Alberto, Christian
(2021)
"My Race/Ethnicity is an Asset": Recruiting Racially Minoritized Students to Optometry School by Acknowledging Their Community Cultural Wealth.
Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.
(Unpublished)
Abstract
Enrollment inequities among racially minoritized (RM) students is an ongoing challenge facing health professions programs in the United States, including optometry schools. As the Director of Admissions for one Doctor of Optometry program located in Northeastern United States, I aim to increase the percentage of RM applicants by 4% (from 12% to 16%) by March 1, 2025 through concerted efforts aimed at improving its recruitment process. For this inquiry, I developed a recruitment program that acknowledges RM students’ community cultural wealth (CCW) and integrates it into the existing recruitment strategy which has historically failed to center RM students. The inquiry was guided by two questions: (1) How does a recruitment program that acknowledges RM students’ CCW influence their habitus, aspiration, and application for optometry school?; and (2) How does a recruitment program that acknowledges RM students’ CCW influence SFV’s ability to attract them to the organization?
The inquiry was guided by English and Umbach’s (2016) Graduate School Choice model and Yosso’s (2005) Community Cultural Wealth theory, and redefined habitus as “an RM student’s sense of self and place within a health professions school context as influenced by their community cultural wealth.” It utilized an improvement science approach and adopted quantitative methods for assessing RM students’ self-reported measurements of their CCW (habitus), access to resources, aspirations for applying, and engagement with the optometry program over time. Data were collected via a pre-, immediate post-, and delayed post-survey administered via Qualtrics XM.
The key findings demonstrate that acknowledging RM students’ community cultural wealth in recruitment may improve their self-assessed perceptions of CCW (habitus) and how they may be assets in the application process. While this is a positive implication for increasing RM students’ pipeline flow to optometry school, structural barriers concerning total costs and standardized exams persisted among participants and further consideration of these barriers is warranted. The inquiry provides recommendations for centering and empowering RM students in recruitment to meet an organization’s diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging goals.
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Details
| Item Type: |
University of Pittsburgh ETD
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| Status: |
Unpublished |
| Creators/Authors: |
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| ETD Committee: |
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| Date: |
31 August 2021 |
| Date Type: |
Publication |
| Defense Date: |
16 June 2021 |
| Approval Date: |
31 August 2021 |
| Submission Date: |
30 July 2021 |
| Access Restriction: |
No restriction; Release the ETD for access worldwide immediately. |
| Number of Pages: |
123 |
| Institution: |
University of Pittsburgh |
| Schools and Programs: |
School of Education > Administrative and Policy Studies |
| Degree: |
EdD - Doctor of Education |
| Thesis Type: |
Doctoral Dissertation |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
racially minoritized students
professional school
health professions school
recruitment of racially minoritized students
graduate enrollment targets
community cultural wealth
graduate school choice
diversifying graduate student bodies
centering racially minoritized students
underrepresented minorities
empowering racial minority students
graduate school aspirations
graduate school applications
structural barriers |
| Date Deposited: |
31 Aug 2021 18:12 |
| Last Modified: |
31 Aug 2021 18:12 |
| URI: |
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/41533 |
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