African American Males and Education

They (Don’t) Care About Education: A Counternarrative on Black Male Students’ Responses to Inequitable Schooling

by Charles H.F. Davis III

CITATION
Harper, S. R., & Davis III, C. H. F. (2012). They (don’t) care about education: A counternarrative on Black male students’ responses to inequitable schooling. Educational Foundations, 26(1), 103-120.

Presented in this article is a counternarrative concerning one particular message that is consistently reinforced in... more Presented in this article is a counternarrative concerning one particular message that is consistently reinforced in academic and public discourse about Black male students: they don’t care about education. Little is known about those who graduate from high school, enroll in college, and subsequently commit themselves to various career pathways in education fields (K-12 teaching and administration, the postsecondary professoriate, education policy, etc.). What compels these men to care so much about education, despite what is routinely reported in the literature regarding their gradual disinvestment in schooling? This question is explored in the article using data from 304 Black male undergraduates attending 209 colleges and universities across the United States. It counters longstanding perspectives on Black men’s oppositional responses to inequitable schooling.

Diversity and Unity Among Men of Color on College Campuses

by Ryan Sermon

This paper was written for my Sociology Senior Seminar (March 2011)

How many different forms of diversity exist within male students of color at predominantly White Institutions? How do... more How many different forms of diversity exist within male students of color at predominantly White Institutions? How do these heterogeneous groups interact and collaborate, given the different goals of members? An in-depth interviewing methodological approach was utilized to find out how these men of color view themselves in relation to one another and what social groups they see themselves a part of. The results confirm that more subgroups will emerge as the diversity of the student population increases.

Critical Race Theory and the presence of race concept in the context of current and past American educational debates

by Jarema Drozdowicz

Abstract of the article "Critical Race Theory and the presence of race concept in the context of current and past American educational debates"

Prisons, pipelines, and the President: Developing critical math literacy through participatory action research

by La Mont Terry

Published in the Journal of African American Males in Education (JAAME), Volume i, Issue 2, April/May 2010, p.73-104.

Academic success, and the economic well-being it usually affords, is closely tied to math achievement. Key national... more Academic success, and the economic well-being it usually affords, is closely tied to math achievement. Key national indicators reveal decades of underperformance of African American males in mathematics. Scholars argue that the schooling experiences of Black males are highly-racialized, are often bereft of significance, and result in academic and social marginalization. The author reports findings from an eight-month participatory action research (PAR) project involving seven high-school aged Black males in South Los Angeles; students undertook research to empirically verify and qualitatively explore narratives concerning incarceration and university enrollment. Utilizing a critical ethnographic methodology to privilege student voice, the author shares how ‘low-performing’ students in an urban setting utilize their mathematical knowledge to become critically literate about these narratives. Highlighting two student-constructed counternarratives he terms mathematical counterstories, the author shows how students used data analysis to contradict dominant understandings about young Black males. The author argues math counterstories are a unique synthesis of critical and mathematical literacies that are supported through PAR. Implications for the re-orientation of high school-aged Black males towards mathematics are discussed.

Mathematical Counterstory and African American Male Students: Urban Mathematics Education from a Critical Race Theory Perspective

by La Mont Terry

Published in the Journal of Urban Mathematics Education, Volume 4, Issue 1, June/July 2011.

In this article, the author argues that the persistent underachievement of many African American male students in... more In this article, the author argues that the persistent underachievement of many African American male students in urban school districts requires pedagogical interventions designed to re-engage and re-orient students to mathematics as critical cultural activity. While counterstory, a critical race theory construct, has wide application across educational research, few researchers have explored its relevance for urban mathematics education. Here, the author provides a grounded operationalization of counterstory by examining the pedagogy embedded in African American narrative on literacy. Using data from a participatory action research project involving male African Americans in South Los Angeles, the author then demonstrates how counterstory is embedded in the mathematical activity associated with graphical representation and trend analysis of data. Through the theorized approach to counterstory presented, the author provides useful direction for education researchers interested in counterstory, and for mathematics educators attempting to broaden their pedagogical approaches to teaching and learning mathematics.

The Secret Epidemic: Exploring the Mental Health Crisis Affecting Adolescent African-American Males

by Clare Xanthos

Community Voices Policy Brief, 2008

Diagnosable mental illnesses and related behavioral problems have risen dramatically among adolescent African-American... more Diagnosable mental illnesses and related behavioral problems have risen dramatically among adolescent African-American males in recent years. African-American males in contemporary American society face major challenges to their psychological development and well-being. In addition to dealing with the physical, mental and emotional issues typically experienced during adolescence, adolescent African-American males are confronted with unique social and environmental stressors.

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

by David Stinson

Stinson, D. W. (2010). Negotiating the “White male math myth”: African American male students and success in school mathematics. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education. (Special Issue; Online first 2010).

This article shows how equity research in mathematics education can be decentered by reporting the “voices” of... more 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 poststructural theory, the concepts discourse, person/identity, and power/agency are redefined or reinscribed. The article also shows that using a poststructural 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.

Recycling Recidivism: The School to Prison Pipeline

by Theodore Ransaw

Modern society has been struggling with social, civil and moral issues pertaining to finding the most effective way to... more Modern society has been struggling with social, civil and moral issues pertaining to finding the most effective way to teach and guide children to discover better future.  Those issues include finding the best way to educate our youth and administering the best way to discipline students who disrupt society.  The United States uses two methods to solve this dilemma, the education system and the juvenile justice system.  The result of using these two methods has been a decrease in school spending, an increase in prison construction, and an increase of school suspensions (Price, 2010; & Smollin, 2010).  Unfortunately, these trends have affected families with low social economic status and minoritized students (Mendez, 2003).  Every time a school is closed because of decreased spending, or when students are suspended from school because of zero-tolerance policies, the current alternative is to build a prison to house the students who are not in school. Intentionally or not, the evidence is clear, the U.S. has created a school to prison pipeline for students who are marginalized and functions largely to recycle recidivism instead of preventing it. 

Negotiating Sociocultural Discourses: The Counter-Storytelling of Academically (and Mathematically) Successful African American Male Students

by David Stinson

Stinson, D. W. (2008). Negotiating sociocultural discourses: The counter-storytelling of academically (and mathematically) successful African American male students. American Educational Research Journal, 45(4), 975–1010.

This study documents the counterstories of four academically (and mathematically) successful African American male... more This study documents the counterstories of four academically (and mathematically) successful African American male students. Using participative inquiry, the participants were asked to read, reflect on, and respond to historical and current research literature regarding the schooling experiences of African American students. Their responses were analyzed using a somewhat eclectic theoretical framework that included poststructural theory, critical race theory, and critical theory. Collectively, the participants’ counterstories revealed that each had acquired a robust mathematics identity as a component of his overall efforts toward success. How the participants acquired such “uncharacteristic” mathematics identities was to be found in part in how they understood sociocultural discourses of U.S. society and how they negotiated the specific discourses that surround male African Americans. Present throughout the counterstories of each participant was a recognition of himself as a discursive formation who could negotiate sociocultural discourses as a means to subversively repeat his constituted “raced” self.

When the “Burden of Acting White” is Not a Burden: School Success and African American Male Students

by David Stinson

Stinson, D. W. (2011). When the “burden of acting white” is not a burden: School success and African American male students. The Urban Review, 43(1), 43–65. (0nline first 2010)

In this article, the author reports the ‘‘voices’’ of four academically successful African American men, in their... more In this article, the author reports the ‘‘voices’’ of four academically successful African American men, in their early 20s, as they explicitly respond, in retrospect, to questions regarding the applicability of the burden of acting White theory to their schooling experiences—responses made after reading research articles written by Signithia Fordham and John Ogbu. In general, the responses from the four men illustrate that they successfully negotiated the burden of acting White, even as they revealed instances in which the theory might have been applied to their schooling experiences. The author argues that the various interpretations and uses of Fordham’s and Ogbu’s (single- and co-authored) theories—and, in part, the theories themselves—failed to escape the lure of oversimplification. In that, the (mis?)interpretations and (mis?)uses often oversimplified the theories, and, in turn, the schooling experiences of Black students (and historically marginalized students in general).

The African American Male Librarian: Motivational Factors in Choosing a Career in Library and Information Science

by Kaetrena Davis Kendrick

Published in Behavioral & Social Sciences Librarian, 2009 28(1)

A recent American Library Association (ALA) report has shown that less than one percent of credentialed librarians are... more A recent American Library Association (ALA) report has shown that less than one percent of credentialed librarians are African American males. This article discusses possible reasons for this dearth; and, in an effort to inform future LIS recruiting and marketing campaigns, the included study attempted discover which factors lead African American males to choose to pursue a graduate degree in library and information science (LIS) and practice LIS as a career.  The study also canvassed African American male librarians’ views on gender advantage in LIS, their career goals, perceived triumphs and challenges in LIS, and level of job satisfaction. 

African American Male Adolescents, Schooling (and Mathematics): Deficiency, Rejection, and Achievement

by David Stinson

Stinson, D. W. (2006). African American male adolescents, schooling (and mathematics): Deficiency, rejection, and achievement. Review of Educational Research, 76(4), 477–506.

The academic achievement gap, particularly the mathematics achievement gap, between Black students and their White... more The academic achievement gap, particularly the mathematics achievement gap, between Black students and their White counterparts has been well documented with numerical facts. As mathematics education researchers attempt to develop theories and practices that assist in eradicating the gap, they would serve mathematics education well if they would expand the sphere of their research into the sociocultural arena. To assist in expanding the sphere, this article presents a review of key historical and current theoretical perspectives regarding the schooling experiences of African American students, with an emphasis on African American male students, borrowed from the disciplines of anthropology, social psychology, and sociology. The review is organized around three discourse clusters: the discourse of deficiency, the discourse of rejection, and the discourse of achievement. The author suggests that researchers move away from the discourses of deficiency and rejection and toward the discourse of achievement when developing sound education theories and classroom practices that assist in eradicating the academic (and mathematics) achievement gap.