scholarly journals Exploring the Overrepresentation of Black Male Students in Special Education: Causes and Recommendations

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 9-21
Author(s):  
Michael Delahunty ◽  
Calli Lewis Chiu
Keyword(s):  
Special Education ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Racial Differences ◽  
Black Males ◽  
Black Male ◽  
White Teachers ◽  
Male Students ◽  
Black Male Students ◽  
American Schools

Abstract An overrepresentation of Black male students identified as having disabilities is pervasive in American schools. This troubling reality may be the result of disconnects between Black males and their White teachers. Racial differences likely contribute to the high number of Black males referred for programs for students with disabilities. This paper explores the overrepresentation of Black male students identified as having disabilities and recommendations for supporting their success.

scholarly journals The significance of further education for black males

2018 ◽  
Vol 60 (6) ◽  
pp. 544-555
Author(s):  
Sheine Peart
Keyword(s):  
Black Males ◽  
Black Male ◽  
Educational Achievement ◽  
Further Education ◽  
Male Students ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Black Male Students ◽  
Individual Interviews ◽  
Schooling Experiences ◽  
Educational Journeys

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the lived educational realities of black male students studying in further education (FE) colleges to understand how these experiences compare to their experiences of statutory education. It describes the way in which students perceived and received education in both sectors and highlights the similarities and variations between the two.Design/methodology/approachEthnographic methods including focus groups, individual interviews and naturalistic observations were used to investigate black male students’ perceptions of FE. These accounts were compared to their memories of compulsory schooling experiences to establish differences and similarities between sectors and to determine which educational approaches black male students identified as most useful.FindingsThe research established black males perceived there were significant differences between the two sectors and these differences had impacted on their ability to learn. These findings provide a useful reference point for educators seeking to evaluate their organisation’s education provision for black male students.Social implicationsThis paper provides suggestions on what sorts of educational opportunities are appropriate and accessible for black males and which approaches help to support their educational achievement.Originality/valueThere are little research data which specifically discuss black male students’ experience of the FE sector. This paper will help teachers and managers at all organisational levels in FE (and in schools) review their provision and consider adopting approaches that may help to enhance black students’ educational journeys.

Researching the Neighborhood and Schooling Experiences of Black Male High School “Students who Play Sports” in Atlanta and Chicago

2020 ◽  
Vol 122 (8) ◽  
pp. 1-52
Author(s):  
Adeoye O. Adeyemo ◽  
Jerome E. Morris
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Research Design ◽  
Black Males ◽  
Black Male ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Male Students ◽  
Black Male Students ◽  
K 12

Background/Context The corpus of scholarship on Black male students who play sports focuses on students at the collegiate level, thus ignoring the regional, neighborhood, and K–12 educational backgrounds and experiences of these young people before some matriculate into a college or university. This omission suggests the need for more robust investigations that (a) focus on Black males during K–12 schooling, (b) place Black male students’ experiences within the larger geographic (e.g., regions, neighborhoods and schools) and social and historical contexts in which they live and go to school, and thereby, (c) seek to understand how these contexts shape students’ experiences and beliefs about race and the role of academics and athletics in their lives and future. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study We investigated two research questions: (1) For Black male students who play high school sports, how do the social contexts shape their experiences and their beliefs about race and the role of academics and athletics in their lives and future? (2) And, what are the consequences of Black male students’ experiences and beliefs for their academic and athletic outcomes? This investigation across geographically and economically contrasting cities, neighborhoods, and schools in the U.S. South (metro Atlanta, Georgia) and Midwest (Chicago, Illinois) offers empirical, theoretical, and practice-related evidence about young Black males’ experiences and beliefs about race, academics, and athletics, while providing a window into the complex social and cultural worlds in which they live, go to school, and play sports. Research Design This article emanates from research studies that employed ethnographic research methods such as interviews and observations, while embedding the researchers within the communities where Black people resided. The research design used a cross-case analysis to investigate participants’ experiences and beliefs. The constant comparative method allowed for the synthesizing of data collected from two different research sites. Description of Main Findings Key findings revealed the importance for researchers to consider place and its implication in the experiences of Black male students who play sports, particularly their perceptions of the role of academics, athletics, and race in their lives. Conclusions/Recommendations This article moves the scholarly understanding of the study of Black male “students who play sports” forward by illuminating the centrality of places, whether a particular country, region, city, neighborhood, or school—in shaping participants’ experiences and beliefs. We offer insights for research, theory, and practice.

Black Otherfathering in the Educational Experiences of Black Males in a Single-Sex Urban High School

2017 ◽  
Vol 119 (11) ◽  
pp. 1-46
Author(s):  
Derrick R. Brooms
Keyword(s):  
Black Males ◽  
Black Male ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
Male Students ◽  
Male Teachers ◽  
Black Male Teachers ◽  
Male Youth ◽  
Black Male Students ◽  
Single Sex ◽  
Schooling Experiences

Background/Context A good deal of research has been written about the problems and challenges facing Black male youth in their educational endeavors, ranging from academic performances, aspirations, and outcomes to student–teacher relationships, social experiences, and identity development. Statements calling for more Black male teachers abound in current educational discourse, and a number of studies have focused on their experiences in teaching, their pedagogical practices, and their role within the school setting. However, little attention has been given to how Black male students experience their learning and relationships with Black male teachers—the very people who are supposed to benefit from this adult presence. The present study investigates Black male students’ experiences with Black male teachers at a single-sex urban secondary school. Purpose The purpose of this study was to understand Black male students’ experiences in an all-male learning environment, with a particular emphasis on the role of Black male adults in their schooling experiences. Participants This study focused on the schooling experiences of 20 college-age Black males who all attended the same single-sex public high school. Research Design Qualitative research methods were used in this study. In particular, data from in-depth interviews explored students’ narratives about how they experienced and made meaning from the all-male schooling environment. Findings Findings suggest that the students conceptualized adult Black males at their school as otherfathers based on their pedagogical practices, care and concern, and support. First, students expressed their need or desire for male teachers in their secondary schooling experiences. Students identified Black male adults as significant contributors to their development. Second, learning from Black male teachers was valued highly by students because these experiences provided them with insider perspectives and key insights on being Black and male. Students were exposed to opportunities to learn about how race and gender could matter in their lives. Finally, engaging with Black male adults in their schooling experiences provided students with unique opportunities to learn more about themselves. Students’ learning enhanced their critical consciousness and connected to their racial and gender identities as well. Students attributed much of their success and personal development to how Black male teachers engaged in otherfathering—expressed as holistic care, support, parenting, modeling, and life coaching. Recommendations Implications and recommendations for educational researchers and practitioners to better understand how Black males matter in the lives and schooling experiences of Black male youth are discussed.

Mapping Me: Mapping Identity among Academically High-Performing Black Males

2016 ◽  
Vol 118 (6) ◽  
pp. 1-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terry K. Flennaugh
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Black Males ◽  
Black Male ◽  
Male Students ◽  
Self Concept ◽  
Academically Successful ◽  
Black Male Students ◽  
High Performing ◽  
School Settings ◽  
Multiple Worlds

Background Scholars have argued that far too little research has examined the complex processes that many Black males undertake in constructing identities that function in schools. Some have highlighted the perpetuation of a false dichotomy in which challenges, particularly for Black males, have focused on either individual or institutional culpability. Further, scholarship on Black males that has focused largely on deficits has neglected to include student voice to acknowledge the strategies employed by academically successful Black male students in the face of staggering challenges. The present study investigates academic identity formation with two high-performing Black male students attending an urban high school in Los Angeles, California. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study Not enough is known about the sense-making process young, academically successful Black males go through in constructing identities that function in school settings. This study explores the complexity of academic self-concept between two academically high-performing Black male high school students through the conceptual and methodological tool of identity mapping. The study explores the following questions: What are the factors that two academically high-performing Black male students identify as being important to their academic self-concept? In what ways, if any, do identity maps provide descriptive information about the construction and performance of academic self-concept among these Black male students? Research Design Drawing from Multiple Worlds Theory and the work of Cooper, Jackson, Azmitia, Lopez, and Dunbar, and Beach, Lundell, and Jung, this study utilized identity maps to visually represent participants’ understanding of multiple aspects of their self-concept through overlapping or disconnected spheres (i.e., multiple worlds). Identity maps were then used as tools for interviews to better understand the academically high-performing Black males’ academic self-concept. Findings/Results Findings suggest that these two academically high-performing Black male students conceptualize their academic identities as socially situated in a myriad of unique ways. Identity maps became an effective tool for both capturing the sense-making process students us to describe highly contextual and complex notions of an academic self and highlighting tensions embedded in the way students identified with schooling. Conclusions/Recommendations Implications and recommendations for educational researchers and practitioners to make concerted efforts to better understand Black males’ identity formation in school settings are discussed.

From Video Surveillance to Video Narratives

2020 ◽  
pp. 18-32
Author(s):  
Alex Jean-Charles
Keyword(s):  
School Violence ◽  
Video Surveillance ◽  
Black Males ◽  
Black Male ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Male Students ◽  
Control School ◽  
Black Male Students ◽  
Surveillance Technology ◽  
Security Surveillance

This chapter examines the experience of young black males with video surveillance as a technology of oppression and video narratives as a technology of liberation. Foucault's work on power relations and Baudrillard's works on media simulation are used as a framework of analysis to examine (1) the “truths” that characterize the sphere of discourse that favors the use of security surveillance technology to control school violence; (2) the ways such regimes of power act to shape the consciousness and identity of poor, urban, young black male students; and (3) the ways the technology, as an expression of a panopticon technique, acts to shape the phenomenological experience of place for students. In addition, media and the portrayal of Black males are explored through classical Western literature.

Black Masculine Caring and the Dilemma faced by Black Male Leaders

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (6) ◽  
pp. 772-787 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Bass ◽  
Kendrick Alston
Keyword(s):  
School Leadership ◽  
Black Males ◽  
Black Male ◽  
Institutional Care ◽  
Male Students ◽  
School Cultures ◽  
Black Male Students ◽  
The Status ◽  
High Need Schools ◽  
Culture And Climate

The status of Black males in schools and society continues to be concerning, as Black males appear to fall behind other groups in almost every arena, particularly educationally, socially, and professionally. Yet despite their social standing, Black male administrators are often placed in, and have taken on, the charge to serve in high need schools where they oversee the education of Black males and other disadvantaged students. Therefore, there are many Black male students who have Black male administrators. This places them in a position to make a difference in lives of the Black male students and the other students they serve from less privileged backgrounds. This conceptual article discusses the professional challenges faced by Black male leaders and how they choose to lead schools despite these challenges. Tenants of the Black Masculine Caring (BMC) framework are introduced which illuminate ways in which Black male administrators practice interpersonal and institutional care, and how the way they care for students impacts school culture and climate. This article contributes to the literature on school leadership, as all school leaders, regardless of their race, or the race of their students, are expected to maintain positive school cultures and climates in which students are emotionally supported (Blankstein, 2004; Murphy and Torre, 2014). Implications for educational administrators are discussed.

Projecting Success

2020 ◽  
pp. 98-108
Author(s):  
Ursula Thomas ◽  
Frederick D. Parham
Keyword(s):  
Black Males ◽  
Black Male ◽  
Black Student ◽  
Male Students ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Black Male Students ◽  
Radar Screen ◽  
National Conversation ◽  
Educational Pipeline

Changing the trajectory of Black male students may not yet be a national conversation, but it's on the national radar screen. The success of Black males has increasingly become a topic of research, dialogue, debate, and strategic planning. As we engage in the conversation, however, talking with Black male students is a reminder that we're educating kids, not statistics, and that, as one Black student affirms, “The truth doesn't live in numbers. It lives in the person.” The challenges facing Black males throughout the educational pipeline have been discussed by researchers in detail. However, missing from this research are discussions from the perspective of researchers, educators, and community members united on how to better support Black males. This case study examines the field placement partnership between Perimeter College and Project Success: 100 Black Men of Atlanta. The case study documents the goals, plans, and outcomes of the three-year partnership.

“Making Up for Lost Time”: The Transition Experiences of Nontraditional Black Male Undergraduates

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 158-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramon B. Goings
Keyword(s):  
Nontraditional Students ◽  
Life Events ◽  
Black Male ◽  
Social Experiences ◽  
Male Students ◽  
Institutional Agents ◽  
Black Male Students ◽  
Delayed Entry ◽  
Lost Time ◽  
Academic And Social Experiences

This qualitative study investigated the academic and social experiences and life events that propelled 13 Black male nontraditional undergraduates to transition back to college and explored the various programs and institutional agents these men used once on campus. Findings indicated that participant’s faced challenges with college as traditional-aged students due to being under and over involved with social activities on campus or choosing to pursue a work career. As a result, participants had either delayed entry into college or dropped out as traditional-aged students. However, participants transitioned back to college due to wanting to make up for not completing their degree earlier in life, needing to increase their employment opportunities, and wanting to prove their doubters wrong. Finally, findings indicated that while the men found support from certain professors on their campuses, there were few targeted programs specifically for nontraditional students on campus. Recommendations on how to support nontraditional Black male students are provided.

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