Date of Conferral

8-27-2024

Date of Award

August 2024

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Counselor Education and Supervision

Advisor

Corinne Bridges

Abstract

The Council for Accreditation of Counselor Education and Related Programs and the American Counseling Association require counseling programs (CPs) to recruit, employ, and retain diverse faculty. Queer sexual orientation and gender identity is considered an aspect of diversity with which counselors must gain competency and against which counselors should not discriminate yet little is known about queer female counselor educators (QFCEs) with intersecting minority identities. The purpose of this interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) with both hermeneutic and intersectionality theory frameworks was to explore the experiences and meaning making of QFCEs and to describe the impact of these experiences on QFCE’s mental health (MH) and physical health (PH), teaching, and student learning. This research study contained data collected from in-depth semistructured interviews with six openly QFCEs employed in CACREP accredited CPs. Data analysis was consistent with the IPA steps described by Smith, Flowers, and Larkin and resulted in the emergence of four main themes: (a) QFCE’s experiences with identity, (b) the personal impact of being a QFCE, (c) the professional impact of being a QFCE, and (d) making sense of the conflict between person, profession, and purpose. The results of this study show the unique experiences of QFCEs and the positive and negative impacts on their PH, MH, teaching, and student learning. The results of this study may inform the strategies used by CPs to recruit, employ, and retain diverse faculty and influence systemic change.

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