Date of Award

Spring 2022

Degree Type

Open Access Dissertation

Degree Name

Education, PhD

Program

School of Educational Studies

Advisor/Supervisor/Committee Chair

Dina C. Maramba

Dissertation or Thesis Committee Member

Linda Perkins

Dissertation or Thesis Committee Member

Eligio Martinez Jr.

Terms of Use & License Information

Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

Rights Information

© 2022 Christine W Kang

Keywords

Academic Development, Asian American Women Faculty, Faculty of Color, Identity Development, Professional Development, Women of Color Faculty

Subject Categories

Higher Education

Abstract

While Asian American faculty account for almost half of all full-time professors of color in the U.S., Asian American women account for only 3.84 percent of all full-time professors. Researchers speculate that Asian American women are often motivated to choose majors and careers considered “culturally valued”; majors that are focused more on STEM areas and careers that allow flexibility for them to manage their familial responsibilities. The implied message, that Asian American women should pursue a career guided by familial needs, hinders many Asian American women aspiring to pursue advanced professional careers in academia. Since traditional career development models have predominantly focused on a middle-class White heterosexual male perspective, no framework helps researchers understand how Asian American women faculty, and other women of color faculty, navigate through the systemic oppression that exists within the structure of higher education and the professoriate in the U.S. The purpose of this study is to examine the shared traits and experiences that led to Asian American women identifying their academic and professional identity in the professoriate. The Professional Identity Development Model for Asian Americans Women Faculty model was created to best illustrate the stages of academic and professional identity development for Asian American women faculty.

For this qualitative study, 29 full-time Asian American women faculty in the social sciences were interviewed. A content analysis was conducted to determine how validation, social capital, and self-efficacy influenced their academic and professional identity development. Findings indicate that Asian American women scholars depended on a strong network of support, in the form of validation and social capital through family, educators and mentors, and peers of color, but specifically Asian American peers, to persist through the discrimination practices embedded in the academy. This study also showed that the self-efficacy of Asian American women faculty was built despite not experiencing a number of the factors outlined in Bandura’s theory of self-efficacy. While these sources of influence varied across the different stages of their academic and professional identity development, they were present at every stage. This data shows that opportunities to receive validation and access to social capital creating opportunities to receive validation, share social capital should be fostered in the home, by their educators and mentors, and by their professional peers. This builds upon their academic and professional abilities and strengthens their professional identity as faculty to persist through the discrimination of the academy that they face daily.

ISBN

9798802738870

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