As I looked around at the group of women, I felt for a moment, overwhelmed by
the talent that surrounded me. Reflecting on their contributions to a field to which I am
deeply committed, to some extent I see reflections of myself in the room. The day has
gone well and the women shared with each other and with me very personal experiences,
all of which cannot be shared within the body of my dissertation because of the very
personal and identifying way in which the recollections outline their day to day practice
within the field. I know that my initial approach to this work was based on what I knew
for certain based on my own experiences and what I was able to understand based on the
scholarly literature that I‟d read. Following the focus group discussion I felt validated in a way that I have never expected in my chosen field. Speaking about issues of race,
culture, power, professionalism and to some extent the joy and pain associated with all of
those things was something that I did not really know if I would be able to find within this
type of study. However, I came away from the group discussion with a renewed sense of
who I am within the context of who they have shared they were. Being able to speak
about our commonalities and our differences was valuable and impactful, not just for me,
but I know for them as well. At the conclusion of our group discussion, one of the
participants said to me,”No one has ever asked me how I feel about these issues”. That
comment summed up, to me, the way in which we work as African American women in a
field that regards us as other. There is almost a don‟t ask, don‟t tell policy as it relates to issues of bias and professional marginalization. The work that is being done in this
research serves as a counter-story to that unspoken and unnamed silencing that has been
perceived as a necessary part of moving forward in the field. I feel as though this
research is giving each woman an opportunity to name their own way of knowing who
they are, where they stand, and how they choose to move forward within a field where
they are significantly invested. (Natasha, Field Notes, 2009)
Naming another person‟s reality is an impossible task, but the use of storytelling by way of narrative analysis is a very useful way of understanding another person‟s life and work in a way that is rich, textured and multidimensional. This qualitative study has sought to identify the ways in which African American women School Psychologists perceived their roles, the impact of their personal histories on their professional practices, and how they mediated their intersecting roles as professionals in a field where they are the racial and cultural minority. Using the frameworks of critical race theory,
intersectionality theory and black feminist thought I have sought to inform, through research, our understanding of what is important to us as individuals and as a small collective. Hulko (2009) reminded us that
Researching and writing about intersectionality and interlocking oppressions often require a blurring of any remaining lines of distinction between the personal and the professional because identity, oppression, and privilege are not solely abstract concepts; they have real, complex, and often-disputed meanings in our daily lives (p. 44).
This blurring of the personal and professional was a recurrent thread that ran through the research. This journey began as a collective sharing of our experiences through a semi- structured focus group, where we were able to share our thoughts on the topics of race,
gender, power, relationships, decision making, and more. We were beginning to examine ourselves and ask questions of each other that are not typically considered as black women. Harley (2002) responded to the absence of this consideration when she called upon us to consider each other „through a new lens‟ and called for black women to tell our own stories. This research has responded to this call and was presented as the voices of a few women, but more importantly offered different perspectives on how black women work within the profession of School Psychology.
The focus group and the dynamic of the women in a group setting generated themes that dealt with the acts of professional shifting necessary to gain entry and maintain their positions. Second, the ways in which the participants were able to negotiate aspects of their ideas as tools of advocacy was another important theme that emerged from the focus group research. Third, discourse surrounding the formal networks of support they participated in through regional and national professional organizations, as well as those informal networks of support that appeared to sustain the women professionally was very revealing. Lastly, the group dynamic supported an emerging theme that spoke the holistic perspective of children and the ways in which they could support children through more collaborative partnerships and qualitative reflections of the child.
The individual interviews yielded some similar emergent themes, and several new themes that were specific to the experiences throughout their individual lives and careers. The first emergent theme was related to each woman‟s early experiences including the levels of parental support and the development of high academic expectations by the parents. Imbedded in this concept was also the recurring theme of female caregivers as