“Everything I Did Was Black. That’s What I Was There For.”: A Critical Grounded Theory of the Development of Student Leaders with Historically Marginalized Identities

The purpose of this study is to understand how students with historically marginalized identities are developed through their experiences serving on the executive board of departmentally advised student organizations. With marginality and power, forms of resistance, and high impact engagement literature together serving as a framework, this also explored how student leaders’ historically marginalized identities impacted their development in these student organization roles. Utilizing the methods of Constructivist Grounded Theory, this study answers the following two research questions – “how are student leaders with historically marginalized identities developed while serving on executive boards of departmentally advised student organizations;” and “in what ways do student leaders with historically marginalized identities exercise power in their involvement choices and involvement experiences.” Data from this study was collected through intensive interviews in accordance with Constructivist Grounded Theory methodology and included 20 student leaders who had served at least a full term in an executive board position and held at least one historically marginalized identity. Additionally, I observed student leaders in action at three virtual student events and a portion of one partially recorded executive board meeting. Data was analyzed inductively then for the impacts of identity. Through the constant comparative method of Grounded Theory, I condensed 887 initial codes into 41 codes across 6 themes. From the data emerged the Care-Based Process of Student Leader Development. The Care-Based Process of Student Leader Development focus on what student leaders saw as the main acts of care that caused their development among various outcomes including sense of belonging, career readiness and training, persistence, academic interest development, and personal growth. The process starts with what I have termed a “Call In” that invites the student into community and increasingly into deeper levels of engagement with the organization. After the Call In, student leaders are met with what I have termed “Stretch Work” that both challenges them to grow to meet the work required of them, forces them to engage others with different backgrounds and perspectives than their own by working on teams with others, and affords them an opportunity for agentic leadership that allows them to advocate for and actively create the community they wish to see. Finally, as the student leaders navigate their stretch work they are met with holistic support from students and their advisors that permeate through their lives, creates an open and welcoming environment where they can experiment and receive candid feedback from their peers and advisors. Throughout the entire Care-Based Process, identity can manifest as both a barrier and bridge for the students. Initially, some of their marginalized identities as a result of interacting with the campus environment can serve as a barrier, but when they are met with care either from people or from the institution in the form of support, those same barriers can turn into bridges helping guide students in who and what they connect with on campus. Identity also often serves as the driver of student leaders’ covert resistance to the dominant forms of culture on campus, giving them organizing targets of which they use the authority of their positions to resist and program against