Currently reading: Connaught (2024) “Reframing the impostor phenomenon for Black college students”

I have been critical of the “impostor syndrome” — that everybody seems to be talking about everywhere these days! — for a while because it puts the responsibility of dealing with systemic biases on the individuals that need to be “fixed” (see here for women, and here more generally), and in Gonnaught (2024) the focus is on Black college students and how for them, experiencing “impostor phenomenon” is more than an internal psychological experience, but a direct result of the constant racism, discrimination and microaggressions they experience, similar to stereotype threat.

So what should institutions do? Instead of trying to fix the individual, Connaught (2024) suggests that we should take the responsibolity to

• Understand the historical context of impostor phenomenon (for example how the institution itself contributed to colonialism or racism) and its manifestations in the classroom (for example that being quiet does not mean that someone is disengaged, it might also be that they are experiencing the impostor phenomenon or that they are afraid of being misunderstood if they speak)
• Center the voices of black students, for example not treating a Black student as representative of all Black people, inviting Black students into conversations to give feedback and suggestions
• Attend trainings on how to not commit microagressions and how to effectively intervene when you see them happen to reduce harm and restore trust
• Decolonise the curriculum
• Cultivate the courage to re-imagine. Love this! Reminds me of becoming an everyday changemaker…

I find it so important to push back on this notion that impostor syndrom is just something that most people experience, so it is something that they need to fix in themselves, when, yes, most healthy people do have self-doubts, but some populations are systematically discriminised against and are being taught their whole lives, every day, that they are “less than”. Recognising this, and especially looking at it with an intersectional perspective, is so important! And then it becomes about fixing the system, not individuals.

In other news: Here are a lot of pictures from Easter week beach walking! Note how in the featured image, you see the low layer of fog over the sea that then gave way to a beautiful clear day over the following pictures! And I just looooove wave watching, especially breaking waves on a beach!

Connaught, G. (2024). Reframing the impostor phenomenon for Black college students. Journal of Perspectives in Applied Academic Practice, 12(3).