Uma M. Jayakumar

Racial Privilege in the Professoriate: An Exploration of Campus Climate, Retention, and Satisfaction

This study applies the principles of critical race theory to examine quantitatively the experiences of a national sample of 37,582 faculty. Among the key factors influencing retention and satisfaction are campus racial climate, autonomy and independence, and the review and promotion process. Results support the value of examining faculty of color in the aggregate and of disaggregating racial categories.

Dynamic Diversity: Toward a Contextual Understanding of Critical Mass

Through an analysis of relevant social science evidence, this article provides a deeper understanding of critical mass, a concept that has become central in litigation efforts related to affirmative action admissions policies that seek to further the educational benefits of diversity. We demonstrate that the concept of critical mass requires an understanding of the conditions needed for meaningful interactions and participation among students, given the particular institutional context. To highlight this contextual definition of critical mass and to avoid further obfuscations in the legal debate, we offer the term dynamic diversity and outline four main components of dynamic diversity that institutions can attend to. By thinking of dynamic diversity as the goal, institutions and lawyers should be better poised to answer the question of how much diversity is necessary for leveraging its educational benefits.

Ebony in the Ivory Tower: Examining Trends in the Socioeconomic Status, Achievement, and Self-Concept of Black, Male Freshmen.

Despite the educational challenges African American males face, there is a sizeable population successfully finishing high school and entering college. This study provides an overview of how a national sample of black male freshmen embodied the cognitive, social, and institutional factors related to college access between 1971 and 2004. Data reveal that black, male freshmen today have more affluent family backgrounds, better academic records, and greater confidence in their skills and abilities than their peers who entered college in earlier decades. Trends indicate that men with lower incomes, less confidence, and less ideal academic records are increasingly unlikely to be present on college campuses.

The Cultural Cover-Up of College Athletics: How Organizational Culture Perpetuates an Unrealistic and Idealized Balancing Act.

Abstract:Using a combined grounded theory and case study methodology, Jayakumar and Comeaux examined the role of organizational culture in shaping the lives of college athletes, particularly related to negotiating dual roles as both student and athlete. Data collection involved 20 interviews with athletes and stakeholders in the affairs of intercollegiate athletics at a Division I public university, as well as field observations and document analysis. The story that emerged from this breadth of data corroborates with and is largely told through the powerful counternarrative of one key informant who is a former Division I college athlete. Findings reveal a cultural-cover up imposed by an idealized image of achieving excellence in academics and athletics, that masks inadequate organizational support toward academic success. While academics are espoused as a priority at the university and within an athletic department that features an academic support system (e.g., tutors, computer center), and although the importance of balancing a dual student/athlete role is constantly reinforced verbally, underlying messages and structures push college athletes toward a greater focus on athletics at the expense of their academic futures. Implications for organizational change are discussed.

Creating College-Going Cultures for Students of Color in the US: Finding a Balance between Targeted and Normative Models of Intervention

The paper examines two race-based intervention programs, focusing on the distinction between models of intervention based on targeted and indiscriminate (i.e., normative) college-going cultures. We unpack the concept of the “college-going culture” – defined as a set of expectations and norms that socialize students to view themselves as college-bound – and add nuance to it by illustrating how racial/cultural community and school environments, respectively, act as spheres of influence. Findings are based on semi-structured interviews with 46 alums of two effective, race-based intervention programs. Within one program, participants experienced culturally relevant programming but felt excluded from the college-going culture of the wider school environment. In the other program, students were included in the larger college-going culture of the school, but often felt culturally isolated. Participants’ narratives provide insight into the strengths and pitfalls of both intervention programs, and the paper concludes with a diagram outlining elements essential in optimal college-going cultures.

The Fifth Frame of Colorblind Ideology: Maintaining the Comforts of Colorblindness in the Context of White Fragility

In the context of newly emerging racial backlash with implications for colorblind ideology, the authors explore understandings of race and racism among white students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). They build on Bonilla-Silva’s four frames of colorblind ideology and describe a fifth—the disconnected power-analysis frame. Interviews with 18 white students across three HBCUs revealed that this frame allows students with a limited but growing awareness of racial inequality to more strategically engage with and benefit from an environment where race is salient, while preserving white privilege in the process. The findings underscore the enduring significance of colorblind frames and the need for continued vigilance in naming covert race-coded language that perpetuates white supremacy.

Water, Water Everywhere but not a Drop to Drink: Higher Education Access and Success for Black and Latino Students in California, USA

This study overviews the representation of students of color at critical junctures in Californias educational pipeline based on analyses of California Postsecondary Education Commission (CPEC) and the California Department of Education (CDE) data. More specifically, it examines high school completion, undergraduate and graduate attendance rates, and degree attainment for different racial/ethnic groups within Californias higher education system and related state-wide statistics. In doing so, we aim to provide a critical analysis of the states educational system and the conditions for access and success in higher education.

Mutual Engagement in Spaces of Tension: Moving from Dialogue toward Action across Multiple Contexts.

Abstract Guided by a critical race praxis for educational research lens, the authors worked individually alongside their students in a K–12 or higher education classroom, embracing spaces of tension derived from the push and pull between oppression and liberation. The authors explain how these tensions troubled the ways in which humanizing practices are cultivated within constricting institutional contexts. This work supported the authors’ classroom communities to move from dialogue toward collective action.

Reclaiming Diversity: Advancing the Next Generation of Diversity Research Toward Racial Equity

In this chapter, the authors connect the evolution of diversity research to the outcomes of key U.S. Supreme Court cases over the last four decades. They discuss how constraints in early understandings of diversity have allowed for the concept to be co-opted and diluted, thereby limiting diversity as a tool for addressing racial inequality and advocacy today. Employing a critical race praxis for educational research (CRP-Ed) lens, which draws from Derrick Bell’s thesis of interest convergence, the authors explain the contradictions of engaging in the debate about how race can be considered in higher education, and assert the need for a new critical reframing of diversity in order to advance research, policy, and discourse. The authors conclude the chapter by highlighting recent empirical and theoretical work that can inform a new agenda for diversity research toward advancing racial equity in postsecondary education. This chapter will be of interest to higher education scholars and practitioners who have a strategic critical orientation toward diversity research, as well as those who are interested in developing a critical consciousness.

Overcoming barriers: characteristics of Black male freshmen between 1971 and 2004

Our analyses and conclusions are based on both research literature on college access for African American males and the survey responses of 214,951 full-time, first-time African American male freshmen between 1971 and 2004. First, we reviewed literature on the experiences of African American male high-school students and the common barriers facing their matriculation to college. We organized findings from the research into broad themes emerging from the literature, guided by Swail, Cabrera, Lee, and Williamss Integrated Model for Student Success (2005). Based on this framework, college access and academic achievement are not based on a single factor or one dimension; rather, they are constructed through a complex interaction of multiple dimensions. Swail and colleagues delineate these factors into three categories: cognitive, social, and institutional/systemic. Cognitive factors take place largely inside the student and relate to the skills, abilities, and knowledge students have which prepare them for higher education, including academic preparation, post-secondary planning, and college knowledge (Swail, Redd, & Perna, 2003; Swail et al., 2005). Social factors exist largely outside the student, and capture the ways in which those who have relationships with students can influence their access to post-secondary education. The social dimension includes a students cultural history, family influence, financial issues and socioeconomic status, and ability to interact with peers (Swail, 2003; Swail et al., 2005). Finally the institutional/systemic dimension captures the ability of institutions to influence and shape student efforts to reach their college goals. High-school resources and support, outreach programs, and opportunities for financial aid could all be considered within this dimension of the framework (Swail, 2003; Swail et al., 2005).