tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/black-professors-18157/articlesBlack professors – The Conversation2024-03-15T12:10:14Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2243192024-03-15T12:10:14Z2024-03-15T12:10:14ZThe hostility Black women face in higher education carries dire consequences<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581998/original/file-20240314-24-v5d9s0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2110%2C1412&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Isolation can make opportunities elusive. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/young-woman-holding-a-highlighter-and-reading-a-royalty-free-image/1446120435?adppopup=true">fotostorm via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Isolated. Abused. Overworked. </p>
<p>These are the themes that emerged when I invited nine Black women to chronicle their professional experiences and relationships with colleagues as they earned their Ph.D.s at a public university in the Midwest. I featured their writings in <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/3150/AYA_THIS.pdf?1710504520">the dissertation I wrote</a> to get my Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction. </p>
<p>The women spoke of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1527-2001.2011.01177.x">being silenced</a>.</p>
<p>“It’s not just the beating me down that is hard,” one participant told me about constantly having her intelligence questioned. “It is the fact that it feels like I’m villainized and made out to be the problem for trying to advocate for myself.”</p>
<p>The women told me they did not feel like they belonged. They spoke of routinely being isolated by peers and potential mentors. </p>
<p>One participant told me she felt that peer community, faculty mentorship and cultural affinity spaces were lacking.</p>
<p>Because of the isolation, participants often felt that they were missing out on various opportunities, such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.9707/2168-149X.2388">funding and opportunities to get their work published</a>.</p>
<p>Participants also discussed the ways they felt they were duped into taking on more than their fair share of work.</p>
<p>“I realized I had been tricked into handling a two- to four-person job entirely by myself,” one participant said of her paid graduate position. “This happened just about a month before the pandemic occurred so it very quickly got swept under the rug.” </p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>The hostility that Black women face in higher education can be hazardous to their health. The women in my study told me they were struggling with depression, had thought about suicide and felt physically ill when they had to go to campus.</p>
<p>Other studies have found similar outcomes. For instance, a 2020 study of 220 U.S. Black college women ages 18-48 found that even though being seen as a strong Black woman came with its benefits – such as being thought of as resilient, hardworking, independent and nurturing – it also came at a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-020-01170-w">cost to their mental and physical health</a>. </p>
<p>These kinds of experiences can take a toll on women’s bodies and can result in <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-weeds/24079547/weathering-black-health-outcomes-women-dr-uche-blackstock">poor maternal health, cancer, shorter life expectancy</a> and other symptoms that impair their ability to be well.</p>
<p>I believe my research takes on greater urgency in light of the recent death of <a href="https://www.highereddive.com/news/lincoln-university-candia-bailey-death-investigation/705101/">Antoinette “Bonnie” Candia-Bailey</a>, who was <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/lincoln-university-president-paid-leave-days-vp-student-affairs-dies-s-rcna133723">vice president of student affairs</a> at Lincoln University. Before she <a href="https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/education/lincoln-university-students-vp-dies-by-suicide/">died by suicide</a>, she reportedly wrote that she felt she was suffering abuse and that the university <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/28/antoinette-candia-bailey-lincoln-university-death">wasn’t taking her mental health concerns seriously</a>.</p>
<h2>What other research is being done</h2>
<p>Several anthologies examine the negative experiences that Black women experience in academia. They include education scholars Venus Evans-Winters and Bettina Love’s edited volume, “<a href="https://www.peterlang.com/document/1118277">Black Feminism in Education</a>,” which examines how Black women navigate what it means to be a scholar in a “white supremacist patriarchal society.” Gender and sexuality studies scholar <a href="https://upf.com/book.asp?id=9780813032689">Stephanie Evans</a> analyzes the barriers that Black women faced in accessing higher education from 1850 to 1954. In “<a href="https://www.broadleafbooks.com/store/product/9781506489834/Black-Women-Ivory-Tower">Black Women, Ivory Tower</a>,” African American studies professor Jasmine Harris recounts her own traumatic experiences in the world of higher education.</p>
<h2>What’s next</h2>
<p>In addition to publishing the findings of my research study, I plan to continue exploring the depths of Black women’s experiences in academia, expanding my research to include undergraduate students, as well as faculty and staff. </p>
<p>I believe this research will strengthen this field of study and enable people who work in higher education to develop and implement more comprehensive solutions.</p>
<p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take on interesting academic work.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224319/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ebony Aya received funding from the Black Collective Foundation in 2022 to support the work of the Aya Collective. </span></em></p>9 Black women who were working on or recently earned their PhDs told a researcher they felt isolated and shut out.Ebony Aya, Program Manager at the Jan Serie Center for Scholarship and Teaching, Macalester CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1569172021-05-10T12:31:45Z2021-05-10T12:31:45ZWhy business school efforts to recruit more diverse faculties are failing<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395800/original/file-20210419-19-bq9evx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6699%2C4476&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Black and Hispanic business school professors are few in number.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/diverse-group-of-people-during-pandemic-on-a-royalty-free-image/1307742707?adppopup=true">nortonrsx/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Despite the <a href="https://www.equityinhighered.org/resources/report-downloads/race-and-ethnicity-in-higher-education-2020-supplement/">increasing diversity</a> among America’s college students, business school professors remain overwhelmingly white.</p>
<p>In U.S. business schools, Black and Hispanic individuals make up <a href="https://bized.aacsb.edu/articles/2019/may/aacsb-2019-business-school-data-guide">23.2%</a> of students, yet only <a href="https://bized.aacsb.edu/articles/2019/may/aacsb-2019-business-school-data-guide">6.7%</a> of the faculty.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=DWg5VK4AAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate">researcher</a> with a long-standing interest in the reasons business schools lack diverse faculty, I – along with <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=OZE_dYUAAAAJ&hl=en">marketing professor Sonja Martin Poole</a> – set out to examine <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2020.1800796">how business schools select their faculty</a>. We did this by talking to 21 Black and Hispanic professors who have served on search committees at business schools throughout the U.S. We discovered four major reasons professors of color often get screened out of the process.</p>
<h2>1. Race is unmentionable</h2>
<p>Search committees rarely have open conversations about race as they search to diversify their faculty, the professors in our study told us. They described conversations about race as “anemic” and “uncomfortable,” which in turn led people to avoid the topic.</p>
<p>As one professor in our study stated regarding race, “If we don’t talk about it we don’t have a problem.”</p>
<p>The faculty members in our study described a variety of reasons they believed search committees avoided talking about race. These include different beliefs about fairness and fear of saying something that could lead them to be seen as racist. The silence on race ended up creating a perception among the Black and Hispanic faculty members in our study that the search committees were not concerned with racial justice.</p>
<p>When discussions about race are hampered, we believe it makes it more difficult to recruit diverse faculty.</p>
<h2>2. ‘Diversity’ is poorly understood</h2>
<p>Faculty members told us that many of their colleagues thought their school was already diverse since the schools had business professors from around the world.</p>
<p>This view is at odds with most <a href="https://www.equityinhighered.org/resources/ideas-and-insights/redoubling-our-efforts-how-institutions-can-affect-faculty-diversity/">diversity efforts</a> in American higher education, which aim to increase Black and Hispanic faculty members from the U.S. because of historical disadvantages that both groups have faced in this country.</p>
<p>Others discussed broad views of diversity, which included sexual preference, gender orientation and diversity of thought as important criteria.</p>
<p>The absence of a clear definition of diversity enables individual search committee members to define or interpret diversity as they see fit. It also makes it difficult to assess whether diversity goals are actually being met.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395806/original/file-20210419-21-3ck350.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395806/original/file-20210419-21-3ck350.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395806/original/file-20210419-21-3ck350.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395806/original/file-20210419-21-3ck350.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395806/original/file-20210419-21-3ck350.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395806/original/file-20210419-21-3ck350.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395806/original/file-20210419-21-3ck350.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395806/original/file-20210419-21-3ck350.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Efforts to increase faculty diversity in U.S. business schools are often lackluster.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/professor-wearing-a-mask-while-teaching-a-lecture-royalty-free-image/1282751568">FatCamera/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>3. Blind faith in ‘colorblind’ criteria</h2>
<p>Even though search committees were using supposedly merit-based or “colorblind” criteria, Black and Hispanic candidates still got screened out of the process.</p>
<p>For instance, search committees might consider the number of times a candidate has been published in an academic journal. But this ignores the fact that many Black and Hispanic scholars may study race-related topics, which are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11711-5_10">largely absent from and marginalized</a> at top-ranked marketing journals. The rank of a journal where an article is published is used to assess faculty members for tenure and promotion. Publication at top-ranked journals is typically a requirement for tenure at most universities. </p>
<p>Search committees also consider the status of the school from which the candidate received their doctorate, as well as who was their adviser. Historically, <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED450619">elite schools</a> have had limited racial diversity among their faculty. Even potential Black and Hispanic doctoral students face biases and are the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000022">least likely to receive responses from faculty</a> as they seek academic mentors and support.</p>
<p>Search committee members also told us that hiring committees often do not value the extra work that many Black and Hispanic doctoral students perform. This extra work includes mentoring students of color, consulting with administrators on issues related to Black and Hispanic populations and serving as what the study participants viewed as being “token members” on various committees.</p>
<h2>4. Hierarchy and gatekeepers matter</h2>
<p>Faculty members in our study felt they were invited to be on search committees to be the token “diversity voice.” But the presence of Black and Hispanic faculty members on search committees does not necessarily lead to the hiring of diverse candidates. The reason is that powerful committee members – such as the department chair and full professors – often determine whom is eventually hired.</p>
<p>Given Black and Hispanic faculty members were often “the only one” from their group on these search committees, and rarely at the full professor level, typically they felt they had to go against the grain to disrupt any observed bias.</p>
<p>At business schools that had more racially diverse faculty, some participants told us that there were strong diversity advocates in senior administration or on the faculty. This suggests that strong diversity advocates – not the hiring practices these schools have in place – are what’s yielding a diverse faculty. Once those advocates leave, future hires may not be as diverse.</p>
<p>Despite <a href="https://www.aacsb.edu/insights/2019/October/faculty-diversity-in-business-schools-25-years-in-the-making">improvements in faculty diversity</a>, many students leave college without ever having learned from a Black or Hispanic business professor. The absence of racially diverse faculty cheats students out of a high-quality education by limiting their exposure to the views of educators from diverse racial backgrounds.</p>
<p>In order to bring about more diversity among business school faculty, I believe colleges and universities must acknowledge the various ways race influences faculty hiring in order to find ways to make hiring more inclusive.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156917/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sonya A. Grier does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Professors of color are few and far between at America’s business schools. Hidden obstacles in the search process help explain why.Sonya A. Grier, Professor of Marketing, American University Kogod School of BusinessLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/627202016-07-29T05:58:31Z2016-07-29T05:58:31ZAfrican philosophy needs to blossom. Being exclusionary won’t help<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131437/original/image-20160721-32633-3kf87r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Devotees of the popular series “Game of Thrones” may recall Jaime Lannister’s fatal, but memorable, quip: “The things we do for love”. He said this just before hurling a ten-year-old boy down a high castle wall.</p>
<p>The boy’s “crime”? He’d caught Lannister in an incestuous embrace with his sister, Cersei. One can only truly fathom the enormity of Lannister’s wicked shove by becoming simultaneously acquainted with the intensity of his love for his sister. Love, or a certain way of loving, shows itself to be exclusive. It is always seeking to rid itself of the “outsider”. </p>
<p>Academic philosophy, too, is a love affair – with wisdom. But it’s one that, like the Lannisters’, comes with a distinctively dark side.</p>
<p>Much of academic philosophy is openly and unashamedly in love with the idea of the West as destiny. It loves the West’s culture, history and thinkers, to the exclusion of the other. And this other is everything African.</p>
<p>This is all happening right here in Africa. It is, to borrow American philosopher Paul Taylor’s <a href="http://philosophy.la.psu.edu/directory/pct2">phrase</a>, philosophy “corrupted”.</p>
<h2>Too much in common</h2>
<p>Some have seen the light and decided it’s time for “transformation” – a magical word that, in the mouths of a few, seems to promise more than it can deliver. These people have suggested a new state for academic philosophy in Africa; an alternate world to what currently exists at the continent’s universities.</p>
<p>The problem is that, for some, this “transformed” world of African philosophy has much in common with its Western counterpart. It comes with clearly defined geographical boundaries, strict rules of admittance and non-negotiable terms of legitimate citizenship. It has self-appointed gatekeepers. They bicker about who belongs and who doesn’t. They seem to think that politicking about identity and belonging is a necessary first step towards transformation. This, too, is becoming African philosophy’s dark side. </p>
<p>The seed for this sort of thinking was already sown in the early days of the formation of the canon of contemporary African philosophy. Benin’s <a href="http://hutchinscenter.fas.harvard.edu/paulin-hountondji">Paulin Hountondji</a> in his book, “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/221497?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">African Philosophy: Myth and Reality</a>”, sought to distinguish what is mythical and what is real about African philosophy and in the process suggested that African philosophy is philosophy done by Africans. </p>
<p>As would later become clear, Hountondji’s primary interest was in seeing the development of a discursive tradition of African philosophy rooted in scientific rigour. This was instead of merely proposing an African identity as prerequisite for doing African philosophy.</p>
<p>But definitions, especially uncomplicated ones, have a way of prevailing with philosophers. So “African philosophy” was immediately assumed by many to be a philosophy practised by Africans – in the geo-ethnic sense of the word. These people belong to ethnic groups situated in the geographical area called Africa. This definition excludes those who may be Africans but trace their ethnic identity elsewhere.</p>
<p>This laid down the condition of legitimate citizenship; the basis of differentiation between the African and non-African Africanist philosopher; a sense of belonging and exclusion.</p>
<p>It is worth thinking about how the politics of identity in African philosophy might inhibit the aims of transformation – of giving academic philosophy an African face. Let’s ask a plain question: is the vocation to teach, research and publish on African philosophy the preserve only of black Africans? </p>
<h2>Silencing of black voices</h2>
<p>It may be argued that a certain kind of evil is perpetrated where non-African – here I mean white – philosophers take up this vocation: the continued silencing of black philosopher’s voices. The muzzling of marginal and specifically black voices in academic philosophy is systematic. It figures within a historical pattern of white savagery. </p>
<p>But the cure for this sort of silencing is not to have non-African, white philosophers shut their mouths and retire their pens. Instead, systemic barriers must be repaired. Black philosophers will need to be trained and employed in philosophy departments across the continent. Journals that have traditionally blocked black voices from being heard must begin to publish these philosophers.</p>
<p>The transformation agenda will suffer if an African identity is a precondition for teaching, researching and publishing in African philosophy. This precondition would be a let off for non-African, white philosophers on the continent who aren’t yet disposed to avail themselves as agents of transformation. </p>
<p>Regrettably, this breed of philosophers populates and still colonises philosophy departments – certainly in South Africa, where I’m based. Ruling them out on account of their illegitimate status as citizens of the imagined African nation equips them with enough of a reason to be mere onlookers in the process of transformation. This perpetuates the “corruption” of philosophy I referred to earlier. </p>
<p>Non-African, white philosophers should, because of their epistemic location and current employment in South African philosophy departments, be agents of the transformation agenda. </p>
<h2>The responsibility of white philosophers</h2>
<p>This shouldn’t be optional. These people have a responsibility to teach, research and, where possible, publish on African philosophy: on <a href="http://www.scielo.org.za/pdf/ahrlj/v11n2/11.pdf"><em>ubuntu</em> morality</a>, Kwasi Wiredu’s <a href="http://www.iep.utm.edu/wiredu/">Akan notion of truth</a> and <a href="https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/yoruba-epistemology/v-1">Yoruba epistemology</a>. If they can’t, it may be a matter of incompetence rather than identity.</p>
<p>They should actively seek out and mentor promising black philosophy students to become faculty members who will replace them. Again, if they can’t, it has nothing to do with identity. It’s all about disposition. </p>
<p>After all, some non-African, white philosophers with an Africanist bent are already in the business of doing this. It is no use helping others evade the responsibility they have to this place. Nor should those who are already assuming that responsibility be scrutinised simply because they are not African. Transformation in philosophy is not about the politics of belonging and exclusion.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/62720/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Oritsegbubemi Oyowe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Much of academic philosophy, even on the African continent, is openly and unashamedly in love with the idea of the West as destiny.Oritsegbubemi Oyowe, Lecturer of Philosophy, University of the Western CapeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/509302015-11-25T04:37:10Z2015-11-25T04:37:10ZWhy Africa’s professors are afraid of colonial education being dismantled<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102498/original/image-20151119-18448-1snimx8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Will academics keep standing on the sidelines while students dismantle symbols of colonialism like the statue of Cecil John Rhodes?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Mike Hutchings</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A series of student protests in South Africa has thrown up a number of questions. Many of these are linked to the problem of decolonising institutions. And at least one implicates the country’s professoriate by asking: how do academics transcend Western knowledge systems and ways of learning in African universities?</p>
<p>This needs an urgent answer. The professoriate - not bureaucrats or administrators, but those who are at the coal face of academia - should provide thought leadership. But aren’t the students and their supporters asking too much from the professoriate? I pose this question because a large proportion of African university teachers are cut from the cloth of Western knowledge. As the philosopher Kwame Nkrumah observes in his book <a href="https://marxistnkrumaistforum.wordpress.com/karl-marx-the-poverty-of-philosophy/kwame-nkrumah-consciencism-philosophy-and-ideology-for-decolonisation/">Consciencism</a>, African intellectuals and professors are:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>…anointed with a universalist flavouring which titillates the palate … so agreeably that they become alienated from their own immediate society.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>How, then, does a professoriate change the essence of its edifice?</p>
<h2>Edifice of professorship</h2>
<p>In most South African universities the professoriate is still almost <a href="http://www.news24.com/Archives/City-Press/Where-are-our-black-academics-20150430">entirely white</a>. This is despite ongoing calls for “transformation” in the higher education sector - that is, in part, a change in the make-up of student bodies and the professoriate to better reflect the country’s demographics.</p>
<p>However, being white does not necessarily mean being anti-transformation. In the same way, being black is not synonymous with transformation. There are white professors whose sense of transformation is more remarkable than that of some black professors. So, reference to black and white is beyond pigmentation. It is, in the logic of the Black Consciousness <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/defining-black-consciousness">philosophy</a>, about a state of mind: ideas and attitudes that ought to underpin a strategic gaze to transformation. </p>
<p>This is not to underplay South African universities’ transformation imperative. The point I am making is simple: transformation of higher education generally in Africa and specifically in South Africa requires a professoriate with a decoloniality posture. Today, the transformation of higher education is increasingly being pursued through the prism of decoloniality.</p>
<p>But the continent’s professoriate is schooled largely in the white tradition. This imprinted the culture of whiteness in its making, which is not surprising. Western education in Africa as we know it is designed to <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=ffkFRTj1WIwC&pg=PA502&lpg=PA502&dq=western+education+proselytizing+africa&source=bl&ots=9abf0vj_Qb&sig=x23LeI75FY4AvjDTGkZPmYVul3I&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjOsbKlrJ7JAhWKcBoKHX9mChcQ6AEINDAH#v=onepage&q=western%20education%20proselytizing%20africa&f=false">proselytise blacks</a>. African academics may be reluctant to repudiate their very make-up.</p>
<h2>Creating a black professoriate</h2>
<p>Tshilidzi Marwala, the deputy vice chancellor of the University of Johannesburg, <a href="http://www.dhet.gov.za/summit/Docs/Announcements/page%206.pdf">has agitated</a> for the making of a black professor. But what constitutes a black professor? In trying to theorise, it’s worth invoking Steve Biko’s explanation from his celebrated book I Write What I Like:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>…being black is not a matter of pigmentation – being black is a reflection of a mental attitude.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Black Consciousness philosophy introduces the concept of non-white, which means neither black nor white. This refers to the category of those whose “aspiration is whiteness”. Much of the African professoriate falls into this category, simply because its edifice is embedded in Western knowledge systems. What does this mean, in the context of Marwala’s pursuit? The making of a black professor is no easy task. It requires a revolution of the mind, which should draw insights from <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=z60udlv1F_cC&pg=PR7&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=3#v=onepage&q&f=false">decoloniality theory</a>. </p>
<h2>A galaxy of scholarship</h2>
<p>There is a body of knowledge from which the decoloniality discourse could draw theoretical and philosophical insights to spawn African knowledge systems. This galaxy of scholarship includes the works of, among others, Archie Mafeje, Dani Nabudere, Cheikh Anta Diop, Molefi Kete Asante and Bernard Makhosezwe Magubane.</p>
<p>In Nabudere’s <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Oy3Ie8fGMpQC&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=nabudere+on+mafeje&ots=U85z6K784R&sig=4MraOHhsIKqL5nNGTlIwl5htjiw#v=onepage&q=nabudere%20on%20mafeje&f=false">words</a>, Mafeje “tried to deconstruct structural functional Anthropology and attempted to construct a new research methodology that was free from … colonially inspired disciplines, within the wide social sciences discourses”.</p>
<p>Nabudere himself <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?hl=en&lr=&id=v2jsIFo183cC&oi=fnd&pg=PA33&dq=Dani+Nabudere+indigenous+knowledge&ots=2Ew_-ocEZV&sig=esq3Q9NoLLr72EmvO-X4nr4zSbo#v=onepage&q&f=false">challenged</a> the colonial theorisation of Africa. He sought to mainstream indigenous knowledge systems. <a href="http://www.centerformaat.com/files/African_Origin_of_Civilization_Complete.pdf">Diop</a> situated the origin of civilisation in Africa and, in the process, nullified German philosopher G.W.F Hegel’s contention that Africans do not have history.</p>
<p>Asante, meanwhile, aggregated pan-African thoughts into <a href="http://www.asante.net/articles/1/afrocentricity/">Afrocentricity</a>. He described this as a paradigm that represents</p>
<blockquote>
<p>a revolutionary shift in thinking proposed as a constructural adjustment to black disorientation, decentredness, and lack of agency.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/41066769?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">Magubane </a> is best known for his work that untangled the political economy of race and class in South Africa. He also exposed the falsehood of colonial apartheid and liberal narratives of history. He asserted African perspectives in the centre of historical consciousness. </p>
<p>The works of these scholars are important for theoretical insights into decoloniality. </p>
<h2>Heed students’ calls</h2>
<p>But, how much does a professoriate engage with this body of knowledge in their curricula development endeavours? I am asking this question to caution against decoloniality becoming an ideological rhetoric for student activism rather than cause for knowledge revolution.</p>
<p>These questions are relevant because, as academic Ziauddin Sardar puts it, “the real power of the West is not located in its economic muscles and technological might. Rather, it resides in the power to define.” Those who refuse to conform are “defined out of existence”. Most African academics have accepted the definitions and prescriptions of the West as the template of their world outlook. This is a defeatist posture. Or perhaps it’s cowardice? </p>
<p>The professoriate must heed the multiple cues of the millennial generation’s activism, particularly when it comes to decolonising university curricula. If it doesn’t, it won’t be the West that defines Africa’s professoriate out of existence - it will be they, themselves.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50930/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mashupye Herbert Maserumule received funding from the National Research Foundation for his post-graduate studies. He is affiliated with the South African Association of Public Administration and Management (SAAPAM). Maserumule is Chief Editor of the Journal of Public Administration.</span></em></p>African academics are steeped in European knowledge systems and ways of teaching. There is a galaxy of African scholarship they can draw from to change this - if they’re brave enough.Mashupye Herbert Maserumule, Professor of Public Affairs, Tshwane University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/436702015-06-29T04:21:07Z2015-06-29T04:21:07ZProfessors aren’t born: they must be nurtured<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86246/original/image-20150624-31498-6i2bl2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Young academics need a strong, properly structured support system to climb the ranks and one day become professors.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">From www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There is a <a href="https://theconversation.com/there-are-fewer-than-100-black-professors-in-britain-why-24088">growing call</a> globally for universities to develop and nurture more black professors. In <a href="http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/transformation-of-south-african-universities-too-slow-nzimande-2015-01-16">South Africa</a>, the issue is sharpened by the country’s racist legacy. It has been more than two decades since the official end of apartheid and there are still <a href="http://www.news24.com/Archives/City-Press/Where-are-our-black-academics-20150430">alarmingly few</a> black professors in South African universities. </p>
<p>There is an obvious need for equity and redress after decades of <a href="http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20121023192747849">racial exclusion</a>. But there are also compelling educational reasons to employ more black academics in our universities.</p>
<p>For instance, young people – especially black youths – need to be exposed to role models they can admire and emulate. There are wider benefits: a critical mass of black academics can <a href="https://theconversation.com/reflections-of-a-black-female-scholar-i-know-what-it-feels-like-to-be-invisible-39748">influence institutional culture</a>. This will help to create universities where all students and staff feel welcome and can do their best work.</p>
<p>Universities produce and disseminate knowledge. They have an obligation to contribute to the public good. A more diverse academic workforce is likely to challenge the traditional ways in which these purposes are achieved and can contribute to South Africa’s broader <a href="http://www.gov.za/issues/national-development-plan-2030">transformation agenda</a>.</p>
<p>A diverse group of researchers will also introduce a broader range of research questions and methodologies. More varied research sites and kinds of knowledge are likely to be generated and valued by academia. </p>
<h2>Preparation and support are key</h2>
<p>But professors aren’t born: young academics must be nurtured and supported through a long, tough journey into the professoriate. Professors need deep knowledge and understanding of their discipline. They must be able to teach and induct a diverse student population into ways of thinking and knowing about that discipline. </p>
<p>They also have to build a research career which involves conducting groundbreaking research and supervising postgraduate students. Finally, it means getting involved in community engagement programmes. </p>
<p>This daunting list of requirements makes it clear that appointing anyone as a professor without proper preparation is potentially very harmful both to the individual and their institution. Universities and the government need well-conceptualised, managed and sustained systems to bring black academics into the professorial fold.</p>
<h2>Baby steps need to replaced by big leaps</h2>
<p>In the last 20 years, some South African institutions have introduced programmes designed to grow their own academic timber and change the demographic profile of their academic staff. Rhodes University, for instance, has used accelerated development programmes in its bid to diversify the next generation of academics.</p>
<p>Academics involved in these programmes are given a reduced teaching load so they can obtain their postgraduate disciplinary qualifications. Crucially, they are assigned a mentor in their field to guide and support them in all aspects of their career development. All the next generation academics must participate in a formal programme that prepares them to become <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-turn-lecturers-into-good-university-teachers-42134">lecturers</a>. So far, 33 black academics who have gone through this programme have been offered posts at Rhodes. </p>
<p>Other universities and the <a href="http://www.nrf.ac.za/">National Research Foundation</a> have established Emerging Researcher programmes to enable academics to <a href="http://hicd.nrf.ac.za/?q=node/37">develop</a> their research profiles. There are also several initiatives <a href="http://postgraduatesupervision.com/">aimed</a> at enhancing academics’ capacity to supervise at a postgraduate level.</p>
<p>Together, these programmes are only a drop in the ocean when it comes to attracting, retaining and supporting black academics. Now the South African government and the statutory body Higher Education South Africa have agreed that it is time for a coherent national strategy on this important issue.</p>
<p>The Department of Higher Education and Training has created a New Generation of Academics Programme that will initially fund 125 new teaching posts across all the country’s 25 public universities. Each lecturer will be appointed on a six-year contract at a cost of about R2.1 million (around US $165,000) per post. Most of these posts are earmarked for black South Africans and/or women.</p>
<p>Does the higher education sector have the capacity and political will to implement this programme properly? Those <a href="http://www.rdm.co.za/politics/2015/06/11/what-it-will-take-to-produce-more-black-professors1">who are demanding</a> meaningful transformation in the system will be watching closely.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/43670/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There are compelling educational reasons to employ more black academics in universities and to give them all the support they’ll need to become professors.Jo-Anne Vorster, Senior lecturer, Centre for Higher Education Research, Teaching and Learning, Rhodes UniversityLynn Quinn, Associate Professor of Higher Education Studies. Head of Department of the Centre for Higher Education, Research, Teaching and Learning, Rhodes UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.