Place-Based Community Engagement and the Development of Self-Authorship in Undergraduate Women of Color

Title

Place-Based Community Engagement and the Development of Self-Authorship in Undergraduate Women of Color

Authors

Presenter(s)

Ajanti Simone George

Files

Description

A central goal of higher education professionals is to promote self-authorship within the students that they serve; that is, helping students develop their internal capacity for discerning who they are in relation to their identity, values and social exchanges. Place-based community engaged learning challenges colleges and universities to assess the degree to which their espoused values of citizenship and activism at the institutional level are aligned with their actions; it is a multi-layered approach that requires institutions to reexamine policies that are rooted in oppression and maximize reciprocity. Understanding the historical context surrounding a university in relationship to community engaged efforts is especially important as institutions pursue racial equity and a more diverse student body. More specifically, understanding the experiences of women in color in higher education is key to uncovering the ways in which their racial identity plays a role in their unique interpretation of community engaged efforts and how they subsequently learn to negotiate their own values and beliefs rather than assimilate to the majority. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study is to better understand the impact that participation in place-based community engagement has on the development of self-authorship in self-identified undergraduate women of color at the University of Dayton. Grounded in the constructivist paradigm, this study is intended to further the profession’s knowledge about how practitioners can partner in student learning as they grow in their own awareness of self, with a nuanced understanding of a diverse sub-population.

Publication Date

4-24-2019

Project Designation

Graduate Research

Primary Advisor

Graham F. Hunter

Primary Advisor's Department

Counselor Education

Keywords

Stander Symposium project, student affairs, School of Education and Health Sciences

Place-Based Community Engagement and the Development of Self-Authorship in Undergraduate Women of Color

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