Dissertation
The Perceptions and lived Experiences of African American Male Senior Administrators in Division I Predominately While Institutions and Factors Influencing their Career Path
Public Deposited- Abstract
- African American males in senior athletic administrative positions at NCAA Division I predominantly white institutions face several challenges and barriers while navigating their career paths. These challenges and barriers include a lack of inclusion and understanding, tokenism, inadequate support, macroaggressions, and societal and institutional racism. The combination of challenges and barriers affects opportunities for African American males to obtain senior athletic administrative positions. These are some reasons why there has not been much change in the number of African American males in senior leadership positions. The study investigated the lived experiences of African Americans currently in leadership positions at their respective institutions. The study assumed that the responses for the participants were not biased and that the answers were reliable. This study was composed of 10 participants. All 10 participants are senior athletic administrators working at NCAA Division I institutions on the East Coast of the United States. Before the study, I sought approval from the IRB. Each participant had to sign a consent form before the research could begin. The semi- structured in-depth interviews were used to collect data. After each interview, I transcribed them. Following data collection and analysis, I used member checking to establish credibility for the research. All participants reported experiencing challenges/barriers while working their way into senior administration. The participants also stated they still deal with challenges/barriers even though they are senior administrators. The four common themes that each participant had alluded to were mentoring, networking. lack of support and inclusion, feeling uncomfortable and unrepresented. Participants mentioned how important mentorship was to them. Mentoring is crucial as it helped guide them through their challenges. Participants also noted the importance of strategic networking. A strong network helps them connect to other job opportunities, which they can take advantage of to move closer to their goal of being a senior athletic administrator. The lack of support and inclusion dealt with more challenges in the senior administrative role. Not having the proper support from colleagues and even, at times, from the supervisor who hired them created a challenging working environment. The last themes the participants endured with was feeling uncomfortable and unrepresented, tokenism, and microaggressions. They felt pressured that they cannot make mistakes there by creating a hostile working environment.
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