Johnetta B. Cole, first female President of Spellman College, giving the keynote address at Smith College, stated that
In our country… all black folks are doomed to be intellectually inferior to all white folks. Thus, the last image that many Americans would have of an African American woman is that of an intellectual, an academic, a college president, a person of academy
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Dr. Cole's comment are relivant.
ReplyDeleteAfrican American females in academia are as invisible as they are within the general culture. When questioning students regarding their professors opinion, often times they reflect that they do not have African American females as professors. Statistics bear this out and anecdotally students often confirm this in their evaluations of their professors. When speaking to students regarding theory of psychology and European influence a student once asked a peculiar question. After explaining my path to a teaching position in Europe, I provided students with my personal experiences. In an effort to further inform the students of the influence of early European theories of psychology I related stories of my experiences throughout Europe. “How do you know this, how did you get to Europe?” I mean how did you get there?” as if I had to walked from the ghetto of the US, all the way to Europe. Students often challenge my credibility and suppose that I either am Misinformed, making up information, or simply disregard my lecture comments as irrelevant to what’s in the text book. Although this was an incident in a classroom it has been my experience with students in general. Students often question how credible African American female professors are and question why are you here, and if you’re here your knowledge is likely to be challenged.
I am a Ed.D. Counseling Education & Supervision candidate expecting to enter the academic field. I was previously involved at this level via the athletics or Kinesiology Dept. However, I took a position in athletics to because it’s my passion and pays better than teaching as an adjunct in Psychology. I wonder are there any tips or pointers to securing a position in academic? I plan to present at the national level and hope to publish. However, I wonder if there are areas that appear more amenable to utilizing the experience of African American women in academia than others? I would like to hear about others experience as well.
ReplyDeleteVeronica Katherine