Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2009. / Title from PDF title page (University of Texas Digital Repository, viewed on Sept. 9, 2009). Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Dissertation (Ph.D.)--The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2009. / Directed by Andrea Hunter; submitted to the Dept. of Human Development and Family Studies. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed May 5, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 62-74).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

abstract: This study enters on the heels of a trend of public school closures across the United States. Using qualitative methods, the study concerns the curriculum experiences of six African American students attending a majority-white high school in a white, middle-class community in the Midwest, one year after the closure of their predominantly Black high school in their hometown. The study draws from Michel Foucault’s philosophy on care of the self as an analytical tool to look at students’ care of the ‘racialized’ self, or more specifically, how African American students are forming a ‘self’ in a majority-white school in relation to the ways they are being racialized. Background of the schools and a description of the conditions under which the school change occurred are provided for context. Data collection involved conducting life history interviews with students, observing students in their classes, and shadowing students throughout their school day. Findings show that African American student-participants are contending with what they describe as a “them”/“us” racial, cultural, and class divide that is operationalized through the curriculum. Students are in a struggle to negotiate how they are perceived and categorized as ‘racialized’ bodies through the curriculum, and, their own perceptions of these racializations. In this struggle, students enact self-practices to make maneuvers within curriculum spaces. A student can accept how the curriculum attempts to constitute her/him as a subject, resist this subjectification, or perform any combination of both accepting and resisting. In this way, a curriculum, with its distinctive and potentially polarizing boundaries, becomes a negotiated and contested space. And, because this curricular space is internally contradictory, a student, in relation to it, may practice versions of a ‘self’ (multiple ‘selves’) that are contradictory. Findings illuminate that in this complex process of self-making, African American students are producing a curriculum of self-formation that teaches others how they want to be perceived. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Curriculum and Instruction 2016

abstract: ABSTRACT The early desire for and the pursuit of literacy are often mentioned in the teeming volumes devoted to African-American history. However, stories, facts, and figures about the acquisition of numeracy by African Americans have not been equally documented. The focus of this study was to search for the third R, this is the numeracy and mathematics experiences of African Americans who were born in, and before, 1933. The investigation of this generational cadre was pursued in order to develop oral histories and narratives going back to the early 1900s. This study examined formal and informal education and other relevant mathematics-related, lived experiences of unacknowledged and unheralded African Americans, as opposed to the American anomalies of African descent who are most often acknowledged, such as the Benjamin Bannekers, the George Washington Carvers, and other notables. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected through the use of a survey and interviews. Quantitative results and qualitative findings were blended to present a nuanced perspective of African Americans learning mathematics during a period of Jim Crow, segregation, and discrimination. Their hopes, their fears, their challenges, their aspirations, their successes, and their failures are all tangential to their overall goal of seeking education, including mathematics education, in the early twentieth century. Both formal and informal experiences revealed a picture of life during those times to further enhance the literature regarding the mathematics experiences of African Americans. Key words: Black students, historical, senior citizens, mathematics education, oral history, narrative, narrative inquiry, socio-cultural theory, Jim Crow / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Curriculum and Instruction 2014

In order for America to retain its superior position in a global economy it is imperative that all students receive educational opportunities that will prepare them for the future. Currently, African-American economically disadvantaged students in the United States perform lower on standardized tests than their grade and age-level peers. Educators must find ways to improve the performance of students in this group in order to maximize future opportunities. Through a mixed-methodology approach, the current study finds three school factors that may positively impact the performance of African-American economically disadvantaged students: high expectations, student-teacher relationships and teacher effectiveness. Quantitative and qualitative analysis provides perspectives from principals primarily from a large urban school district on the impact of these factors on student performance.

No description available.

The purpose of this case study was to explore the challenges African American students face when adjusting to predominantly White institutions and to review these institutions' diversity policies to determine whether the institutions are aligned with African American students' needs. The study was based on critical race theory to examine whether and how racial microaggressions influence racial tension at the predominantly White institutions selected for this study. The research questions were used to gauge (a) the level of comfort among African American students attending one of these predominantly White institutions, (b) their overall satisfaction with their decisions to attend the institution, and (c) whether an active diversity policy could be found at that institution. Qualitative data were collected from a sample of 107 African American students attending 1 of the 6 predominantly White institutions selected for this study. Descriptive statistics of cross-sectional survey data, along with the diversity policy within each institution, were employed to measure (a) the mean and standard deviation of participants' satisfaction with the environment their campus provided, (b) the decision to attend their institution, and (c) the awareness of their institution's diversity policy. The chi-square test was conducted to test student awareness of the diversity policy and their satisfaction with the organization of the policy. The results from this test were significant (p < .01), showing that the participants were aware of their institution's diversity policy and the protection it provides. Through effective policy changes, predominantly White institutions can positively affect graduation and retention rates among African American students and provide a greater opportunity to promote positive social change.

This study addressed the academic, cultural, and social expectations and experiences of 20 African American juniors and seniors at 2 predominantly White universities in the southern Appalachian region of the United States. The participants' described experiences revealed how institutional practices promoted or obstructed their persistence to graduation. Qualitative ethnographic methodology with critical race theory as the conceptual framework guided the study. This approach allowed for the perspectives and lived experiences of the students to be voiced and heard. Data collected included their stories based on semistructured interviews, document reviews, and observations. The constant comparison method was used to analyze the data through the critical race interpretive lens of racism as the persistent reality of people of color. In combination, the data illustrated the positive and negative impacts of student-institution relationships and the campus racial climate on African American students' experiences at the universities under study. Findings indicated a dissonance between the students' academic, cultural, and social expectations and experiences primarily caused by unanticipated racist experiences in the classrooms, on the campuses, and in the campus' communities-at-large. Positive relationships with administrators, faculty members, and staff emerged as the most significant contributors to the students' capability to safely and successfully navigate academic, social, and cultural pathways leading to graduation. Recommendations based on the results of the study are provided for university administrators, faculty members, and staff who are committed to improving the college experience and persistence to graduation rates for students of color matriculating at predominantly White universities.

The problem for this investigation was the extent to which instruction in the traditionally black colleges and universities was directed toward higher cognitive skills as perceived by teachers of United States history in these institutions. The purposes of the study were to determine whether teachers (1) in state supported as opposed to private black colleges, (2) in urban-based as opposed to non-urban-based black colleges, (3) at non-denominational as opposed to denominational black colleges, (4) of age forty or older as opposed to teachers under age forty at black colleges,(5) categorized according to gender at black colleges, (6) categorized as United States citizens as opposed to non-citizens at black colleges, and (7) taught at black colleges and those who taught at white colleges differed significantly in their reported efforts to promote higher cognitive development. The following conclusions were drawn: Teachers at black colleges, as well as black teachers and white teachers at black colleges appeared to recognize the need to develop the higher mental powers of theirs students. Emphasis upon higher cognitive development is not likely to vary significantly according to academic degrees attained by the teacher, the geographic area in which the teacher was reared, or the gender of the teacher. Graduates of black colleges who taught at black colleges were apparently more attuned to the need for teaching higher cognitive development than were other teachers at black colleges.