA doctoral programs and their social media engagement. Additionally, this study highlighted the complexities in how Black women doctoral students are socialized in the academy, specifically in HESA graduate programs at HWIs. Using critical narrative inquiry, eight Black women HESA doctoral students engaged alongside the primary researcher for an individual interview and a collective co-analysis. The interviews were guided by a co-constructive protocol where the co-researchers provided their input on topics to discuss individually. The co-researchers also met for a 1-hour co-analysis process as a collective group to share their insights on the findings. The findings revealed the following themes and subthemes: (a) Censorship at the HWI, followed by the subthemes of Researcher Socialization in the Academy and Reconciliation with HWIs; (b) Censorship on Social Media, followed by the subtheme of Scholar Tensions on Social Media; and (c) Presence of Doctoral Experiences when Engaging on Social Media. The findings illuminated how Black women doctoral students named their socialization process in their HESA doctoral program, how they navigated multiple spaces, and the advantageous ways they used social media as HESA doctoral students.