Susan V. Iverson

Camouflaging Power and Privilege: A Critical Race Analysis of University Diversity Policies:

Background: Universities continue to undertake a range of initiatives to combat inequities and build diverse, inclusive campuses. Diversity action plans are a primary means by which U.S. postsecondary institutions articulate their professed commitment to an inclusive and equitable climate for all members of the university and advance strategies to meet the challenges of an increasingly diverse society. Purpose: To examine, using critical race theory, how discourses of diversity, circulating in educational policies, reflect and produce particular realities for people of color on university campuses. Data Collection and Analysis: Data were collected from 20 U.S. land-grant universities. Line-by-line analysis, employing inductive and deductive coding strategies, was conducted to identify images of diversity and the problems and solutions related to diversity as represented in 21 diversity action plans generated throughout a 5-year period (1999-2004). Findings: Analysis reveals four predominant discourses shaping images of people of color: access, disadvantage, marketplace, and democracy. These discourses construct images of people of color as outsiders, at-risk victims, commodities, and change agents. These discourses coalesce to produce realities that situate people of color as outsiders to the institution, at risk before and during participation in education, and dependent on the university for success in higher education. Using critical race theory as an analytic framework, this article aims to enhance understanding about how racial inequality is reproduced through educational policies. Conclusions: The findings suggest that well-intentioned attempts to create a more inclusive campus may unwittingly reinforce practices that support exclusion and inequity.

Re/thinking Practices of Power: The Discursive Framing of Leadership in The Chronicle of Higher Education

This article examines how discourses of leadership reflect and produce particular perceptions about leaders and leadership in higher education. An analysis of 103 articles published by The Chronicle of Higher Education between 2002 and 2003 reveal four predominant discourses shaping images of leaders: autonomy, relatedness, masculinity, and professionalism. These discourses construct images of leaders as experts, beneficiaries, heroes, tyrants, negotiators, and facilitators. This article discusses how these leadership images align with modalities of power.

Constructing Outsiders: The Discursive Framing of Access in University Diversity Policies

This article investigates how discourses circulating in diversity policies reflect and produce perceptions about diversity in higher education. This study, utilizing the method of policy discourse analysis, examines 21 diversity action plans issued at 20 U.S. land-grant universities to understand how these policy documents frame diversity. Analysis revealed dominant discourses of access that construct images of the diverse person as an outsider. Findings suggest that well-intentioned attempts to create a more inclusive campus climate may unwittingly reinforce practices that support exclusion and inequality.

Performing Gender: A Discourse Analysis of Theatre-Based Sexual Violence Prevention Programs

Among the numerous approaches that are employed to prevent sexual violence, the performance of scenarios has become one of the ‘promising practices’ in U.S. postsecondary education. This article describes findings from a pilot study to analyze scripts used for theatre-based sexual violence prevention programs. Employing the method of discourse analysis, this study analyzed five sexual violence prevention scripts from three postsecondary institutions to identify the predominant discourses taken up to depict men and women in theatre-based sexual violence prevention programs. Analysis revealed dominant discourses of masculinity and femininity shaping images of men as heroes and abusers and women as vulnerable and victims. The article concludes with recommendations for student affairs practice.

Self-Authoring a Civic Identity: A Qualitative Analysis of Change-Oriented Service Learning

This qualitative case study explored how undergraduate students’ involvement with change-oriented service-learning contributed to their civic-political development. Using Baxter Magolda’s notion of self-authorship as an analytic lens, findings suggested that students’ involvement with change-oriented service-learning led to (a) deeper and more nuanced understandings of citizenship, (b) a developed sense of efficacy as citizens, and (c) an increased awareness of self in relation to others and their communities. Implications for practice in student affairs are addressed.

Disciplining Professionals: A Feminist Discourse Analysis of Public Preschool Teachers.

Educational reforms across the globe have had implications for the work of preschool teachers and thus their professional identities. This article draws on a feminist discourse lens to examine data collected from a recent narrative inquiry focused on understanding the professional identities of five public preschool teachers in the USA. This analysis identifies two discourses (the discourse of professionalism and the discourse of the caregiver), bringing to light the discursive tensions that existed within this context, and examines how dominate discourses construct a double bind that leaves preschool teachers with conflicting identities as they navigate professional expectations.

Using Theatre to Change Attitudes Toward Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Students

Despite the proliferation of educational interventions and attitude change strategies, the prevalence of homophobia and widespread discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people on college campuses persists. This study investigates the impact of theatre on changes in college students’ attitudes. Using a pre- and postshow survey to measure the impact of a theatrical performance on college students’ attitudes toward LGBT persons and issues, we report significant changes in attitudes and suggest the potential of the performance to also inspire action. Understanding this effect may help educators be more effective in their efforts to develop attitudes of acceptance toward LGBT people.

Capitalizing on Change: The Discursive Framing of Diversity in U.S. Land-Grant Universities

Using policy discourse analysis, the author analyzed 21 diversity action plans issued at 20 U.S. land-grant universities over a five-year period to identify images of diversity and the problems and solutions represented in diversity action plans. Discourses of marketplace, excellence, managerialism, and democracy emerged and served to construct images of the diverse individual as a commodity, entrepreneur, and change agent. These findings suggest that the dominance of the marketplace discourse may situate the diverse individual as a resource to be exploited and inspire entrepreneurial endeavors rather than change-making activism. Diversity action plans in their current form may unintentionally undermine the achievement of their equity goals.

Crossing Boundaries: Understanding Women's Advancement from Clerical to Professional Positions

This article describes findings from a qualitative study designed to understand how women in clerical roles cross the real and perceived boundaries of their rank and advance into professional positions. Informed by phenomenology, this inquiry employed interviews with 22 women from one public research university in New England. Findings illuminate the significance of (1) instrumental individuals in women’s advancement, (2) organizational processes that served as barriers, (3) “advanced knowledge,” and (4) how being a woman shapes the career journey. Following discussion of the ways that existing practices may unwittingly limit women’s advancement, the author articulates implications for practice.

Walking a Gender Tightrope: A Qualitative Study of Female Student Veterans' Experiences within Military and Campus Cultures.

This article describes findings from a qualitative study of the experiences of female student veterans in the military and in college. Twelve women were interviewed from two public research universities. Findings revealed individuals “betwixt and between” the complex intersection of identities: in the military, grappling with a sense of self as soldiers and as women, and trying to figure it out; and in college, as undeserving veterans struggling with the social and cognitive dissonance experienced as students. Under implications, we discuss how the complexity of identity complicates our understanding and support of this population in college.