Date of Graduation

Summer 8-18-2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

College/School

School of Education

Department

International and Multicultural Education

Program

International & Multicultural Education EdD

First Advisor

Richard Greggory Johnson, III

Second Advisor

Camille Coley

Third Advisor

Sedique Popal

Fourth Advisor

N/A

Abstract

Abstract

This study explores the lived experiences of African American women over the age of forty who are navigating higher education within predominantly white institutions (PWIs), with particular attention to women connected to the San Francisco Bay Area. Grounded in Black Emancipatory Action Research (BEAR), Black Feminist Thought (Collins, 2000), and Community Cultural Wealth (Yosso, 2005), this research centers the voices, resilience, and knowledge systems of women who have historically been marginalized and underrepresented in academic spaces. The purpose of this study is to examine how these women make meaning of their educational journeys, navigate systemic barriers including racism, ageism, and gendered oppression, and draw upon personal, cultural, and spiritual resources to persist and thrive.

Guided by a qualitative research design, data were collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with fourteen African American women over the age of forty enrolled in community colleges, universities, graduate programs, and certificate programs. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis aligned with BEAR principles, centering participant voice, relational accountability, and community-based knowledge production. As a Black woman over the age of forty who has also navigated higher education later in life, the researcher approached this work with intentional reflexivity, honoring both shared experience and ethical responsibility to uplift participant voices with care and integrity.

Findings revealed five major themes: (1) education as transformation and liberation, (2) Navigating Institutional Barriers and Experiences of Exclusion, (3) resilience rooted in faith, self-determination, and life experience, (4) community cultural wealth and Black women’s sisterhood, and (5) radical joy, identity affirmation, and purpose. Participants described their educational journeys as deeply transformative, often tied to intergenerational legacy, healing, and personal empowerment. Despite persistent systemic barriers within PWIs, participants demonstrated profound resilience, drawing upon spirituality, lived experience, and community support systems to persist.

This study contributes to the literature by centering AAWF as knowledge producers and by challenging deficit-based narratives often associated with nontraditional students. The findings highlight the importance of culturally responsive institutional practices, holistic student support services, and the recognition of community cultural wealth as essential to student success. Ultimately, this research calls for a reimagining of higher education systems that not only include but actively affirm, honor, and sustain the lived experiences, identities, and aspirations of African American women.

Keywords: African American women, women over forty, higher education, predominantly white institutions (PWIs), community cultural wealth, Black Feminist Thought, Black Emancipatory Action Research, resilience

 

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