Questions with Methods, and Core Constructs in Research Questions
Research Questions
How do Black students understand their choice to take courses in Africana Studies?
What factors contribute to this decision-making process? How do their experiences in Africana
Studies courses compare to their experiences in classes outside of this department?
Given the hegemony of Eurocentric Western ideology that tends to center the straight White
male perspective, to what degree do these students find that their racial or cultural perspectives
are validated in Africana Studies courses?
I am interested in the way that college campuses provide a space for Black students to learn
about themselves. What does it mean for Black students to be able to take courses that center
Black voices, experiences, histories? To see their ancestors as active contributors to knowledge
rather than objects of history? As a scholar of Black Studies, I personally view the field as much
more than an academic discipline, and more of a safer space designed to counter white
hegemonic thought. My knowledge and investment in collecting data around the impact of these
courses on other Black students is personal as I believe in the power of these courses to truly
impact one’s sense of self.
Review of Literature
As I was developing these questions, I found a handful of researchers who were also curious
about the impact Black Studies courses have on the students who engage with them. For the
purpose of this small-scale inquiry, it is important to define what Black Studies is and to provide
a brief history of how these departments were created. Molefi Kete Asante, a renown Afrocentric
theorist, conceptualizes Afrocentricity as a project against the Eurocentricity of white academia.
He defines Afrocentricity as “a frame of reference wherein phenomena are viewed from the
perspective of the African person” (Asante, 1991, p. 171). He is careful to distinguish
Afrocentricity from Eurocentricity as the latter condones a supremacy and a dismissal of other
positionalities as subhuman. Asante claims that in 1990, the Afrocentric idea proposed the “most
revolutionary challenge to the ideology of white supremacy in education in the past decade”
(1991, p. 172) for the ways that it serves to dismantle white hegemonic thought. It is within this
framework that I understand the political agenda behind Black Studies pedagogy and ideology,
although there is not a clear consensus in the field regarding this paradigm.
Established in 1740, The University of Pennsylvania is a predominantly White ivy league
institution situated within West Philadelphia. According to the university’s Common Data Set, in
2017, there were 715 students who identified as African American or Black out of the total
10,033 total undergraduate population—around 7.1%. Respectively, the undergraduate
population is around 44% non-Hispanic White. Racially, Black students at Penn are certainly a
minority and within this context, Africana Studies, which tends to house many Black faculty
members and students, can be construed as a counterspace within the predominantly white
landscape of the university (Solórzano, Ceja, & Yosso, 2000; Case & Hunter, 2012). The
Africana Studies full department was founded in 2012, having previously evolved from the AfroAmerican
Studies program created in 1971.
At the University of Pennsylvania, the School of Arts and Sciences houses both a department of
Africana Studies and a Center for Africana Studies. There is both an option for undergraduates to
engage in courses or pursue a full major, and there are also doctoral students earning their PhD in
Africana Studies. The university describes the department as “an interdisciplinary field of study
devoted to the critical and systematic examination of the cultural, political, social, economic, and
historical experiences of African Americans, Africans, and peoples of African descent around the
world.” According to the Common Data Set data, around 1% of all undergraduates pursue a
major in any ethnic studies field at the university.
In a way, my proposed research for this course is a replication of larger scale studies that have
investigated the affects Black Studies courses have on the Black students who engage with them.
While there is a healthy amount of scholarship dedicated to debates about the ideology and
pedagogy of Black Studies as a field (Karenga, 1982; Small, 1999), and outlining the historical
narrative in the Black Power Movement (Fenderson, Stewart, & Baumgartner, 2011; Joseph,
2006), there is little literature investigating psychologically and anthropologically how Black
Studies courses impact Black students. Additionally, the literature available is relatively new
(produced within the last 15 years) as this field is still newly emerging and gaining legitimacy
within the academy. The studies that have been conducted found links between Black Studies
course engagement and academic success, identity development, retention, higher graduation
rates, fostering positive student–faculty relationships, and academic and social engagement
(Adams, 2005, 2014; Chapman-Hilliard & Beasley, 2018; Beasley et al., 2016). Adams in fact
names these additional “benefits” beyond the content of the course material as the “Black Studies
Effect” (2005). Her study incorporates both Black and white students at University of Louisville
in 2003 and measures their responses to a “Black Ideology Scale” compared to their participation
in Pan-African Studies courses. The study combines quantitative (questionnaire) and qualitative
methods (focus groups) to be able to build a fuller picture of how these courses offered at a
predominately white institution are impacting the students. For my own research, I want to
engage students in a dialogue about their pathway to Black Studies/Africana Studies here at the
University of Pennsylvania and better understand what they perceive as the benefit of these
courses within their experience at Penn.
Research Design
I will collect data via interviews and questionnaires with African American doctoral students in
engineering fields at Ivy League institutions. I will likely include Princeton University,
University of Pennsylvania, and Columbia University in my research study. Interviews will be
conducted according to the three stages into which Tinto (1993) divided the doctoral degree
process: transition and adjustment, or the student experience during the first year of study;
attainment of candidacy, or the period between the first year and the time a student attains
candidacy; and completion of the dissertation, or the time between candidacy and the student’s
defense. I will explore the use of the following instruments:
Racial Identity Attitude Scale (Helms, 1990)Multidimensional Model of Racial Identity (Sellers
et al., 1998)Multi-Group Ethnic Identity Measure (Phinney, 1992)Model of Nigrescence (Cross,
1971, 1991)Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1979)Anti-Deficit Achievement
Framework (Harper, 2010)Padilla’s Expertise Model (Padilla, 1991)Science Identity Model
(Carlone & Johnson, 2007)”
