ABSTRACT CULTURE, CONTEXT AND CURRICULUM: AN EXPLORATION OF THE ATTITUDES OF BLACK MIDDLE SCHOOL MALES TOWARDS ART EDUCATION by Rita Baker The level of participation and interest in visual arts education demonstrated by Black male students falls consistently lower than that of their White counterparts which manifests itself in under performance and disruptive behaviors. Previous research has explored how views within the Black community towards art education and art related careers have impacted high school and college students. However, those explanations may not be pertinent to middle school, and the scarcity of literature dedicated to how the valuation of art within this racial group influences middle school males suggests the need for inquiry in this area. Based on a constructivist and constructionist epistemological framework grounded in social learning theories, this case study was conducted at a predominantly Black middle school outside of a major southern city. The participants in the study were six eighth grade Black male students between the ages of 13-16 enrolled in a nine-week art class. Initial data collection procedures involved observations in the neighborhood, school, and classroom, a focus group session, individual interviews, member checking, art analyses and a follow up discussion with the teacher. The data analysis was conducted utilizing content analysis, open coding, and axial coding. The findings revealed that opinions were equally divided between students who enjoyed art class throughout the term, and those who expressed boredom. The findings suggest that students’ opinions were shaped by a myriad of factors within the culture, learning context and curriculum. Further, the data implies that goal setting and student interest were connected to students’ participation in art class, while interest in art making diminished between the elementary and middle school years. Perceptions of art class, parental preferences, and the curricular focus of the class proved to be factors which influenced student attitudes towards art instruction. The data advances areas for future scholarship, and recommendations for art educators.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the emerging school culture of Excel Academy for Boys [Pseudonym] located in the Southwestern region of the United States, and how it contributes to the social and academic development of urban African American male students. This case study was based on interviews and focus groups with parents, teachers, students, and the school administrator. Additionally, the researcher conducted participant observations of school meetings, new parent orientations, new teacher interviews, and reviewed student academic and behavioral records. This exploratory analysis consisted of two separate; but interrelated, qualitative studies relevant to educating urban African American males. The first inquiry featured a case study of Excel Academy for Boys, a singlegender middle school serving urban African American males. This detailed examination of Excel Academy’s organizational habitus yielded the Building African American Males Model. This organizational process was characterized by four essential factors that included: (1) educational justice; (2) expectations monitoring; (3) expectations casting; and (4) a culture of Effort. Particular attention was given to how each factor promoted community-school synergy or organizational synergy. These processes were essential for creating a school culture and climate that promoted the emotional, social, and academic maturation of students. Implications for protecting and strengthening the organizational habitus of Excel Academy were offered and broader implications for the emerging African American males’ school movement were discussed. The second study of Excel Academy uncovered four complexities that teachers, parents, and the school leader encountered as they sought to meet the social, emotional, and academic needs of urban African American males. These four critical complexities emerged through observations of the educational processes at Excel Academy, and were labeled: 1) expectations dissonance; 2) disguised engagement; 3) differential engagement, and 4) expectations overload. The emergence of each factor was detailed, and recommendations were offered to address each complexity.

Researchers have identified numerous risk and protective factors that might provide insight into the academic difficulties and success that Hispanic adolescents experience. Maladjusted outcomes cannot be attributed to a single risk factor; risk factors do not act in isolation and often have complex relationships with other risk factors. This study uses an ecological risk factor model that suggests that there are multiple risk factors related to adolescent being placed in an alternative education setting and that these risk factors exist at six levels: community-based factors, school-based factors, peer-based factors, family-based factors, child's perception factors, and acculturation-based factors. The purpose of this study is to examine differences in the protective and risk factors in the area of family, community, school, peers, child?s perception, and acculturation levels between Hispanic males who have been placed in DAEP (Disciplinary Alternative Education Placement) and their same aged Hispanic male peers who have not been previously placed in the DAEP. The sample for this study (N=119) was collected from a large urban school district in Texas. The participants were seventh and eighth graders between the ages of 12 and 16 years of age. The non-DAEP group was comprised of a majority of 7th grade students (71.7%), while the DAEP group had a larger number of 8th grade students (62.7%). This study addressed four research questions. The first question investigated if there was a difference between the two groups when the ecological levels where combined to create a cumulative risk score. The non-DAEP group had significantly lower cumulative risk scores than the DAEP. The second research question investigated if there was a difference in each cumulative risk index (i.e., family, school, peers, community, child?s perception, and acculturation) between the two groups. There was no significant difference found between the non-DAEP and DAEP group for family-based risk scores or the child's perception risk scores; however, a significant difference was found between the two groups on the peer-based, community-based, acculturation-based, and school-based factors. The third question examined the unique contribution school, peers, community, family, and acculturation makes in the prediction of the child?s perception factor for Hispanic males. A hierarchical multiple regression suggested only the community-based, family-based, and acculturation-based variables made a significant contribution to the child's perception factor. The fourth question examined if the child's perception factor mediated the relationship between placement in the DAEP and the family-based, community-based, peer-based, school-based, and acculturation-based factors. The effects of the five variables on group placement and child's perception factors were assessed through the use of structural equation modeling using the program AMOS. (Analysis of Movement Structures; See Figure 2).

This research study was conducted as a qualitative case study of five resilient single African-American mothers of successful young sons who attended an elementary school in a large urban school district. The study was designed to hear the voices of these mothers and their lived experiences using racial socialization to influence school readiness and academic achievement in their young sons. The intent of this case study was to broaden the limited qualitative research base on this population and inform administrators, educators, and other single parents about factors that may contribute to more positive academic outcomes for African-American males. This qualitative study used the actual words of the participants to tell their stories, as it provided rich descriptions of their lives. Data was collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews, and the mothers' responses shaped the phenomena under study. Analysis occurred immediately after each interview, and analytic conclusions were formulated by coding and categorizing ideas or statements of experiences from the data to ensure that important constructs, themes, and patterns were noted. The results of this study yielded the following as it related to the voices of these resilient single African-American mothers: (1) these single mothers believe that their ability to overcome adversity positively influences their son's academic success; (2) these mothers also believe their upbringing has influenced their parenting style; (3) family, church members, and friends play an important role in supporting these mothers and sons; (4) church attendance and faith in God help these mothers to persevere in difficult times; and (5) racial socialization is a tool these mothers used to help their sons to be successful in school.

The purpose of this study was to examine four variables that impact African American male students’ perceptions of their transition from elementary school to middle school. This study determined what role social, emotional, physical, and academic variables have in the transition process from elementary school to middle school for African American males. The two guiding questions for this mixed methods study were: 1. What are African American male students’ perceptions of personal development variables on their transition from elementary school to middle school? 2. How do African American male students describe their transitional experience from elementary school to middle school? Participants in this study were 149 African American male students from five middle schools in southeast Texas. Findings of the study were derived from the use of a self-developed 52-item questionnaire (Student Transition Perception Survey) with one free-response question and interviews of ten students (two from each school). The major findings in this study were: 1. Social variable –African American male students felt that schools did not provide a positive school climate, teachers did not treat them with respect, and their parents were supportive of their education. 2. Emotional variable –African American male students felt that schools did not make them feel successful, and they did not feel equal to their peers. 3. Physical variable –African American male students were equally divided in the acceptance of their physical appearance and when they compared themselves to others. 4. Academic variable –African American male students felt that teachers did not give them valuable attention in class. 5. When looking at the trend of student responses among the five schools, African American male students shared similar feelings about the social, emotional, physical, and academic variables. 6. African American male students expressed their feelings about being unsafe, experiencing differentiated teacher treatment, declining grades, and difficulty in their middle school transition.

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio State University, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 28-33).

Sexual minority people face a heterosexist society in which they are legally and socially marginalized. Additionally, Black people face a society where racist attitudes and laws persist, one in which they are dehumanized as "other" in relation to Whites. Furthermore, being a Black male means confronting a system where, beginning in elementary school, one is frequently deemed deficient or deviant and penalized by racist practices and policies. Very few studies have examined how Black gay males come to understand their intersecting racial and sexual identities or how they navigate and negotiate life in a White heterosexist society. This dissertation outlines the current state of sexual minority youth with a focus on Black gay males and suggests that more must be done to understand the lived experiences of this community within and beyond the schoolhouse, especially in a city such as Atlanta, which is known as a Black gay mecca and where the Black sexual minority community is visible. It is important to examine how a range of institutional forces, working in tandem with and sometimes against racism and heterosexism, challenge as well as assist Black gay males in forming their identities. The purpose of the study was to gather the life histories of five young Black sexual minority males aged 19-24 in metro-Atlanta. I utilized critical race theory and quare theory, which critique endemic racism and heteronormativity, as a lens to understand their life histories within a larger societal context. By probing how numerous social institutions have influenced young Black male identity formation, including schools, peers, family, church, community-based LGBTQ organizations, and social media, this study presents life histories in a way that provides a more holistic picture of this community. Due to the paucity of research focused on how young Black gay males are productively navigating through life, this study offers a distinct contribution by placing their histories front and center in an attempt to provide a counterstory to deficit-based perspectives. From the participants’ life histories, five factors were found to shape identity formation while navigating the above institutions: racial shelving (bracketing race in majority-Black environments to contend with sexual identity issues); thick skin (increasing ability to face and conquer challenges based on negotiation of past challenges); self-determination (taking the initiative to seek information and relationships to learn about sexual identity, including use of social media); defying/transcending stereotypes (refusing to conform to dominant narratives about Black gay males); and experiential evolution (understanding that experience translates into growth and self-affirmation). All of these factors address the ways in which the participants have come to understand, negotiate, accept, and even embrace their intersecting identities. Additionally, findings are useful because the participants’ life histories have set a foundation for how educators and sexual majority youth can better understand a population facing a racist and heterosexist society and enable new policy interventions to be imagined. Four proposals, which emanate from participants' life experiences, are presented for schools to undertake: incorporating Black gay activists and community members into school culture, providing professional development for teachers on race and heterosexism, developing a comprehensive sex-education curriculum that includes gay students, and implementing a “Who Cares” campaign to mediate peer pressure to conform.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Miami University, Dept. of Educational Leadership, 2009. / Title from second page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 45-48).

AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF CHRISTIAN H. BRYANT, for the Master of Arts degree in PSYCHOLOGY, presented on 12 NOVEMBER 2009, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: AN EXAMINATION OF THE PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES OF THE ATTITUDES TOWARD BLACK MALES SCALE MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Kathleen Chwalisz This survey-based study was conducted in order to examine the utility of the Attitudes Toward Black Males Scale (ATBM; Bryson, 1998). The sample included 224 undergraduate students from a Midwestern university. A principal components analysis was conducted in order to assess the consistency of the current factor structure of the ATBM with the eight-factor structure proposed in Bryson's (1998) scale construction study. Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated between the ATBM and other general and Black-specific racial attitude measures in order to assess the construct validity of the ATBM scale. The results of this study did not support the factor structure of the ATBM as identified by Bryson (1998). Therefore, the utility of the Attitudes Toward Black Males Scale is called into questions as an assessment of general racial attitudes toward Black men based on findings with the current sample.

The college graduation rates for African-Americans, as compared to other ethnic cohorts, remains at a continuous low level. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (2014), 1,602,480 baccalaureate degrees were conferred nationwide to college students during 2009-2010. The purpose of this phenomenological research study is to understand how second-year African-American males attending a mid-sized, southwestern historically Black university and college (HBCU) perceived their ability to achieve academic success. For this study, I collected, thematically analyzed and correlated data from participant profile sheets, focus group meetings, follow-up interviews and observational field notes. The 11 research participants provide a descriptive account of their academic experiences as they have progressed towards their impending graduations. Data analysis rendered six emergent themes: family influence, cultural awareness and exposure, mentorship, networking, academic achievement, and campus climate. This study is significant for individuals who are interested in improving the academic advancements of African-American males in higher education. The findings may aid academic researchers, campus administrators, academically focused organizations, faculty, staff, and students in understanding what is needed to develop new programs and campus initiatives that foster African-American males’ achievement. The research findings also add to the body of limited research that is available on the achievement patterns of African-American males attending HBCUs.