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The Unchosen Me: Race, Gender, and Identity among Black Women in College, Rachelle Winkle-Wagner (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009, $55.00 hardcover)
Drawing from a nine-month study she conducted at a public Midwestern research university, Rachelle Winkle-Wagner uncovers tensions affecting African American women’s identity formation in a predominantly white educational setting. Based on her conversations with students who participated in focus groups called “sister circles,” Winkle-Wagner concludes that black women engage in complex negotiation of their identities in response to competing external expectations related to race and gender—negotiations over which they are not entirely in control. She describes this dynamic as tied to the existence of multiple “unchosen mes,” that is, aspects of identity that minority and majority peer groups, family, faculty, and administrators impose on students. Winkle-Wagner’s research investigates the implications of these “unchosen mes” for African American women on a college campus.
As an addition to the literature on college students’ identity development, Winkle-Wagner’s book provides a much-needed focus on the specific experiences of African American women. Uncovering the cultural challenges her subjects face as they attempt to adapt on campus, she stresses the need for institutions to proactively create spaces where African American women can feel at home. Her work is both theoretically informed and practically grounded, and she locates her ideas about the “unchosen me” within psychological and sociological literature. The Unchosen Me calls higher education to recognize the unique challenges facing African American women, and takes a decisive step in that direction. |
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Women in Academic Leadership: Professional Strategies, Personal Choices, Diane R. Dean, Susan J. Bracken, and Jeanie K. Allen, Eds. (Stylus Publishing, 2009, $29.95 paperback)
Full of pragmatic tips that emphasize women’s agency in their careers, Women in Academic Leadership sports a subtitle that is right on target. With chapters focused both on specific contexts (for example, community or faith-based colleges) and the challenges facing particular groups of women (principally women of color), the volume provides concrete practical advice to women seeking leadership positions in academia. As the title suggests, the book stresses how individual women might further their careers through specific actions, such as participating in leadership development programs, creating support networks, and identifying opportunities for continued learning. But the editors don’t posit personal agency as a golden ticket to improving women’s representation in higher education administration. In fact, the book contextualizes its discussions of individual agency by considering how academic culture continues to privilege leadership styles that have traditionally been gendered as male.
This tension between personal agency and professional context lies at the heart of Women in Academic Leadership. Contributing authors argue that many barriers to women’s leadership are largely based in widespread expectations that leaders will display “male” leadership styles, leaving women to negotiate their identities along a narrow pathway between masculinity and femininity. In this balancing act, women make personal choices that often involve sacrifice above and beyond that required of their male counterparts. But if the volume identifies many problems with institutional culture, its essays (with some notable exceptions) locate solutions largely with individual actors. This approach, while admittedly incomplete, is also inspiring. Women in Academic Leadership stresses women’s power to act in pursuit of professional goals and ultimately of cultural change in higher education.
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Lecture-Free Teaching: A Learning Partnership between Science Educators and Their Students, Bonnie S. Wood (National Science Teachers Association Press, 2009, $32.95 paperback)
Biologist Bonnie S. Wood boldly declares the lecture “obsolete” and proposes a much-needed alternative with this practical, informative guide to what she calls “lecture-free teaching” (5). Drawing on nearly a decade of educational reform in her own classroom, Wood has compiled a useful primer for redesigning science pedagogies to align with the broader goals of liberal education (24): critical thinking and writing skills, the ability to work well with diverse others, and active curiosity about how the world works. By experimenting with strategies like ongoing assessment and carefully designed group activities, Wood has identified a range of techniques that not only support these general learning goals, but that also strengthen the content-based learning that lies at the heart of traditional scientific teaching.
Wood draws inspiration from her research on gender equity in the sciences (14), and one of the book’s greatest accomplishments is its extension to all students of techniques already known to support women’s achievement. While Wood stresses that “lecture-free teaching” promises to increase the numbers of women and minority students who will eventually enter scientific fields (bringing their diverse talents and perspectives with them), she formulates her analysis to apply to all students who enter the science classroom. After all, women are not the only students discouraged by “perceived competitiveness” (13), for example, and techniques that might particularly improve women’s retention can still be effective for men (147). Designed with today’s diverse students in mind, Wood’s practical guide to educational reform makes a clear and convincing case for new approaches fitting the needs of a new century, and provides tools to begin making change.
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