Term of Award

Summer 2019

Degree Name

Doctor of Education in Curriculum Studies (Ed.D.)

Document Type and Release Option

Dissertation (open access)

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Department

Department of Curriculum, Foundations, and Reading

Committee Chair

Antonio Gutierrez de Blume

Committee Member 1

Robert Lake

Committee Member 2

Kathy Morris

Abstract

ABSTRACT

This dissertation inquiry explores the narratives of two Black male nurses in southeast Georgia. The framework for my research includes a variety of different theoretical components including works from both major nursing and curriculum studies scholars. The nursing workforce remains homogenized despite major recruiting. The intention of my research was to explore the experiences of Black male nurses to identify challenges, barriers, and systems of oppression that they may have encountered working in a profession dominated by White females in order to facilitate development of culturally responsive pedagogy in nursing. Methodologically, I mainly drew upon James Spradley’s work on the ethnographic interview (1979), particularly using a semi-structured interview method, which helped overcome my “socially inherited ethnocentrism” (p.v) to understand the challenges, barriers, and systemic oppressions my two Black male nurse participants, Chuck and Trice, experienced as they navigated in a White female dominated nursing profession. The findings of this research support the conclusion that power and oppressive forces in healthcare are based on gender rather than race, in that men, regardless of race, have the power to oppress females in nursing. Although the discussions involving White supremacy, racial profiling, and racial discrimination elicited strikingly oppositional responses from each participant, three emerging themes from this inquiry were identified: (1) Intrinsic motivation was a distinctive characteristic of each participant and fundamental in their success as nursing students and nurses. (2) Increasing diversity in nursing relies on challenging the stereotypical image of nursing as feminine and subservient. (3) Oppositional identity, code switching, and colorblindness are components of personal and professional relationships and affects communication between patients, colleagues, within communities and families. These themes can be incorporated when developing culturally responsive pedagogy in nursing. Nursing educators should be implored to create a culturally responsive curriculum which attracts and retains nursing students from minority backgrounds with the intent to create a more diverse nursing population which mirrors the population which it serves thereby alleviating health disparities.

OCLC Number

1112110071

Research Data and Supplementary Material

No

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