The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 43, No. 3 - 46

Bryan K. Hotckins * T. Elon Dancy

graduate students of which 1,704 are Black.
Each institution is situated within a Midwestern state. MLU is the oldest public university
and The Carnegie Classification of Institutions
of Higher Education (2016) classifies both as
doctoral universities with highest research activity. Study participants consisted of 20 Black
collegians, 16 of which lived in residential
housing while the remaining four commuted.
After securing approval from the Institutional
Review Board, flyers were posted on campus
about the study opportunity. An electronic
flyer was forwarded to approximately 1,000
Black students by the Ethnic Student Network
(ESN) and Black Student Union (BSU) organizations on each campus. Of the approximate
1,000 students, 78 responded with an interest
in participating, but only 20 agreed to participate. The remaining 58 declined for personal
scheduling reasons.

Data Collection and Analysis
We utilized the SHOWeD critical dialogue
method (Wallerstein & Bernstein, 1988;
Wang & Burris, 1997), which allowed participants to identify individual and/or community strengths and limitations, unpack their
circumstances, and construct action plans
based on their social analysis of the campus
racial climate. Participants were introduced to
the concept of photovoice and how it can be
used to identify potential risks to communities
while increasing well being. Participants were
given disposable cameras or used personal cell
phones over a period of 12 weeks. Photovoice
groups met twice weekly. During our 24 meetings, participants shared and discussed the
photographed pictures. Our initial meeting
served to frame participants' creation of four
study photo-assignments: (a) Why is residen46

tial housing problematic for Black student
communities?; (b) How does the residential
housing climate influence Black student community behaviors?; (c) How can our community support Black students in making healthy
decisions about racial interactions?; (d) What
challenges does the Black student community face in addressing racism in residential
housing? Photo discussion sessions were audio
recorded, and transcribed for data analysis.
Meetings served as opportunities to select
photos and identify themes. First participants
selected significant photos, then shared their
narratives within the frame of a SHOWeD
method: 1) What do you See here?; 2) What's
really Happening here?; 3) How does this
relate to Our lives?; 4) Why does this situation,
concern, or strength exist?; and What can we
Do about it? (Wang, 2006). Finally, participants assisted in preliminary coding themes.
Afterward, template data analysis, in which an
initial ''template'' coding structure is created
and refined across iterations (Brooks and
King, 2012; King, 2004), was conducted using
photo discussion transcripts. We finalized the
template analytical process after identifying
themes that were relevant to the study's research questions (King, 2004). We then finalized the coding template after five successive
iterations. Two months after concluding data
analysis, 17 of the students participated in a
member checking focus group to ensure credibility and act as a point of triangulation.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
In this section, we report findings pertaining
to individual and community strengths, as
contrasted by identified concerns. Findings are
as follows: 1) finding "our" space(s); 2) absent

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The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 43, No. 3

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