1 INTRODUCTION

Careers are human and social constructions present in people’s lives, organizations and society. They are not restricted to the limited perspective that the individuals are growing in the professional or corporate hierarchic (Gunz et al., 2019), but are placed in the “insertion of the society’s history and of the individual biography” (Grandjean, 1981, p. 1057) and perform associations in micro and macro board of references, essential throughout the years (Hughes, 1937; Mayrhofer et al., 2007).

In a post-World War II scenario, with the rupture of the social paradigms and a complex organizational conjuncture, a new debate regarding career management was initiated. The entry of women in the work market was intensified in the world (Dutra, 1996) and has been more perceptive in the first decades of the 21st. Century, when women are making more diverse professional choices and their interest by traditional careers, up to then belonging to the male gender, have been broadened (Lombardi, 2017).

Specially to women, the scientific literature has exposed a variety of social challenges and oppression systems directed to race and classes (Harris-Perry, 2011). Even in face of oppressive situations, black women have put their lives at risk, to learn how to read and write (Coker et al., 2018). There is a long history of recognition, being the education considered as an act of resistance (Hooks, 1994), of academic fulfillment (Coker, 2003) and of leadership in the context of teaching professional activities (Gamble & Turner, 2015).

Wright et al. (2007) argued that the voices of black women, mainly in the university context, has been repressed, since when their stories are told, they go through deprecating interpretation or as suppressed as part of the history of other people. Although there has been space to discussion regarding the intersection of women in the academic context, these authors highlight that “little attention is given to the situation of black women teachers in higher education” (Wright et al., 2007, p. 146). And still, little has been discussed on que issues regarding institutional racism, creating the false idea of its empiric nonexistence.

The insertion of black women as teachers in higher education breaks several social patterns, specially in the search of establishing their places in society and at work (Oliveira, 2020). In addition, these women face several obstacles to reach the advance in their careers as teachers in higher education (Evans & Cokley, 2008). Therefore, this study had as purpose to identify how the teaching in higher education career of black women has been portrait by the international scientific literature.

It is important to consider, on one hand, that this study is not the only review that deals with such theme in the international scientific literature – see, for instance, the studies of Blackburn (2017), Nichols e Stahl (2019) and Haynes, Joseph e Patton (2020) –. On the other hand, a previous search in Google Scholar, using the terms “teaching”, “career”, “black wom?n” “higher education” and “literature review”, has shown that there has been no (up to the date of the publication of the present study) studies that systematically observe, through theoretical categories established in the scientific literature, the path black women’s career in higher education. In addition, this study is justified scientifically and socially, once that studying the career also involves noted studies that embrace issues about the context of life and work (Baruch & Sullivan, 2022).

In addition, the analysis of this study is pertinent to the area of management and to the field of organizational studies, since it considers the career as construction linked to broaden social processes, once that black women constitute social subjects and the dynamics that involve their careers of teaching in higher education are presented in scientific articles. The social contribution to the research consists in favoring collective and individual reflections about the career of black women in the teaching activity in higher education, with reach to the debate on public policies. The methodology used was the scoping review of literature, performed in the data platform Web of Science, from which 14 articles were selected to this research.

2 CAREER: PERSPECTIVES AND QUESTIONS

The definitions of career are generally related to the context in which they are part of. The careers are beyond the comprehension of the people’s evolution in professional or corporate hierarchies. To Grandjean (1981, p.1057), careers are situated in the “intersection of the society’s history and the individual biography”. In addition to perform associations in consolidated micro and macro scenarios (Schein, 1978; Mayrhofer et al., 2007), which, generally, may be considered indestructible (Hughes, 1937; Gunz, 1989; Mayrhofer et al., 2007). It is important to highlight the separation between individuals and context, which contributed to the understanding of the theories regarding the organizations and to studies focused on the career (Mayrhofer et al., 2007).

The researches that approach the career, normally present the study of Hughes (1937), which emphasizes the perception that careers may be understood from a “mobility” that directs the individuals to social order and help them in the relationship with the positions. On the other hand, the studies on career do not five attention to it and, direct , the focus to the individuals’ career through precepts focused on the individual him/herself and, the context in which they are currently living, leaving behind the extensive context, in which the careers are experienced (Anderson & Cavanaugh, 2005; Gunz et al., 2011).

According to Gadrey and Gadrey (1991), and Tolfo (2002), traditionally, the career is related to the management of people, in a way that it may be analyzed in an organizational psychology perspective. However, there is a divergence present in such issue, once that, on one hand, highly articulated organizations are found regarding their strategies and the path followed by their collaborators. On the other hand, organizations are found, in which the subjective preferences of the individuals prevail directed to the evolution (Matos & Borelli, 2013).

It is worth highlighting the work developed by women and the consequences of their careers to them. Since the early 20th. century, in the studies which such theme was approached, it was possible to observe a consonance between the encouragement and the discouraging to the female entry in the work market. In addition to an inconsistency between the discussion and the conviction of motherhood, mainly when the woman is seen as the solely responsible for child care (Matos & Borelli, 2013; Mendes, 2017).

In current days, women are able to conquer their space in society, in the search of reaching the professional progress and leaving behind the vision that they can only play the role of housewives (Botelho et al., 2020). On the other hand, in our country, women still represent the minory in significant positions, such as, CEOs. However, such scenario is different in health, cultural and social services (Silva et al., 2017; Botelho et al., 2020).

Another career perspective is related to the discussion on intersectionality, relevant to the feminine thought, in which themes referred to gender and to progress of social agreement are approached, which implies gender studies related to the conceptions of social identities. This way, the intersectionality points to a reality in which multiple identities are experienced, with the purpose of exerting visibility and inclusion. In addition, such conception should include race, class, gender, competence, age, sexual orientation, culture, formation, historical time and moral and intellectual aspects that have as focus the bonds of power and social injustice of a certain group (Collins, 2015; Shields, 2008).

Black women still represent the majority in domestic jobs, which means, they are part of environments that are considered subordinate (Teixeira, 2020; Silva, 2022). In comparison, white women have more opportunities when regarding the formal entry in the work market (Davis, 2016; Silva, 2022). According to Rocha (2016), and Almeida (2019), career planning has been theme of some world debates, although there is still need of researches related to certain public. When dealing with black women, the insufficiency is still even more evident, once they point out challenges, answers still seldom discussed by the academy. To Riordan and Louw-Potgieter (2011), and Mahabeer et al. (2018), in the literature some studies are found that highlight the drawbacks that women face when entry the academy. Despite this, Mahabeer et al. (2018) points out that there is an evident lack of researches on the difficulties faced by black women when entering the academic environment.

The discussions related to career has been gaining highlight in Brazil and in the world, despite this, by dealing with certain publics, there is still need of researches directed to such theme. The framework is still even more complex regarding the career of black women, since, generally, the studies point out the barriers that these women find in such scenario, but shyly discuss how they face the obstacles (Rocha, 2016; Almeida, 2019).

Black women teaching higher education who entry the higher education environment face significant challenges, such, for example, the frequent experience with discrimination, by the fact that they are part of usual social space of white people. This has also occurred in their educational paths, in addition to the adversities found to entry the work market. Such women go through difficult situations to enter and remain in higher education, whether as teacher or student, which may be observed in the performance of their teaching activities or pedagogic track that normally are marked by sexism, class inequality and racism (Siqueira & Amorim, 2022).

Hoskins (2015) highlights that women admitted as teacher in higher education in the academy are found confused when go through some type of competition with their peers due to the lack of collaboration by part of these individuals. To Morley (2013) it is essential that inside the universities there has to be support among women, which may favor the success of the female career. In such perspective, Evans and Cokley (2008) highlight the importance of the development of strategies focused on the academic career that point the advantages of the partnership between these women and the networking which may be observed in the studies of Bowie (1995), and Settles et al. (2006).

In the views of Mahabeer et al. (2018), in South Africa, the creation of public policies focused on inclusion and diversity has favored the elaboration of new opportunities for black individuals to emerge in university institutions. Although struggles occur for the nomination of black women in those institutions, little has been done with the purpose of investigating the experiences lived by them in an environment of transformation.

In Brazil, even being the population predominantly black, the public universities still integrate an environment composed mainly by white individuals. In face of such issue, it is necessary to understand the symbolic and structural barriers that intersperse the educational path of black people, their possibilities of introduction to a quality education, in addition to the collective representations of opportunities in face of a dominant white “world” (Arboleya et al., 2015).

In the last years, affirmative social and racial actions favor a change in the Brazilian universities that have been represented by white people. In such scenario, many black students that up to that point had been excluded from such environment, started to integrate the university scenario (Pereira et al., 2021). According to Artes and Mena-Chalco (2017), and Silva and Santos (2020), through the introduction of affirmative actions in the national universities, the debates on the racial context have increased in the researches performed by CAPES. Therefore, it is possible to observe the increase of the representativeness of black people in spaces of power and organizations. Despite such change, the percentage of black women in universities in our country is still approximately of 38% (Anísio Teixeira National Institute of Studies and Educational Researches [INEP], 2019).

To Carvalho (2003), and Souza (2021), such low percentage may be expressed through the academic racism, which highlights the need of creation of more effective public policies focused on such issue, mainly in the post-graduation. This way, the Academic Councils, in their majority, are composed by white people, determining the need of black university teachers in higher education, which directly impacts the elaboration of measures focused on racial inclusion in the academy.

Despite the obstacles found by black women in the universities, the researches performed by Siqueira and Amorim (2022) indicate a growth of those women in higher education. Lopes and Braga (2007), and Siqueira and Amorim (2022) emphasized that the process of insertion of black individuals in higher education consists on the result of several boosting actions performed during the 2000’s decade, which, according to Silva (2017), was the moment in which the govern directed the action to inequality at the entry of black people in universities through the creation of public affirmative policies focused on such context.

3 METHODOLOGY

In the present study, a scoping review, also known as mapping review or scope study, was chosen, which is an exploratory analysis that maps evidences still seldom studied in the literature. In many cases, scoping reviews serve as support for future systematic or integrative reviews, when, in those cases, the literature about theme is already consolidated (Peters et al., 2020).

The study was performed following the instructions (with the due adaptations) of the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI), international entity that created and spreads the parameters to the performance of studies of such nature, in the Health area. Initially, a protocol of inclusion and exclusion of studies that would become part of the group of texts to be studied was stipulated. Such step is linked to the issue that guides the analysis of the texts. Therefore, the strategy to be followed was: Population, Concept and Context (PCC), being defined, therefore, as: (P) black women teaching, (C) careers and (C) higher education.

Hence, the composition of the group of texts to be analyzed was considered: scientific articles resultant from empiric and theoretical studies, published in journals indexed in the data base Web of Science (WoS). Such platform was chosen since in the data of the performance of this study, that base had over 170 million indexed documents, which highlights the broad amplitude of the data base in the index of scientific documents.

The search string TI=(black_wom?n OR colour*_wom?n OR wom?en_of_color OR afr*_america*_wom?n OR black_lady OR black_ladies OR lady_of_color OR ladies_of_color OR afr*_america*_lady OR afr*_america*_ladies) AND TI=(higher_educa* OR college OR universit* OR academy OR "education*_institut*" NOT (tertiary OR high_school OR boarding_school OR elementar*_school OR primar*_school)) was inserted in the search tool of the data base. In such step, adding the search terms, the boolean operators (AND e OR) were used, in order to obtain the group of texts closest as possible to those which were interested to this study. It is highlighted that the terms were searched in the title of the documents. There was no time cut and the research was performed in October 2021.

After this step, 124 documents were recovered, among them, scientific journals articles, book reviews, books, chapter of books, editorials, among others. The documents were filtered and then 89 empiric articles and of review of the literature were pre-selected. The data (authors, title, abstract, keywords and publication vehicle) of the 89 documents were recovered from the data base and inserted in an electronic spread sheet to be treated. Such texts were submitted to the analysis of the title, abstract and keywords, searching for evidence that would make them closer to the purpose of the study. After such step, 15 articles were selected for the full reading.

As follows, it was noticed that one article could not be kept in the final group, for not fully adhering to the purpose. By following the recommendation of the JBI, the extraction of the following data (performing some adaptations) of the 14 selected texts was performed: author (s), publication year, title of the article, vehicle of publication, main discoveries and their relations with the question of the scoping review.

4 ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF THE RESULTS

4.1 Black women teaching: A perspective of the studies

The detailed data regarding the selected studies are presented in Table 1.

As it can be seen in Table 1, the articles have been published between the years of 1983 and 2020. In this interval of 37 years, a group of studies portrait elements present in the careers of black women who became interested in teaching in higher education. Almost all the studies are from authorship of women who self-declared black and, as it can be seen, were published in specialized journals.

Five categories were limited based on the explanations of Gunz and Mayrhofer (2017), regarding the concepts relative to the careers. To such authors, “careers have a broad and extensive meaning” (Gunz & Mayrhofer, 2017, p. 26). Therefore, careers are presented in five understandings: (i) career as construction in retrospective sense; (ii) career as mean to bond different levels of social complexity; (iii) career as path in time and space; (iv) career as self-construction; and, (v) career as product instead of process.

The categories aimed at portraying the perspective of career having the texts analyzed in this study, as example of how such visions are configured by the scientific literature. It is highlighted that the group performed in this study does not have the purpose to specify that each text is inserted into a particular perspective. It is possible that some of the texts are not included in any of the perspectives, or, on the other hand, in more than one perspective, which highlights that careers are, at the same time, part of the social history and of the individual biography (Gunz et al., 2019).

4.2 Career as construction in the retrospective sense

This perspective concerns in understanding what careers mean to people. This is, the search is in understanding how people use the careers to attribute coherence, continuity and social meaning to their lives. Regarding such issue, according to Jones et al. (2013), the method of self-ethnography puts the social research in a practice in which the researcher does not need to suppress one’s subjectivity, since it may “reflect in the consequences of the [his/her] work, not only to the others, but to [him/her] self, and to the other parts – emotional, spiritual, body, and moral – to have a voice and to be integrated” (Jones et al., 2013, p. 53).

Reports of such nature are characteristics of the perspective of the career as construction in the retrospective sense. For example, Mckay (1983), Brown-Glaude (2010), Coker et al. (2018) and Mahabeer et al. (2018) bring reports on their own careers and/or other women regarding their professional experiences as black teachers in higher education, aiming at understanding what career means to each one of them.

McKay (1983) examines the experiences themselves, as a black women in a university and documents the nature of such experiences as double minority (woman and black). She defends the importance of black women fight for places of right in the academy through a self-biographic note. To her “[...] when we fight against racism, we do the same with sexism [...]” (McKay, 1983, p. 147).

Brown-Glaude (2010) reports that black leaders in the teacher staff of the University of Maryland, constantly work to improve the curriculum, research and creation of institutes with the purpose of transforming their intellectual responsibilities into transforming actions. The black leaders are leaving a legacy and showing preoccupation with the performance of transforming actions to develop the higher education successfully. The institutional change of the organizations requires courage of those women to resist the power structures.

In a similar form, Mahabeer, Nzimande and Shoba (2018) present through a personal narrative their reflections with the purpose of constructing a transformation. They argue that black teachers suffer vertical oppression (from their leaders) and horizontal oppression (from their peers). Therefore, an inclusive and transformation agenda assumes that “black women who enter in the academy need to weapon themselves: they need time to be adapted to the unknown institutional space [...]” (Mahabeer et al., 2018, p. 40).

On the other hand, Coker et al. (2018) through a qualitative and self-ethnographic study explore their experiences, as black women living in the United States and use factors to analyze their academic progress and the importance of higher education and leadership. Therefore, the narratives of those women are directed to the institutional and organizational transformation. They highlight that their insertion in the work environment favor reflection on the access of other women to this environment. However, they also highlight that their own agendas of inclusion may become barriers to the inclusion and to the progression of those women, in case they are not engaged with the change movement.

4.3 Career as mean to bond different levels of social complexity

Such category regards the integration of different spheres of life, through role playing. This is, career is a mechanism of intersection between the individual and the society, in a way that it becomes an instrument to social order. Such category regards the integration of different spheres in life, through role playing. This is, the career is a mechanism of intersection between the individual and society, in a way that it becomes an instrument to the social order. Such perspective is exemplified by Mabokela (2002), Hirshfield and Joseph (2012), Maseti (2018), and Warren (2021). The authors relate the struggle to “belong” to the chosen environment to their careers. To report such experiences brings within the purpose to transform the environment and to built a new subject/context relation.

Mabokela (2002) argues that women have been historically under represented in the sector of higher education and aims at analyzing the professional experiences of these black teachers in higher education with the purpose of creating academic environments that fulfill their needs. One of the purposes described in the article is to understand the culture and its impact on the authority and experience of those women. The participants identified three ways in which the culture impacts their professional experiences: i) the rules and broad social values influence the relations between men and women; ii) the culture is manifested in practices and organizational policies dominated by men and which favors the “male form of doing things”; and (iii) the culture influences the interactions between racial and ethnic groups in their campi.

The pattern that appears from those observations is that the professional contributions of women in higher education are persistently undermined and still work under the additional load of having to validate their presence in higher education. Another critical issue is the challenge that higher education institutions face by approaching systemically profoundly rooted racial and gender attitudes (Mabokela, 2002).

Hirshfield and Joseph (2012) explored the concept of “identity tax”, which refers to women teaching, involving gender and the intersection of gender and race, to argue that black women teachers represent a double minority, facing a particularly heavy load of identity tax in the academy. Such women reaffirmed facing, as well as the other white women: the increase of pressure to represent the diversity as symbols and the prejudice and the discrimination of men colleagues who questioned their competences and their intellectual abilities. However, with an additional barrier, they deal with negative stereotypes, portraying them as maternal or nurturing.

The teachers report that their presence was desired only by the diversity that they represent. Their colleagues expected that they would help historically underprivileged students, simply by belonging to an underprivileged group. Although these women feel the desire to support and advise the students, sometimes such commitment with the defense and guidance is excessively overwhelming, and the addition burden of being the “specialist” in minority groups is a responsibility that they are uncomfortable to assume (Hirshfield & Joseph, 2012).

Maseti (2018), makes a personal narrative presenting who her belonging in the higher education institution has been built, as black, young and woman. As member of an underprivileged group, the author reports that she had always to work more to prove her belonging and her competence, and not be seen as “another black woman to check the transformation box”. As a black teacher, the author points out the need to always be meticulous in her work, since, there is a lot of expectation regarding what she does and she has noticed that such problem has led her to the state of self-policing. To the author, the desire of being recognized not only as a black body, has been profound since the time of student. She also argues that although South Africa (context where she lives) has made progress regarding the number of black students and academic, this has not remediated the struggle to belong to “white spaces”, what universities are called. A parallel fight is of the belonging: the feelig of being home and the ability to be identified with the institutional culture (Maseti, 2018).

Finally, Warren (2021), by describing her experience as teacher, writes that there is the subtle racism and uses the concept of Chester Pierce’s microaggressions, to call the prejudice she suffers. The microaggressions are subtle expressions of racism that degrade and under-humanize the citizens of underprivileged groups. As a consequence of those microaggressions, the author highlights, for example, that certain practices once seen as beneficial become interpreted as violent. For example, among the experiences highlighted by the author, there is the compliment of a professor for her academic performance: “Patrícia, your are very intelligent for a black girl” (Warren, 2021, p. 350).

4.4 Career as a path in time and space

This perspective has an inclination to the vocation career, in the sense that the career is focused more on an occupational or organizational progression plan, in a form that the dynamic of promotion is focused on a particular organizational environment. In such perspective, according to Gunz and Mayrhofer (2017), the career movement may be considered structured, by defining the path that each individual will follow in an organization. In the report of the teachers, it is noticed that their opportunities within the organizational hierarchy are defined, not having space for growth or “full belonging”.

Mabokela (2002) approached teachers entering the higher education, analyzing their knowledge of the “rules of the game”. This is, the understanding of the process of promotion. As result, the author points out that, for the promotion, the teachers need to have a doctorate degree and, considering their work conditions, such requirement is a concern. This is due to them: a) not being able to compete equally for the promotion due to discriminating conditions in the work place; b) all having higher work load than their male colleagues; c) the parallel activities that women should participate and are not taken into consideration for the promotion. Such factors create a barrier to the ascending mobility.

Such author still adds that another requirement to the promotion is the emphasis on researches and publications. Many women from their study had not been exposed to the culture of research as being students and/or professionals. In the reports of the interviewed, the author noticed that there is lack of support and guidance by part of the more graduated peers. Another point mentioned by the participants involves the publication of their researches, since they still find much resistance in traditional journals to some types of study. In summary, the staff of black women teachers reports three elements in common: i) the arbitrariness and the subjectivity of the promotion procedures; ii) lack of clarity and of transparency on the process; and, iii) the fact that they should overcome their male colleagues for being considered equally (Mabokela, 2002).

Evans and Cokley (2008) explored the barries and the challenges that prevent the professional development of black teachers in institutions focused on research. To such authors, the success of women has been made difficult due to the sexual and racial discrimination. This means that by being “women” e “black”, they face difficulties of promotion in the analyzed research program. The authors highlighted that similar programs in research institutions aim at increasing the diversity of professors and students, but to occur this, it is necessary to emphasize more and more how the effects related to race and gender affect the career plans. Therefore, they argue that it is necessary an open dialogue on the raise of salaries and in the progress of the career to African-American teachers.

Warren-Gordon and Mayes (2017) describe their experiences as black women in different career points. One is a full teacher, who teaches in a post-graduation program. Another is a teacher who is in the beginning of the career and teaches only in a graduation course. Primarily, Renae D. Mayes explains that her entry in the teacher career was still when she was finishing her doctorate. In such step, without her consent, she received a demand from the director of a school counseling program. Due to her inexperience in the position, she had several difficulties in performance of the activities related to that position. Regarding her interactions with the other professionals and students, she considers that her voice has been suppressed when she tries to expose her interests and ideas. She also points out that other professors and remaining staff give her advice that she has never asked for. The students, on the other hand, treat her as a “colleague”, calling her by her first name and treating her as object of fun.

On the other hand, the path of Kiesha Warren-Gordon has been traced with other characteristics. Her entry as teacher in higher education occurred in an university that she had always wish to work in. Due to her position as teacher with an effective position, she reports having certain privileges regarding the entering teachers. For example, regarding the service to society, she is able to focus on activities of her interest, specially outside the campus, in a way that she has the opportunity of connecting herself to other people who, on the other hand, give her support in her projects. In contact with other women outside the campus, she reports being “able to express a voice that is not always valued in a department composed mainly by American European men” (Warren-Gordon & Mayes, 2017, p. 2.362).

Kiesha Warren-Gordon still reports that she feels isolated in her department, by being the only black women. Her exclusion is deepened since she is neither included by her peers in the discussions of the department, nor in the informal activities that could be useful for her to expose her ideas. As answer, she reports having expanded her relationship network outside of the department, which amplifies her professional and personal opportunities (Warren-Gordon & Mayes, 2017)

Williams and Packer-Williams (2019) are supported in their experiences as teachers to discuss issues regarding the competition among teachers in higher education in the academic environment. To them, the university environment may be psychologically harmful to women and black girls, when confronted in terms of performance. By performing a self-narrative, they explain four themes regarding the dynamic of competition in the academic context: (i) to be perceived as threat and a target of aggression by senior or junior colleagues; (ii) contradictions and threats associated to a black feminist world view in a white teaching culture dominated by men; (iii) negative impact of traditional socialization of gender roles; (iv) perception of inferiority: even occupying superior positions, black women may live experiences to be perceived as inferior and subservient by colleagues who exert less power. Based on such issues, these authors discuss that, even if black women reach the highest degree in formal instruction, still they will lead with social and cultural issues of facing.

These authors narrate that they have dealt with the intersection of race, gender and class applied to the suppression of their power and authority in the context of teaching in higher education. They have experienced as being perceived as potential competition in the academic environment, i a way that they could be target of relation aggression.

At last, Magoqwana et al. (2020) date back to their own biographic experiences to exemplify their work loads in a neoliberal university context. After their entry in the teaching staff, once the authors started to enter themselves in teaching activities, they gained legitimacy more and more to start and to keep their studies, including researches. In addition, they explained that their paths were insured by the entry into institutional transformation projects, in order for black women to receive the due recognition. They argue that the “invisible work, which helps the success of many black students outside classroom should be recognized as part of the process of the academic work (Magoqwana et al., 2020, p. 14), contributing to the progress in the career.

4.5 Career as self-construction

This perspective states that career is a vehicle of individual self-affirmation. Career allows that the individual attributes sense to one’s life through what one has done professionally. In other words, the individual engages oneself in a life’s project, in which the career is the device that allows to reach what is projected to oneself. For example, Wright et al. (2007), by analyzing the experiences of eight black African-Caribbean women observed that these women feel “out of place” in the middle of the “whiteness teaching” and place, during the environment, racism occurs in a camouflage form, which is, not explicit. Even so, the interviewed women still believe that being in that environment is their right. Therefore, they have created strategies of resistance in face of the adversities experienced.

In addition, some women, instead of positioning themselves to confrontation, rather focus their energies on searching their own the search of their own academic needs; others, chose to making use of the own policies and normative instruments from the universities, to ensure their rights; still, some women have chosen to educe their work load in the academy and have directed their efforts to parallel works, in which they felt more valued. Therefore, “through the process of resistance, the black teachers in higher education participating in the study have dedicated themselves both in ensuring a legit place in the academy as well as ensuring the legitimacy of the intellectual thought of black women” (Wright et al., 2007, p. 159).

To Edwards (2017), the academic environment may be permeated by several kinds of injustice and oppression to black professionals. Therefore, an academic survival tool has been the religious faith. The results of that study highlighted two axes related to the purpose of the research: (i) the religious-spiritual ideal of the educator as guide of modes of being and of teaching; and (ii) the relation of religion-spirituality with equity and emancipation. As for the first ax, the author explains that teachers connect their work responsibilities with their students, with their religious-spiritual values, which have been cultivated in the tradition of the black faith. Therefore, for example, many of these teachers understand that they need to be “light”, in the sense of guiding their students to higher positions than they occupy.

As for the second ax, Edwards (2017) explains that the teachers did not see themselves as proselytes. They understand that it is not necessary to tell people they are Christian, before that, they understand that the way they behave should be the one how people notice their faith. In other words, teachers in higher education understand that they behavior shows in fact who they are, which includes their religion and what they believe.

4.6 Career as product instead ou process?

This last perspective understand career under a functional point of view. This means that career may be described through the individual’s curriculum, in which the elements pertaining exclusively to the professional path would be considered. In such perspective, the emphasis is on the exposition of the gathering of specialized knowledge and specific abilities that the professional experiences allowed to the individual (Gunz & Mayrhofer, 2017).

That said, none of the 14 analyzed articles seems to be inclined to such perspective. It is important to highlight that this does not mean that such perspective is less important than the rest. It hasn’t received examples based on the scientific literature, since, according to the reading from the authors of this study, the teaching careers of black women in higher education seem to have been approached under different emphasis, rebuilding their paths, identities and highlighting the interface of what has been said and what has not been said in the teaching career.

5 FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

This study had as general goal to identify how the teaching career of black women in higher education has been portrayed in the international scientific literature. For such, a scoping review of literature was performed with 14 scientific articles published in journals indexed in the WoS data base. The data of the research were organized into five categories, which helped in the organization, structure and understanding this study, having as base the career perspectives exposed by Gunz and Mayrhofer (2017), which consisted in: career as construction in the retrospective sense, career as bonding between different levels of social life, careers as path traveled in space-time, career of self-construction of oneself and career as product instead of process.

In face of the exposed, it is possible to suggest that the article brings contributions of theoretical order, since it aligns to the scientific literature that has been studying the career of black women, teachers in higher education, and highlights that studies of such nature still have been seldom produced. In effect, such gap may be configured as an opportunity for future researches. Additionally, in management terms, this study contributes by highlighting that the academic environment may be, on one side, hostile to black women, since they may be target of two forms of retaliation. On the other hand, the academy may be important for women to occupy work positions that allow them to search for institutional changes that favor them.

It is important to also consider that the present study is limited theoretically, for starting from already existing theoretical constructions (the theoretical categories proposed by Gunz and Mayrhofer (2017)), which, in general term, prevents that not seen reports in the categories may be structured systematically. In addition, the reduced number of analyzed studies and, in its majority, written by authors of Anglo-Saxon origin, does not allow that reports of women from other nationalities may be analyzed.

As final recommendation, it is suggested that new reviews of literature may be elaborated in other scientific bases and with different categories. Likewise, it can be investigated how the careers of those women occur in private and public higher education, as well as their paths, considering socially legit professions and the path in post-graduation courses. Those are initiatives that may contribute to the explanations on the dynamics of careers of black women in higher education.

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