Revisionist Policies and Practices: How Black Faculty Members Combat Pedagogy and Research Challenges at a PWI

Authors

• Larry J. Walker
• Amanda Wilkerson
• Lisa Jones

Abstract

This autoethnographic study critically examines faculty well-being and leadership within a predominantly White institution (PWI) amidst intensifying curricular restrictions and perceived challenges to academic freedom. Guided by fugitive pedagogy, it investigates how faculty mobilize historically situated covert-overt strategies to preserve rigorous, culturally and civically relevant learning while mitigating psychosocial strain. Utilizing reflective memos and artifacts (2022–2025) from course design, mentoring, and departmental leadership, analytic vignettes trace three tensions: (a) compliance versus intellectual honesty; (b) productivity metrics versus humane pacing; and (c) risk management versus scholarly courage. Findings reveal quiet innovations, protected dialogue protocols, the erasure of special topics in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) from syllabi (even those encoding relevance), and tenure-centered pacing calendars; these collectively function as guiding forces that center research compliance over research impact for scholarly promotion. These practices destabilize faculty well-being by imposing demands for research dissemination that lack clear institutional support. Thus, the proposed work contributes a lexicon and toolkit for leaders tasked with stewarding morale and mission amidst surveillance and sanction. It offers a fugitive leadership conceptual model that anticipates, shields, reveals, and aligns institutional obligations with ethical pedagogy, advancing actionable guidance for department chairs, program coordinators, and junior tenure-earning faculty. Implications include reframing college-based leadership within politically charged institutional environments from crisis response to principled design; centering well-being as a component for excellence; and legitimizing fugitive strategies as historically grounded, future-oriented leadership.

Recommended Citation

Larry J. Walker, , Amanda Wilkerson, and Lisa Jones. 2026. "Revisionist Policies and Practices: How Black Faculty Members Combat Pedagogy and Research Challenges at a PWI." The Griot - Southern Conference on African American Studies, Inc. 43, (2):111-131. https://digitalcommons.pvamu.edu/griot/vol43/iss2/10