Table Of ContentGraduate Students Becoming
Qualitative Researchers
Through conducting an ethnographic study about doctoral students
from traditionally underrepresented groups who are learning to
conduct ethnographic research, this volume offers unique insight into
the challenges and experiences through which these students develop
their skills and identities as qualitative researchers.
Foregrounding the stories and perspectives of students from minoritized
backgrounds including Latinx, Black, differently abled, and queer students,
Graduate Students Becoming Qualitative Researchers identifies how the
process of learning to conduct ethnographic research underpins doctoral
students’ success, confidence, and persistence in the academy. Chapters
follow students during a one-year ethnographic research course during
which they learn about ethnography and also conduct observations, write
field notes, interview participants, and gather artifacts. Offering important
pedagogical insights into how ethnography and academic writing are
communicated, the text also tackles questions of access and diversity within
scholarship and highlights barriers to first-generation and minoritized
students’ success, including impostor syndrome, stereotype vulnerability,
and access to time, knowledge, and capital.
This volume will prove valuable to doctoral students, postgraduate
researchers, scholars, and educators conducting qualitative research
across the fields of education and rhetoric, as well as the humanities and
social sciences. It will also appeal to those interested in multiculturalism
and diversity within the education sector.
Char Ullman is Associate Professor of Sociocultural Foundations of
Education and Educational Anthropology at the University of Texas at
El Paso, U.S.
Kate Mangelsdorf is Professor of Rhetoric and Composition Studies at
the University of Texas at El Paso, U.S.
Jair Muñoz is Doctoral Student in the Teaching, Learning, and Culture
program at the University of Texas at El Paso, U.S.
Routledge Research in Educational Equality and Diversity
Books in the series include:
High Achieving African American Students and the College
Choice Process
Applying Critical Race Theory
Thandeka K. Chapman, Frances Contreras, Eddie Comeaux,
Eligio Martinez Jr. and Gloria M. Rodriguez
Community Participation with Schools in Developing Countries
Towards Equitable and Inclusive Basic Education for All
Edited by Mikiko Nishimura
Experiences of Racialization in Predominantly White Institutions
Critical Reflections on Inclusion in US Colleges and Schools
of Education
Edited by Rachel Endo
International Perspectives on Inclusion within Society and Education
Edited by Mabel Ann Brown
Teaching to Close the Achievement Gap for Students of Color
Understanding the Impact of Factors Outside the Classroom
Edited by Theodore S. Ransaw and Richard Majors
Graduate Students Becoming Qualitative Researchers
An Ethnographic Study
Char Ullman, Kate Mangelsdorf, and Jair Muñoz
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/
Routledge-Research-in-Educational-Equality-and-Diversity/book-series/
RREED
Graduate Students Becoming
Qualitative Researchers
An Ethnographic Study
Char Ullman, Kate Mangelsdorf,
and Jair Muñoz
First published 2021
by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2021 Taylor & Francis
The right of Char Ullman, Kate Mangelsdorf, and Jair Muñoz to
be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them
in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-138-08730-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-64222-8 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-11056-1 (ebk)
Typeset in NewBaskerville
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Preface viii
Acknowledgements x
1 Who Gets to Become a Professor? Paving the Way
for Diversity in the Academy 1
2 Situating the Study: Conducting Ethnographic
Research With Doctoral Students on the
U.S.–Mexico Border 24
3 Belonging and Becoming: Understanding and
Overcoming Barriers to Participation in the
Academy 48
4 Learning to Do Research: Acknowledging
Researcher Positionality in Ethnographic Research 82
5 Building Identity as a Scholar and Researcher:
Identity Work, Impostor Syndrome, and Belonging 111
6 Recognizing the Role of Self-Belief, Motivation,
and Personal Sacrifice in Doctoral Students’ Success 143
7 Being and Researching in the Third Space:
Embracing Cultural, Linguistic, and Professional
Hybridity 175
vi Contents
8 We Were Never Supposed to Be Here: Overcoming
Resistance and Joining Communities of Practice 201
9 Learning and Not Learning to Become Qualitative
Researchers 229
Index 265
Illustrations
Figures
4.1 Linda’s Field Notes, October 27 96
4.2 Linda, JoAnn, and Facundo’s Hybridity Slide 100
4.3 Linda, JoAnn, and Facundo’s “Where Do We See It?” Slide 100
4.4 Linda, JoAnn, and Facundo’s Theory and Data Slide 100
5.1 Gloria’s Field Notes, October 7 129
5.2 Response to Gloria’s Field Notes, October 7 130
7.1 Facundo’s Field Notes, September 27 192
8.1 Josiah’s Field Notes, September 15 222
8.2 Josiah’s Field Notes, September 24 222
8.3 Josiah’s Field Notes, October 13 222
8.4 Wolbers, Dostal, and Bowers (2012) on Deaf and
Non-Deaf Writing 224
9.1 Israel’s Letter to the Readers 1 245
9.2 Israel’s Letter to the Readers 1 246
9.3 Israel’s Letter to the Readers 1 246
9.4 Israel’s Letter to the Readers 1 247
9.5 Israel’s Letter to the Readers 1 248
9.6 Israel’s Field Notes, September 15 248
9.7 Israel’s Field Notes, September 15 249
9.8 Israel’s Field Notes, September 15 249
9.9 Israel’s Letter to the Readers 1 250
Tables
1.1 Population of First-Year Composition Courses at
Borderlands University 11
1.2 Meta-Study Participants 18
3.1 JoAnn’s Field Notes, September 17 66
4.1 Linda’s Field Notes, September 17 92
4.2 Linda’s Field Notes, September 17 93
4.3 Linda’s Field Notes, September 17 93
4.4 Linda’s Field Notes, September 24 95
Preface
We were completing this book during the time that a gentle Black man
named George Floyd was murdered by a White cop in Minneapolis while
three police officers watched. Protests against police brutality and sys-
temic racism erupted across the nation, and the pain over Mr. Floyd’s
death pulsed through us, as it did for people around the world. And
sadly, George Floyd’s murder was one of many murders of Black and
Brown people by the police in the United States in recent years. We want
the Black Lives Matter movement to lead to real systemic change. We
also want there to be changes in academia that will lead to graduate
students of color becoming researchers, changing the face of the profes-
soriate and creating transformative scholarship.
This book, Graduate Students Becoming Qualitative Researchers: An Ethno-
graphic Study, is a project that grew out of our deep curiosity about how it
is that doctoral students from diverse backgrounds engage in the process
of becoming qualitative researchers and scholarly writers. We received
feedback on this study over the years as we presented early versions of
chapters at various scholarly conferences, including the Ethnographic
and Qualitative Research Conference (EQRC), the annual meeting of
the American Anthropological Association (AAA) and the Conference
on College Composition and Communication (CCCC). We have ben-
efited greatly from questions and comments in those venues. Of course,
any errors are purely our own.
This book begins by asking the reader what kind of person typically
becomes a professor and highlights examples of two White male scholars
whose work has been deeply influential in their respective fields. It moves
to a discussion of who populates the professoriate today, who recently
minted doctoral students are, and what university faculty positions look
like now in the United States. From there, we historically situate doctoral
education at the university where this study was conducted and explain a
little bit about this research project.
In the second chapter, we situate the study in the literature(s) and
describe our methods in more depth. Then we devote each of the follow-
ing chapters – 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 – to one of the doctoral students in the
Preface ix
study. In these chapters, we weave participant observation data from the
ethnographic case study course they took, along with interview data and
focus group data, in with the products they created for the course. We
use those components to tell the story of each person’s becoming and
belonging in a Community of Practice. We wanted to understand how
they became qualitative researchers and scholarly writers.
In Chapter 9, which is entitled “Learning and Not Learning to Become
Qualitative Researchers,” we consider the students’ learning and identity
work through the lenses of Communities of Practice (Lave & Wenger,
1991) and Community Cultural Wealth framework (Yosso, 2013). In this
final chapter, we also present what we understand about one student in
the study who did not become a qualitative researcher.
Char and Kate collected data while they were teaching and working
as administrators. They used weekends, spring breaks, time away at con-
ferences, and really any extra moment they could find to write. Jair col-
lected data and transcribed interviews and focus groups while he was
writing his portfolio/comprehensive exams and his dissertation pro-
posal, all while teaching at multiple locales. He and his wife were also
raising three daughters.
The three of us completed our analysis and writing during the COVID-
19 quarantine, and unlike many scholars who return from sabbatical
with a book manuscript in hand, Char and Kate work at a university that
doesn’t offer sabbaticals. Jair studies in a department that doesn’t have
fellowships, so he works hard to pay for tuition each semester, and some-
times he has to step out to save money for tuition. All of us used the quar-
antine as a kind of sabbatical/fellowship. The pandemic is a tragic event
made worse by political mismanagement, and yet we are grateful that
we were in a position to use this time to write. We invite you to step into
Graduate Students Becoming Qualitative Researchers: An Ethnographic Study.
References
Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation.
New York: Cambridge University Press.
Yosso, T. J. (2013). Critical race counterstories along the Chicana/Chicano educational
pipeline. New York: Routledge.
