University Leadership as a Racialized Space: Building Constructs for an Emergent Theory

The organizational settings and subcultures in which Latine mid-level student affairs administrators are employed obscure the covert nature and permeation of racialized processes throughout the academic organization. Such processes determine who is promoted and who can lead. I used a constructivist grounded theory approach to challenge current leadership discourses and to propose an initial set of theorizing constructs for an emergent theory of university leadership as a racialized space. The emergent theory delves into how opportunity structures, organizational environments, and individual agency affect the career aspirations and professional pathways to senior leadership roles for 93 Latine mid-level student affairs administrators across the US. Four intersecting structural practices are proposed to illustrate how leadership is a racialized space: (a) leadership is not neutral—it is raced, gendered, and classed; (b) pathways for Latine leaders are constrained through structural exclusion; (c) formal credentialing and notions of professionalism cloak whiteness as leadership legitimacy; and (d) social and material resources are inequitably distributed to Latine student affairs administrators, whose heavy workloads and emotional labor leave them trapped in entry-level and mid-level positions without opportunities for advancement. Implications for theory and practice are offered.