UC Merced

This dissertation examines the visible and invisible labor of Black and Black-biracial women faculty in California Community Colleges, introducing the theory of daughtering as a method to understand patterns of care-giving and its resulting burnout. Using a mixed method approach that includes institutional ethnography, autotheory, oral history and literary analysis, the research reveals that the current context of equity and social justice movements within the community college system has created a different set of labor demands on Black and Black-biracial women faculty. This reframes the perception of care/work provided by these faculty and relies on their cultural knowledge to lead equity solutions related to student care. Institutional resistance to change and existing systems of social coordination leave faculty feeling powerless and siloed into positions that require emotional labor. These positions have a deleterious effect on well-being and persistence. Daughtering as theory gives insight to internalized perception of self and serving-ness that Black and Black-biracial women faculty bring to their positions and how this identity results in specific methods of performing care/work. This research also presents the concept of visionary daughtering as a method of transforming care/work into autonomous power and reclamation of voice to stay alive within academia.