What is it about?
The COVID-19 pandemic presented complex challenges for Black collegiate women trying to work, learn, and stay safe on their campuses. This study examined how Black undegraduate women leveraged their community cultural wealth to persist and succeed at a predominantly white university.
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Why is it important?
Our findings show that Black collegiate women persisted during the COVID-19 pandemic by leveraging their community cultural wealth. Developed by Tara Yosso, community cultural wealth is a framework that articulates how people from minoritized groups access and activate culturalized resources to survive and resist structural oppression in the U.S. We found that Black undergraduate women persisted through the challenges of the global pandemic by leveraging five forms of community cultural wealth: (a) peer support; (b) familial care; (c) career aspirations; (d) political activism; and (e) university services.
Perspectives
Using photoessay and photo-elicitation methods was greatly beneficial for this study. The Black collegiate women participants reported that the pandemic photoessays were fun, easy to write, and deepened their reflexivity. During the photo-elicitation interviews, we noticed that the women seemed comfortable talking about their pandemic experiences, both negative and positive. They were also able to recall specific details, feelings, and thoughts that they experienced during the pandemic because the photographs evoked those memories. It was a pleasure to see the women's pandemic photographs, hear their stories of persistence, and learn about the ways that they successfully navigated the COVID-19 crisis using their community cultural wealth.
Jennifer Turner
University of Maryland at College Park
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Picturing persistence: High-achieving Black undergraduate women’s photographs of community cultural wealth in the COVID-19 pandemic., Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, January 2023, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/dhe0000467.
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