Enter to Learn, Depart to Serve: Accessing Power, While Walking in Circles

Abstract

Several African American educators served as an inspiration in the development and scholarship of an African American female who teaches at a Predominantly White Institution (PWI) of higher learning. This chapter shares the author's foundational beginnings and persistence in academe while teaching and leading in a race-conscious society. She shares some of her upbringing, education, and early teaching experiences. She also shares her motivation to learn and serve (Bethune, 1950, 1963), while walking in circles. Sizemore (1973, 2008) to provide a roadmap of her journey to support new and developing African American female professors. She uses poetry and the dimensions of African American culture (Boykin, 1983) to guide her sharing. The author uses her exploration of identity development as an African American womanist who advocates as an African American first, to share how she has developed as a scholar whose renewal of purpose targets becoming a full professor.

Citation

Webb, G.C. (2024), "Enter to Learn, Depart to Serve: Accessing Power, While Walking in Circles", Walker, B.L. (Ed.) Journeys of Black Women in Academe (Diversity in Higher Education, Vol. 26), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 121-146. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-364420240000026007