In Their Own Voices: A Critical Narrative Review of Black Women Faculty Members' First-Person Accounts of Racial Trauma Across Higher Education

Teach Learn Med. 2024 Mar 21:1-11. doi: 10.1080/10401334.2024.2329680. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTPhenomenon: Black women often face more challenges in academic medicine than others and are leaving the profession due to unsupportive work environments, systematic neglect, and experiences of invisibility. Research offers insight into Black women faculty experiences, but studies have largely been conducted on their experiences rather than written by them. We analyzed first-person narratives exploring Black women faculty members' experiences with racial trauma across the academy considering the intersectionality of racism and sexism to lay the foundation for understanding Black women physicians' faculty experiences in similar spaces. Approach: We gathered first-person narratives of Black women faculty members in the U.S. from ERIC, Web of Science, and Ovid Medline. We used a variety of terms to draw out potential experiences with trauma (e.g., microaggressions, stigma, prejudice). Articles were screened by two researchers, with a third resolving conflicts. Drawing on constructs from Black feminist theory, two researchers extracted from each article authors' claims about: (a) their institutions, (b) their experiences in those spaces, and (c) suggestions for change. We then analyzed these data through the lens of racial trauma while also noting the effects of gendered racism. Findings: We identified four key themes from the 46 first-person accounts of racial trauma of Black facu...
Source: Teaching and Learning in Medicine - Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Source Type: research