Chapter Five: "Are We Change Agents or Pawns?" Reflecting on the Experiences of Three African American Junior Faculty

This chapter reflects an on-going effort to use autoethnography as a medium to understand, analyze, and make meaning of the experiences of three African American female junior faculty members working in a predominantly White institution. Drawing on data that include in-depth phenomenological interviews, reflection journals, formal/informal dialogues, and official documentation, we explore a notable predicament that occurred during our second year in the academy and its subsequent impact on our professional and personal identities as well as our day-to-day existence within the college. The dilemma, which is detailed in a narrative format, highlights the conflicts that inevitably result from the daily negotiation between our self-imposed identities as scholar/activists and thus, "change agents," and the "agents of change" identity imposed upon us by our colleagues and administration.