Hidden Diversity of Teacher–Student Interaction in Historically Black Colleges and Universities

To enrich cultural and social experiences in higher education, scholars consistently articulate the importance of promoting college students' learning in a racially diverse environment (Packard, 2013). However, in reality, most higher education institutions are considered Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) where White students represent the mainstream culture (Allard & Santoro, 2006), whereas HBCUs consist of only 3% of higher education institutions (Upton & Tanenbaum, 2014). Consequently, HBCUs are often viewed as minority institutions in higher education and opponents against their continued existence "view them as vestiges of segregation and acknowledge their existence as a sign of institutionalized inferiority" (Exkano, 2013, p. 68). HBCUs are likely to be criticized as a segregated learning environment in the literature (Exkano, 2013; Gasman, 2009); thereby, making it is easy to ignore the hidden diversity among faculty members in such institutions. For instance, Gasman (2009) noted that approximately 40% of faculty members in HBCUs are non-Black American and non-Caribbean. Such a diverse teacher-student interaction in HBCUs has been taken for granted especially when we consider only approximately 13% of African American faculty are teaching at PWIs (Renzulli, Grant, & Kathuria, 2006).With respect to the issues of diversity in PWIs, researchers (e.g., Hendrix, 2002; Herbert, 2012; White, 2012; Williams, 2001) have described their challenges of being professionals of color in academia; in particular, Black American female faculty are the most vulnerable and invisible participants (Moses, 1997) in most male-oriented PWIs. When gender interplays with race in academia, Black American female faculty "find themselves in the double bind of not being clearly able to separate race from gender" or "bonding along gender lines supersede[ing] race" (Green, 1997, p. 155). Like females in general, professors of color teaching in PWIs are more likely to experience a "chilly climate" (Turner & Myers, 2000, p. 88); meaning that the majority of White students pay more attention to minority teachers' race/ethnicity than their credibility (Turner & Myers, 2000). Consequently, with weak authority and credibility, majority students are inclined to challenge minority professors' teaching in PWIs (McGowan, 2000; Stanley, Porter, Simpson, & Ouellett, 2003).Although the existing research pointed out several unsolved racial issues in PWIs, it is rare to recognize the need for investigating a faculty member's teaching experience at HBCUs. In HBCUs, White professors are no longer the majority in their teaching environment. White faculty are commonly asked by Black American students why they teach in HBCUs (Gubrium & Mazhani, 2009); especially, when Black American students view Whites as the outsiders in their classroom teaching. In contrast, their Black American colleagues might have connected to same-race students more easily in HBCUs than PWIs (White, 2012). To survive as "other" in this environment, we wondered whether White faculty attempted to disguise or present themselves as non-White to other cultures (Morris, 2015).If a homogeneous student population (Black vs. White American) in class can affect professors' classroom management, then it is critical to understand whether Black and White American faculty members have employed different classroom management strategies when they interact with students in HBCUs versus PWIs. Thus, this exploratory qualitative study compares the majority (Black American) with minority (White American) professors' perceptions of their classroom management strategies when they teach in a HBCU vs. PWI. In turn, the learned information might help to facilitate interracial teacher-student communication and lessen unexpected challenges. We will first articulate the major findings from the literature review, post research questions along with the rationale, describe the employed qualitative method and, finally, interpret our findings. …