Expectations versus Lived Realities: Black Men Graduate Students and Their Evolving Epistemologies Toward Collaboration

Existing graduate education literature highlights supports that are useful for some students’ progress. Yet, understanding how to navigate graduate education is not easy. Transitioning into and navigating through graduate school may be even more challenging for historically underrepresented students whose access to information about graduate education may be more limited. Drawing on the expectations and lived realities of 50 Black men scholars in engineering, this study explores their evolving epistemologies (i.e. knowledge and assumptions—what they know, how they know) regarding graduate education. Three themes emerge: 1) expecting immediate success, realizing incremental progress; 2) expecting rigor and challenges, realizing evolving skillsets; and, 3) conflicts between expectations and realities of collaboration, isolation, and independence. The findings offer implications for both students and practitioners responsible for ensuring that students are equipped with appropriate academic tools and navigational skills to successfully transition into graduate school, be graduate students, and progress toward degree completion.