A Collaborative Autoethnographic Approach to Understanding the Experiences of Racially and Ethnically Minoritized Female Faculty Teaching in Doctor of Physical Therapy Programs.

Abstract

Introduction: In 2024, of the core faculty teaching in Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) programs in the United States who were female, there was only 19% representation from racial and ethnically minoritized (REM) groups. Little is known about the experiences of female REM faculty teaching in DPT programs who hold 2 or more marginalized identities.

Review of the literature: Racial and ethnically minoritized faculty in the US experience unique barriers to success, including discrimination and bias, and are often tasked with advancing institutional diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) missions, contributing to cultural taxation. Female faculty have additional service demands, which include providing emotional support for students and their academic colleagues.

Subjects: Three REM female DPT faculty.

Methods: A qualitative, collaborative autoethnographic approach that involves 3 authors sharing their stories and interpreting pooled autoethnographic data. The authors wrote personal narratives describing what it was like being an educator in a DPT program before and after the events of 2020 and engaged in a series of collective debriefs to discuss their narratives. Data were thematically analyzed.

Results: Three themes emerged from the data analysis. Outsiders Within described not having full membership in the academy in the form of similar privileges, access to resources, and opportunities as White colleagues. In the Hot Seat captured the experience of being charged with advancing the academic institutions' DEI agendas with a sense of urgency, while encountering resistance. Changing the Rules of the Game described working in academia, a game with secret rules, where the goalposts were often shifting.

Discussion and conclusion: This study describes the experiences of REM faculty teaching during a time when there were overwhelming disparities in the rates of infection and death from COVID-19 and national unrest related to police brutality against Black Americans. The authors include recommendations for institutions to better support female REM DPT faculty who serve as role models for students, having persevered in the face of adversity.