‘It's Like You Have to Exist With an Explanation’: Black Students' Sense of Identity and Belonging at a Higher Education Institution in the UK

: (Alternative Format Thesis)

Abstract

Black students enter higher education at higher rates than their peers, but they are less likely to be admitted to selective institutions, and more likely to drop out. This thesis examines Black students’ experiences at a selective, predominantly White, institution and demonstrates how and why these experiences are consequential. Taking a qualitative approach, interviews (n=17) and focus groups (n=16) with Black students, and interviews with Senior Managers (n=9) contribute to our understanding of practices that sustain racial inequality in higher education. Study 1 found that early encounters with White students and their racialised place-based assumptions about who belongs where had an immediate and powerful impact on participants. Study 2 showed how, through both numerical and normative dominance, White students were able to transform racism into an ‘acceptable’ act on campus. Within this culture of ‘acceptable racism’, Black students’ behaviours were constrained by the racist stereotypes mobilised by their peers, and as a result, they felt unable to be their full selves. Study 3 investigated Black students’ strategies for navigating a hostile campus. Results showed that Black students had sophisticated awareness of multiple strategies (two versions of the self, performing a strategic Whiteness and accentuating Blackness) and weighed up the social and psychological consequences of each. Study 4 drew upon Critical Race Theory to shift the focus to how Senior Managers at the university responded to the findings from Studies 1-3. While Senior Managers noted the importance of tackling racism on campus, they deflected responsibility for taking action by naming and disclaiming their privilege and ‘powerlessness’.
This thesis shows the role of powerful others in shaping minority group experiences both through White students’ practices of racism and othering and through Senior Managers’ practices of nonperformativity. It also highlights the importance of place-identity processes as the predominantly White institution was imbued with racial meaning (e.g., White normativity) which saw Black students positioned as ‘out of place’. Finally, this thesis speaks back to research which positions Black students as the ‘problem’ and instead positions them as knowledge producers.

Date of Award	25 May 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bath
Supervisor	Leda Blackwood (Supervisor), Ceri Brown (Supervisor) & Julie Barnett (Supervisor)