Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Education, Educational Leadership & Policy Studies

Date of Defense

10-21-2020

Graduate Advisor

Matthew Davis

Committee

Thomasina Hassler

Carl Hoagland

Keith Miller

Abstract

Racial Battle Fatigue was first coined by Dr. William A. Smith as a theory describing the burnout of African Americans in higher education institutions. While much of the current research focuses on the faculty and student experiences, in various formats, this provides an autoethnography capturing the various phases of a Black Male higher education administrators experience with experiencing and coping through Racial Battle Fatigue. The belief behind this approach focuses on the value of storytelling and autoethnography in particular in research, the interconnected nature of life experiences that impact professional life as well as the reverse, and a call to addressing individual and institutional behaviors to help mitigate this experience amongst Black male higher education administrators. In addition, the goal of this research is to increase the focus on higher education administrator experiences as a significant percentage of college and university communities. The structure of this study is in line with traditional dissertation standards of an introductory chapter, review of the literature, methodologies chapter, and a significant portion dedicated to connecting the narratives to the research.

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