Date of Award

9-6-2024

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Education

First Advisor

Demetri Morgan

Abstract

Colleges and universities are of the place and time in which they exist, reflecting the prevailing racial, income, and wealth inequities across society. As a result, the history of higher education in the United States tells both a story of opportunity and advancement, as well as one of exclusion, separation, and inequality. The expansion of access over time has also been accompanied by racial and socioeconomic stratification by institution type and disparities in college completion rates (Carnevale & Strohl, 2013; Fry, 2013). Today, issues of racial and socioeconomic equity continue to pose significant barriers for students. Additionally, women remain stubbornly and significantly underrepresented in the top leadership positions at our nation’s colleges and universities, holding less than one-third of presidencies (Melidona et al., 2023). In recent decades, calls to address the historical status quo of inequity in college outcomes and for a national ‘completion agenda’ have intensified (McNair et al., 2015), spurred by greater knowledge and awareness of the scale of the problem, proposed solutions, the economic imperative for institutions to retain their students, and state and federal policy on accountability. While research has identified the critical role of institutional leadership in addressing these issues, there is a lack of research on senior leadership teams in higher education. This qualitative research study takes a multiple-case study approach to examining how senior leadership teams utilize principles of shared equity leadership (Kezar et al., 2021) at two community colleges and one public university led by women presidents. The theoretical framework guiding this study combines shared equity leadership with theory related to ethics of love and care, along with a theory of racialized organizations (Ray, 2019). The research questions that guided this study asked how senior leadership teams within colleges and universities led by women presidents utilize principles of shared equity leadership in pursuit of racial equity on their campuses, how individual characteristics of team members, including race, gender, and age, influence the way individual senior leadership team members enact shared equity leadership, and if and how the racial and other forms of diversity of the senior leadership team influence the way they utilize principles of shared equity leadership. Findings demonstrate that an ethic of love and care that centers empathy is the foundation of a student-centered approach to advancing racial equity in higher education. Love and care, empathy and compassion are expressed values, orientations, and operational practices motivating racial equity work that is student-centered. From this base of empathy and care, presidents and senior team members engage in a number of actions to build a foundation of trust within the team. Building trust is a component of the relational practices within the SEL model and trust building and establishing and strengthening positive relationships are mutually reinforcing. Also, the president’s role in equity efforts on the cabinet team and within the entire institution is an essential component of effective, comprehensive equity reform work on campuses. However, it must extend far beyond the president to achieve impact, thus implicating the importance of the cabinet team. Individual characteristics of team members, including race, gender, age, and other factors, as well as the diversity of the team, influence the way individual senior leadership team members enact SEL and are salient in the way individual presidents and cabinet members conceptualize and operationalize racial equity work on their campuses.

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