KAREN ROSHAUN MCLEAN. Exploring Post-secondary Educational Experiences of Black Women with Learning Disabilities: Multiple Case Study
(Under the direction of DR. CHANCE LEWIS)
The road to obtaining an education has not been easy for Black women. Without any mental impairments, Black women have to prove themselves within educational spaces to display themselves as worthy of obtaining higher education. Even with the many obstacles that Black women have encountered in their pursuit of an education, various narratives serve as evidence that even amongst adversity, Black women still rise. Throughout history, numerous accounts of Black women have made tremendous gains in education. Scholars such as Mary McLeod Bethune, Charlotte Hawkins Brown, Lucy Laney, Fanny Jackson, and Nannie Helen Burroughs have demonstrated the strides that Black women have made within education (Collier-Thomas, 1982). Not new to the literature are the educational experiences of Black women. Unfortunately, what is lacking in the literature are the educational experiences of Black women with learning disabilities enrolled in postsecondary institutions. Using a critical lens, the goal of this study was to explore the post-secondary educational experiences of three Black women diagnosed with learning disabilities and how these experiences impacted their lives past, present, and future.
Keywords: Black women, learning disabilities, post-secondary, resilience, transition