Racial Trauma in Academia: Experiences of Black Women Counselor Educators
School of Counseling, University of the Cumberlands
How they used Delve
Researchers at the University of the Cumberlands used Delve to code, cluster, color-code and visually map interviews with six Black women counselor educators, building the textural and structural themes for a transcendental phenomenological study of racial trauma in academia.
“Following transcription via Rev (n.d.), the interview data were analyzed using Delve (n.d.), a cloud-based qualitative data analysis platform designed to support rigorous thematic analysis. Delve assisted the researchers in systematically coding, clustering, color-coding, and visually mapping qualitative data to identify patterns and themes across transcripts.”
- Field
- Counselor education / racial trauma and workplace equity
- Data
- Semi-structured Microsoft Teams interviews with six Black women counselor educators, each holding a PhD or EdD in counselor education and supervision, working full-time for at least two years in a CACREP-accredited program, and self-reporting racial trauma at work
- Approach
- Moustakas's transcendental phenomenology framed by critical race theory and intersectionality: textural and structural descriptions built from coded transcripts, followed by member checking with each participant
- Data types
- Interviews
Abstract
This transcendental phenomenological study explored the lived experiences of Black women counselor educators mitigating experiences of racial trauma in the workplace.Bell’s critical race theory and Crenshaw’s intersectionality served as the frameworks for this study.Six participants were selected based on specific criteria: They held a PhD or EdD in counselor education and supervision, worked full-time in a CACREPaccredited program, were employed for at least 2 years, and self-reported that they experienced racial trauma in the workplace.Data collection involved semi-structured interviews, which were transcribed and analyzed for themes.Findings revealed the following textural themes: disrespect from colleagues and students, diminished well-being, lack of trust in competency, expressing concerns for safety/hypervigilance, a heightened awareness of intersectionality, awareness of social conditioning/exposure to sexualization, and the cognitive process.The final theme, surviving the environment, contributed to the structural description.Finally, the results provide implications for counselor educators, mental health professionals, and counselor education program administrators.
Citation
April D. Brown, LaShauna M. Dean, Matthew Lyons (2026). Racial Trauma in Academia: Experiences of Black Women Counselor Educators. The Professional Counselor. https://doi.org/10.15241/adb.16.2.79