Making Youth Matter

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 70-93
Author(s):  
Celeste Hawkins
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African American Students ◽  
African American Male ◽  
Research Study ◽  
Educational Experiences ◽  
Male Students ◽  
African American Male Students ◽  
American Students ◽  
And Gender ◽  
K 12

This article focuses on findings from a subgroup of African-American male students as part of a broader qualitative dissertation research study, which explored how exclusion and marginalization in schools impact the lives of African-American students. The study focused on the perspectives of youth attending both middle and high schools in Michigan, and investigated how students who have experienced forms of exclusion in their K–12 schooling viewed their educational experiences. Key themes that emerged from the study were lack of care, lack of belonging, disrupted education, debilitating discipline, and persistence and resilience. These themes were analyzed in relation to their intersectionality with culture, ethnicity, race, class, and gender.

“I'm Trying to Beat a Stereotype”: Suburban African American Male Students’ Social Supports and Personal Resources for Success in AP English Coursework

2021 ◽  
Vol 123 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-44
Author(s):  
Erin E. Mcardle ◽  
Jennifer D. Turner
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African American Male ◽  
English Language ◽  
African American Men ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Social Supports ◽  
Male Students ◽  
Personal Resources ◽  
Academic Literacies ◽  
African American Male Students

Background African American male students attending U.S. suburban schools remain severely underrepresented in Advanced Placement (AP) programs. A number of structural barriers, including racialized tracking policies; limited referrals from educators and school counselors; conventional AP practices centered on Eurocentric curricula, literature, and pedagogies; and educators’ deficit mindsets toward Black masculinity, mitigate African American male students’ access to and success in suburban AP classrooms. Despite these sobering realities, African American male students have achieved success in AP English Language Arts coursework. Yet few researchers have investigated the multiple and complex forms of support to which African American male students attribute their successful performance in AP English coursework in suburban high schools. Purpose/Research Question In an effort to close opportunity gaps in AP English programs, the present study illuminates the social supports and personal resources that African American male students mobilized to earn exemplary grades (i.e., maintaining a grade of B- or higher, or 79.6% or higher out of 100%) in an AP English Language and Composition and/or an English Literature and Composition course, and earn a passing score on the formal AP exam (i.e., 3 or higher). Countering deficit-oriented research paradigms, we employed an anti-deficit achievement framework to (re)position young African American men as capable, motivated, and agentive learners who marshal complex supportive networks, as well as their own personal resources, to successfully learn academic literacies in AP English classrooms. Our inquiry was guided by the following research question: To what social supports and personal resources do young African American men who graduated from a suburban high school attribute their success in AP English coursework? Participants Eight young African American men who were enrolled in AP English coursework in a suburban Mid-Atlantic secondary school were the participants in this study. Participants were successful learners who received exemplary grades in an AP English class, were taught by the first author, and earned a passing score on an AP English exam. Participants’ ages ranged from 21 to 33 years, and all were attending or had graduated from a four-year college or university. Research Design The young men participated in one-on-one, in-depth interviews. Interviews probed the participants’ personal experiences in AP English, their perspectives in achieving success in the class and on the formal exam, and their recollections of the AP English curriculum, and were cross-analyzed for common sources of supports through multiple coding cycles. Findings The young men highlighted six sources of support that were integral to their AP English success. They described three sources of social supports—the wisdom, guidance, and caring that they received from family members, English teachers, and peers—that promoted their success in AP English. In addition, participants identified three types of personal resources—their own college aspirations, persistence in learning academic literacies, and racial consciousness—that inspired and motivated their high scholastic achievement in AP English. Conclusion By mobilizing the rich social supports and personal resources in their lives, African American male students have the resilience, courage, and the intelligence to enroll and succeed in AP English coursework. We suggest that suburban school administrators, school counselors, and teachers use open AP enrollment policies; work closely with and provide pertinent information to African American families; address students’ social emotional concerns; and ensure that AP English pedagogical practices are humanizing to improve the recruitment and retention of African American male students in AP English programs. Finally, we contend that educational scholars and practitioners must continue to engage in research and practice that nurture young African American male students’ social supports and personal resources for AP English success.

Inside the Experiences of High-Achieving African American Male Students

2005 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaun R. Harper
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African American Males ◽  
African American Male ◽  
Male Students ◽  
African American Male Students ◽  
High Achieving

More than two-thirds of all African American males who begin college never finish. This and a legion of other discouraging facts about African American males are the usual headlines. But what about those among this population who beat the odds, make the most of college, and achieve in multiple ways inside and outside of the classroom? Who are they, and what can they teach us?

Negotiating the “White Male Math Myth”: African American Male Students and Success in School Mathematics

2013 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
David W. Stinson
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African American Male ◽  
Complex Analysis ◽  
Mathematics Classroom ◽  
White Male ◽  
School Mathematics ◽  
Male Students ◽  
African American Male Students ◽  
Equity Research ◽  
Research In Mathematics Education

This article shows how equity research in mathematics education can be decentered by reporting the “voices” of mathematically successful African American male students as they recount their experiences with school mathematics, illustrating, in essence, how they negotiated the White male math myth. Using post-structural theory, the concepts discourse, person/identity, and power/agency are reinscribed or redefined. The article also shows that using a post-structural reinscription of these concepts, a more complex analysis of the multiplicitous and fragmented robust mathematics identities of African American male students is possible—an analysis that refutes simple explanations of effort. The article concludes, not with “answers,” but with questions to facilitate dialogue among those who are interested in the mathematics achievement and persistence of African American male students—and equity and justice in the mathematics classroom for all students.

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