Racialized and Gendered Experiences of University Faculty: Evidence from Course Enrollment Patterns

摘要

This dissertation examines the extent to which undergraduate course enrollment patterns---as measured by initial course enrollment and enrollment loss over duration of the term---are significantly structured by perceived instructor race, gender, and race-gender. In addition, the dissertation examines if these patterns vary according to field of study. Each study analyzes existing, publicly available, registrar data from a large, research university in the Midwest.;The first empirical chapter demonstrates that initial course enrollment is significantly patterned by perceived instructor race, with the effect of race varying significantly across field of study. In particular, courses taught by Asian and Latino/a instructors experience significantly lower course enrollment than those with White instructors, especially among courses within Business and the Natural and Mathematical Sciences.;In the second empirical chapter, I show that initial course enrollment also systematically varies by instructor gender, with patterns significantly diverging by field of study. In particular, overall, courses taught by female instructors experience a significant advantage in initial course enrollment compared to their male counterparts. However, this advantage dissipates within the Natural and Mathematical Sciences. Further, when taking into consideration race along with gender, the enrollment advantage is found only among courses taught by White female instructors and not those taught by Asian female or Latina female instructors.;In the final empirical chapter, significant racial and gender differences in enrollment loss were observed to be largely dependent on field of study. For instance, Business courses taught by female instructors had significantly higher enrollment loss than their male counterparts and courses taught by Asian instructors in the Natural and Mathematical Sciences had significantly higher enrollment loss than those taught by White instructors. However, overall enrollment loss patterns showed no significant differences across gender and very few significant racial differences. In addition to their theoretical contributions, these findings have important practical implications for higher education stakeholders for whom enrollment and class instruction are key areas of concern.