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Dissertation - DARYL C DAVIS.pdf (1.8 MB)

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African American Faculty Perceptions of how Campus Racial Climate and the Quest for Tenure Influence Their Interaction with African American Students at Predominantly White Institutions

Davis, Daryl Christopher
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2872-3556
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1576203483313774

Abstract Details

2019, Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toledo, Higher Education.
African American faculty at predominantly White institutions face a conundrum. African American students experience an achievement gap and Student Involvement Theory suggests that faculty interaction has greater impact on student achievement than any other type of involvement. These faculty may feel an obligation to serve such students yet simultaneously feel disincentivized to do so in order to satisfy tenure requirements, which typically do not prioritize service. This study sought to discover how these faculty perceive this challenge within the context of campus racial climate. Campus Racial Climate was the conceptual framework and Critical Race Theory was the theoretical framework employed in this study. Information was collected by analyzing institutional documents, interviewing faculty, and conducting member-checking to verify accuracy. Three themes regarding faculty perceptions about student-faculty interaction emerged: Faculty Experiences, Student Rapport, and Institutional Milieu. This study also arrived at four key conclusions. First, homophily (gravitation toward those who share important social characteristics) influenced perceptions of student-faculty interaction more than campus racial climate. Negative campus racial climates have been noted to motivate African American student-faculty interaction and were believed to be a primary impetus for it. However, this study revealed that the motivation for such interaction exists whether the climate is positive or negative. Homophily, was perceived as having a constant and direct influence on views about student-faculty interaction while campus racial climate was regarded as having a contextual and indirect influence on the same. Second, campus racial climate did not directly influence views about African American student-faculty interaction. However, campus environment (without respect to race) and race (without respect to campus environment) did influence perceptions. Third, the quest for tenure tempered interaction as the quantity of relationships reduced while their quality deepened. This reduction has both faculty and institutional origins. Finally, campus racial climate influenced experiences as faculty members but the climate was not perceived identically. This led to the development of the Racial Climate Relativity model which posits that racial climate is experienced as a function of Departmental Racial Climate, Campus Characteristics, Campus Location, Faculty Attributes, Student Relationships, and Administrative Commitment.
Penny Poplin Gosetti, Ph.D. (Advisor)
Shanda Gore, Ed.D. (Committee Member)
Kevin Jordan, Ed.D. (Committee Member)
Ronald Opp, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
256 p.
African Americans; Higher Education
African American; Faculty; Student-Faculty Interaction; Campus Racial Climate; Tenure; Critical Race Theory; Homophily

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Davis, D. C. (2019). African American Faculty Perceptions of how Campus Racial Climate and the Quest for Tenure Influence Their Interaction with African American Students at Predominantly White Institutions [Doctoral dissertation, University of Toledo]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1576203483313774

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Davis, Daryl. African American Faculty Perceptions of how Campus Racial Climate and the Quest for Tenure Influence Their Interaction with African American Students at Predominantly White Institutions. 2019. University of Toledo, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1576203483313774.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Davis, Daryl. "African American Faculty Perceptions of how Campus Racial Climate and the Quest for Tenure Influence Their Interaction with African American Students at Predominantly White Institutions." Doctoral dissertation, University of Toledo, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1576203483313774

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

toledo1576203483313774
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This open access ETD is published by University of Toledo and OhioLINK.