Counternarratives and Perspective Gathering:

Student Success at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)

Candace E. Maddox, Ph.D., University of Georgia, @cemaddox08Tiffany J. Davis, Ph.D., North Carolina State University, @TeeJDeePhDTonya Baker McPherson, Ph.D., Agnes Scott CollegeShauna H. Harris, Ph.D., North Carolina Central University, @s_lynnhCarrie V. Smith, M.Ed., University of Georgia, @C_V_Smith

Agenda• History and evolution of our project• Central tenets of critical race theory • Research design• Status of current research• Preliminary findings • Implications for student affairs• Questions & Answers

Landscape of HBCUs• Extensive peer networks, nurturing climate, and facilitating

academic, intellectual growth, and positive psychological environment are salient factors in the relevance of HBCUs to higher education (Palmer & Wood, 2012)

• HBCUs confer: 33% of all degrees in mathematics, 40% in natural sciences, 50% of public educators, and 70% of Black dentists (United States Commission on Civil Rights, 2010).

• Executive Order 13532: White House Initiative on HBCUs established by President Obama to promote excellence, sustainability, and innovation at HBCUs (United States Department of Education, 2010).

Research Project Background• Research team began in 2009 by Dr. Michelle Espino and

Dr. Diane Cooper at The University of Georgia

• Current research team includes current UGA doctoral students and program alums located across the country under the direction of Dr. Candace E. Maddox

• Timeline of Research Project• AY 2009 Developing research design• AY 2010 Developing instrumentation/Site selection• AY 2011 Research Team Hiatus• AY 2012 Research Team Hiatus/Return• AY 2013 Gatekeeping at HBCUs/SACSA grant recipients• AY 2014 Project Reconceptualization

(instrumentation/piloting/Multi-institutional IRB) • AY 2015 Data Collection and Analysis

Evolution of the Research• Reconceptualization of the project with CRT

framework • Adjustment in instrumentation • Recruiting strategies and relationships with

HBCUs

Our Positionality: Research Team Members

Team Member Role Connection to HBCUs

Candace E. Maddox, Ph.D. Principal Investigator Familial Connections/Research Interest

Carrie V. Smith Doctoral Member Research Interest

Travis L. Martin Doctoral Member HBCU Graduate

Zoe Johnson Doctoral Member Research Interest

Marvette Lacy Doctoral Member Research Interest

Tiffany J. Davis, Ph.D. Alumni Member Internships at two HBCUs/Research Interest

Shauna Harris, Ph.D. Alumni Member Currently works at an HBCU

Tonya Baker McPherson, Ph.D. Alumni Member Familial Connections/Research Interest

Jamie Riley, Ph.D. Alumni Member HBCU Graduate

The MasternarrativeStudent success is often defined as and/or contrasted with PWI standards and indicators and therefore:

• Paints pictures of HBCUs as homogenous group of institutions (Coaxum, 2001).

• Characterizes students as less engaged and having fewer leadership experiences (Brown II & Davis, 2001)

• Stigmatizes HBCUs as places for academically unprepared students (Brown II & Davis, 2001)

• Presents low graduation rates without contextualization (Palmer & Gasman, 2008)

Critical Race Theory• Bell, Freeman, and Delgado: Critical Legal

Studies (CLS)• Takes the legal framework and applies it to the other

fields like education• Action component

• Tenets of Critical Race Theory (CRT)• Permanence of racism*• Whiteness as property*• Interest convergence• Critique of Liberalism • Counter-storytelling*

*Tenets used in this study

Tenets of CRTPermanence of Racism

“Race has become metaphorical – a way of referring to and disguising forces, events, classes,

and expressions of social decay and economic division far more m threatening to the body politic than biological “race” ever was…it has assumed a metaphorical life so completely embedded in daily discourse that it is perhaps more necessary and

more on display than ever before”

(Morrison, 1992, p. 63)

Tenets of CRT•Whiteness as Property• Whiteness is protected• Whiteness affords people advantages• CRT critiques the idea of the American

meritocracy

•Counterstorytelling• Challenging hegemonic structures and their

portrayal as “normal”• A vehicle for the voice of marginalized groups

RESEARCH DESIGNResearch Questions

Data CollectionInstrumentation

Research Design• Mixed method (concurrent transformative design)

research design to explore questions related to student engagement, student success, and Black identity development at HBCUs in the Southeast.

• Qualitative study: “The Effects of Administrative Practices at HBCUs on Student Engagement”

• Quantitative study: “Defining Measures of Student Success at HBCUs”

Research QuestionsQualitative Focus

1. How does the executive leadership at HBCUs affect environments aimed to promote student engagement and development?

2. What are the roles of administrators and faculty in fostering environments that promote student engagement and development?

Research QuestionsQuantitative Focus

1. What is the relationship between student development and racial identity for students enrolled in HBCUs?

2. What is the relationship between racial identity and environmental interactions?

Data CollectionQuantitative

• Multi-institutional IRB processes

• Establishing relationships with gatekeepers

• Disseminating online questionnaire through gatekeepers on various campuses

• Offering an incentive via a drawing per campus

Qualitative

• Multi-institutional IRB processes

• Establishing relationships with gatekeepers

• Conducting semi-structured interviews with presidents and provosts or senior most academic administrator on the campuses where we have collected quantitative data

Semi-Structured Interview Protocol *Excerpt of protocol Presidents

• What is your leadership philosophy?• Can you give us an example of an initiative/program/service directed at student

engagement?• Are there any administrators or faculty who do an exceptional job of promoting

student engagement on your campus?

Provosts/Academic Administrators • What factors within the institution (i.e., credit-hour production, faculty

governance, faculty time allocation), in the community, and through accreditation standards affect your ability to implement policies, programs, or initiatives? In what ways do external stakeholders (for ex. accreditation, local community, governing bodies, trustee boards) affect student engagement and initiatives on your campus?

• If you could enhance or initiate a change on the campus to promote student engagement, what would you want to do?

Quantitative InstrumentationCollege Student Experience Questionnaire (CSEQ) (Pace & Kuh, 1998)• Subscales: College Activities, Experiences with faculty, Campus

facilities, Clubs and organizations, Student acquaintances, College Environment, Estimate of Gains

• Sample items: Emphasis on developing vocational and occupational competence; How often have you explored different ways of thinking about a topic

Reconceptualized our definition of environmental interactions• Physical environment and psychological feel of the campus (Fleming,

Howard, Perkins, & Pesta, 2005)• Anything that “constitutes a potential stimulus” (Astin, 1968, p. 3)• Eliminated the Estimate of Gains subscale

Quantitative InstrumentationStudent Developmental Task and Lifestyle Assessment (SDTLA)• Collected information similar to the CSEQ so it was

eliminated

Multidimensional Inventory of Black Identity (MIBI) (Sellers, Rowley, Chavous, Shelton, & Smith, 1997)• Centrality, Ideology, Regard• Centrality and Regard were a better match for the construct

that we wanted to measure• We removed the items associated with Ideology• Sample items: I am happy that I am Black; My destiny is

tied to the destiny of other Black people

Data Analysis

Quantitative

The research team is currently using SPSS and R-Studio statistical software to run correlation and cross tabulation.

As the amount of data increases, the research team hopes to begin running more complex hierarchical regression tests

Qualitative

The research team will analyze transcripts using the constant comparative method • Analyze each transcript for

general codes; open coding • Gather all codes from all

transcripts and create categories; axial coding

• Generate themes from the collection of categories

Two research team members will review each transcript to validate the analysis

STATUS OF RESEARCH

Flatland UniversityPasture University

Hilltop Community CollegeValley University

Flatland University• Carnegie Classified Master's University• Public Land-Grant HBCU• 2,500 enrollment

• 79% of students are from the state• 81% of students are full-time degree seeking• 85% undergraduate; 15% graduate• 95% African American• 43% residential students• 43% graduation rate (6-year)• 69% Pell eligible

• Institutional Mission:• Emphasis on teaching, learning, service, and research to provide

comprehensive undergraduate and graduate programs in education, the arts and sciences, and professional studies.

Pasture University• Carnegie Classified Doctoral Research• Public Land-grant HBCU• 11,000 enrollment

• 81% of students are from the state• 85% of students are full-time degree seeking• 84% undergraduate; 16% graduate• 82% African American• 66% residential students• 42% graduation rate (6-year)• 59% Pell eligible

• Institutional Mission:• dedicated to learning, discovery, and community engagement in

both traditional and online environments with emphasis on STEM.

Hilltop Community College• Carnegie Classified Associate’s Public Rural Serving• Public Community College• 2,565 enrollment

• 97% of students are from the state• 89% of students are full-time degree seeking• 100% undergraduate (associates degree)• 92% African American• 11 % residential students• 29% graduation rate (2-4years)• 95% Pell eligible

• Institutional Mission:• Focus on nurturing teaching and learning development, supporting

personal and professional growth, student preparation into the job market, transferring to a four year college or university

Valley University

• Carnegie Classified Doctoral Research• Public 4-Year Land-Grant HBCU• 3792 enrollment

• 59% of students are from the state• 95% of students are full-time degree seeking• 85% undergraduate; 21% graduate (age 24 and under)• 92% African American• 27% residential students• 23% graduation rate (6-year)• 70% Pell eligible

• Institutional Mission:• Focus on improving quality, developing new instructional designs,

improvement of value systems, uses science and technology to solve economic, physical, social, political, racial and cultural problems

Preliminary Findings*Quantitative findings only; qualitative findings are forthcoming

Quantitative Preliminary Findings

Faculty interaction

Discussed ideas for a term paper or other class projects with a faculty member

Discussed your career plans and ambitions with a faculty member

Asked your instructors for comments or criticisms about your academic performance

Worked harder than you thought you could to meet an instructor's expectations and standards

Min Value 1 1 1 1

Max Value 3 4 3 4

Mean 2.13 2.25 2.19 1.75

Variance 0.52 0.73 0.56 0.73

St. Deviation 0.72 0.86 0.75 0.86

Quantitative Preliminary Findings

Other preliminary takeaways• There appears to be a strong positive correlation

between Centrality and the subscales of activities and facilities on the CSEQ

• Mean score on Centrality subscale = 39.8• Mean score on Regard subscale = 57.6• Mean score on the CSEQ = 97.7• Majority of our respondents did not identify as Black or

African American

IMPLICATIONS

ImplicationsResearch at HBCUs

• Understanding the historical role and identity of HBCUs• Better explanation of purpose of research and

outcomes

The Research Process• Acknowledging institutional power and privilege

(Muhammad, Wallerstein, Sussman, Avila, Belone, & Duran, 2014).

• Evolving research design• Applying critical race theory to research design• Gatekeeping at HBCUs• Co-constructing outcomes/Participatory action

research

Discussion and QuestionsFeel free to connect with us and continue the conversation:

ugaresearchteam@gmail.com #NASPA15

#hbcusuccess#saUGA411

ReferencesAstin, A. (1968). The college environment. Washington, DC: American Council on Education.

Bell, D. A. (1995). Who’s afraid of critical race theory? University of Illinois Law Review, 893–910.

Brown, M. C., & Davis, J. E. (2001). The historically Black college as social contract, social capital, and social equalizer. Peabody Journal of Education, 76(1), 31-49. DOI: 10.1207/S15327930PJE7601_03

Coaxum III, J. (2001). The misalignment between the Carnegie classifications and Black colleges. Urban Education, 36(5), 572 – 584. DOI: 10.1177/0042085901365003

Delgado, R., & Stefancic, J. (2012). Critical race theory: An introduction. New York, NY: New York University Press.

Fleming, W. J., Howard, K., Perkins, E., & Pesta, M. (2005). The college environment: Factors influencing student transition and their impact on academic advising. The Mentor, 7, 1-9.

Morrison, T. (1992). Playing in the dark: Whiteness and the literary imagination. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Muhammad, M., Wallerstein, N., Sussman, A. L., Avila, M., Belone, L., & Duran, B. (2014). Researcher identity and power: The impact of positionality on community based participatory research (CBPR) process and outcomes. Critical Sociology, 1-19. DOI: 10.1177/0896920513516025

Pace, C. R. , & Kuh, G. D. (1998). College Student Experiences Questionnaire. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research and Planning, School of Education

Palmer, R., & Gasman, M. (2008). "It takes a village to raise a child": The role of social capital in promoting academic success for African American men at a Black college. Journal of College Student Development, 49(1), 52-70.

Palmer, R. T., & Wood, J. L. (2012). Black men in college: Implications for HBCUs and beyond. New York, NY: Routledge.

Sellers, R. M., Rowley, S. A. J., Chavous, T. M., Shelton, J. N., & Smith, M. A. (1997). Multidimensional Inventory of Black Identity: A preliminary investigation of reliability and construct validity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73(4), 805-815.

United States Commission on Civil Rights. (2010). The educational effectiveness of historically Black colleges and universities. Retrieved from http://www.usccr.gov/pubs/HBCU_webversion2.pdf

Winston, R. B., Miller, T. K., & Cooper, D. L. (1999). Preliminary Technical Manual for the Student Developmental Task and Lifestyle Assessment. Athens, GA: Student Development Associates.