A Study of the First-Year Experiences of Ethnic Minority Female Students in a Predominantly White University

Student thesis: Doctoral ThesisDoctorate in Education

Abstract

This study explores the transition to university and the first-year experience of Ethnic Minority Female Students at a predominantly white American higher education institution located in Italy. The main aim of this thesis is to capture students’ stories on how they navigate the academic, social and personal realms of university life and to understand how these elements impact on their personal identity formation and overall first-year experience. Since the literature reveals that discrimination is one of the challenges Ethnic Minority Students tend to face when entering college, I focused my inquiry on the issues or race and gender in particular.

The study adopts a qualitative approach to the university lives of 11 Ethnic Minority Female Students. I conducted semi-structured individual interviews and two subsequent focus groups. While the interviews centered around the participants’ holistic experience during their first year at university, the focus groups tended to dig deeper into the race and gender dimension of those experiences.

The findings indicate that the prevailing instability in the world equipped the young women who participated in this study with new skills for coping with the unexpected and for a smoother adjustment to new situations. The data also reveal that there are gender specific challenges these participants face, such as personal safety and gender discrimination, yet, again they seem to benefit from their ability to cope with real life situations (e.g. war). Nevertheless, despite each participant providing evidence of having been the target of racial and gender discrimination, they lacked appropriate language for discussing issues of race and gender and tended to minimize discriminations occurring to them. The contributions of this study are as follows: it highlights the coping mechanisms (including ‘use of humour’ and ‘take action’) put into place by the participants in the face of such discriminations, and demonstrates how these mechanisms not only empowered them and boosted their self-esteem, but also served as counter narratives to combat mainstream ideologies and institutional racism as well as to resist the University’s dominant culture.

This thesis adds to the studies on predominantly white universities (especially to those located in Europe) and it shows how educational practices need to be better informed by the experiences of Ethnic Minority Students.






Date of Award1 Aug 2022
Original languageEnglish
Awarding Institution
  • King's College London
SupervisorTania de St Croix (Supervisor) & Sharon Gewirtz (Supervisor)

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