Reckoning With Privilege in Appalachia and Higher Education: A Project of Critical Consciousness

Abstract

This dissertation sought to interrogate the ways in which White, rural students from West Virginia conceptualized diversity before, during, and since their transition to a large PWI in their home state. Using Critical Whiteness Studies and intersectionality as driving theory, student participants and I engaged in deconstruction of privilege through individual and culture circle conversations. Then, participants engaged in self-reflection using codes established in Critical Whiteness (White normativity, White complicity, epistemologies of ignorance) as well as participant-drive codes that reflected other forms of identity-based power. Three waves of reflection demonstrate the participants’ continued cycle of praxis (reflection, action, repeat) and deconstruction of ways in which they unknowingly replicate stereotypes and protect privilege. Implications for research, policy, and practice are discussed. In Chapter 1, I outline the problem and purpose of the present research, which is followed by an overview of literature that explores conceptualizations of diversity and Whiteness in Appalachian and in higher education. Chapter 2 provides the conceptual frameworks that guide the research—intersectionality and Critical Whiteness Studies—and integrates background and critique on previous approaches to Whiteness studies to demonstrate how approaches to studying White privilege/supremacy have evolved. In Chapter 3, I outline the methods and methodologies that were deployed during this study, as well as a discussion of researcher positionality. Chapter 4 presents the results of the individual and culture circle conversations; this chapter also embeds reflections and analyses of participants as demonstrations of their ongoing praxis. Finally, Chapter 5 concludes the dissertation with a discussion of theoretical and methodological implications as well as implications for policy and practice in higher education and communities and schools; this chapter additionally explores opportunities to expand the current work.