ABSTRACT
HERU RYAN BENSON FEEMSTER: Pan-Africanism in Establishing Culturally Affirming Racialized Gendered Identities in African American Cis-gendered Heterosexual Males attending Counselor Education Doctoral Programs with Respect to Archetypal Imagery and Ancestral Assistance
Academic literature suggests that institutions of higher learning can oftentimes embody the systemic racist attitudes of the collective society resulting in African American males experiencing challenges in completing their doctoral degree because of 1.) Spending more time and energy wondering if they are being accepted or tolerated; 2.) Discerning if the words, actions, and intentions of white people are supportive or destructive, and 3.) Contemplating different methods to resist oppression as opposed to accommodating to it (Smith et al., 2011; Pierce, 1988). These concerns are prevalent in counselor education and supervision degree programs. The purpose of this dissertation research study is to determine the role of Pan African epistemology and ontology in the development of African American male doctoral student’s culturally affirming identity development in counselor education and supervision programs. This dissertation research study is significant because it can assist with providing counselor education and supervision doctoral programs in understanding the minoritized culture’s view upon social reality and how they experience their social conditions. The following three research questions guided the study: 1.) How do African American male doctoral students in counselor education and supervision programs subjective interpretations of the images relate to the African archetypal meanings? 2.) How do African American male doctoral students in counselor education and supervision programs make sense of their racialized gendered identity with respect to culturally affirming African images; 3.) In what ways can Pan-African epistemology inform counselor education and supervision programs to enhance African American male inclusion? This dissertation research study employed a visual methodology of photo elicitation. Photo Elicitation is a qualitative methodology using photographs as prompts for rich discussion about the research topic. There were three findings: 1) African American males experience ancestral assistance to reconcile the cognitive dissonance experienced between the identity racialized and gendered by European supremacy and the identity captured by a Pan-African paradigm; 2.) African American male exposure to culturally affirming images increased connection to ancestral guidance that encouraged visibility, inclusion, sense of belonging and acceptance of their racialized gendered identities; and 3.) The execution of multiculturalism, social justice advocacy, and racial equity and inclusion programs are seen as a rhetorical ethic that attempts to disarm African American males into the belief that the fullness of their racialized gendered identities is acceptable within counselor education programs. An implication to the field of counselor education is to incorporate Pan-African programming within the core curriculum and as specialty areas that include art, religion, music, communications, literature, popular culture, history, anthropology, education, sociology, and political science of the Pan-African world.