The Work: An Exploration of Post-Secondary Education Leaders' Race-Based Perceptions of Equity and Access Initiative

The purpose of this study is to explore the role that the race-based perceptions of post-secondary education leaders play in the design and implementation of their equity and access initiatives supporting Black and Brown students. Through the lens of Critical Whiteness Studies, this research employed a qualitative interview methodology to address the research questions: Why have post-secondary education leaders’ equity and access initiatives serving Black and Brown students fallen short of eliminating race-based higher education disparities and what role does Whiteness play in the development and implementation of equity and access initiatives of post-secondary education leaders. To explore the research questions a purposeful sampling technique was used to recruit 16 post-secondary education equity and access initiative leaders. From the study’s findings emerged four thematic categories relating to the research questions: inadequate leadership qualifications, harmful initiative design, deceit in equity and access initiatives, and assimilation to Whiteness standards. The findings of this study show how inadequate leadership qualifications, harmful initiative design and implementation influenced by uninterrogated notions of Whiteness play a role in equity and access initiatives supporting Black and Brown students. This study advances the theoretical frame, Critical Whiteness Studies, by exposing the functions and manifestations of White normativity and White supremacy ideology in post-secondary education equity and access initiatives serving Black and Brown students.