Racial equality in the United States educational system has long been and continues to be a source of debate. Specifically, the disparities between whites and other minority groups have been increasingly more critical. Blacks and Latinos consistently score lower than whites on standardized tests and academic course work. There have been several explanations given for poorer school performance by certain minority groups than whites. In this dissertation, I explore the black white achievement gap through the examination of one widely known explanation, oppositional culture theory. This research investigates the major tenets of oppositional culture theory and the contemporary multicultural navigator concept. Using a grounded theory method of analysis, I examine the connections between suppositions of the theory and black students in the Upward Bound academic achievement program.

Oppositional Culture Theory and Social Cognitive Career Theory propositions were explored via employment of social cognitive career theory mechanisms. The effects of observed same-race occupational role models and occupational stereotypes and their indirect effects on school engagement through occupational expectations and future aspirations were explored in elementary-aged Blacks. Occupational expectations and future aspirations of Black youth were not significantly affected by occupational prestige of jobs held by observed same-race occupational role models. However, it was found that future aspirations of Black youth significantly impacted their school engagement. Future aspirations and school engagement were not significantly affected directly or indirectly by occupational stereotypes. Other noteworthy findings were that educational expectations and future aspirations were negatively correlated with grade. Future studies should be done to further explore relevant contextual factors which can affect school engagement in elementary-aged Blacks, they should also explore declining educational expectations and aspirations with grade.

Alimenté par le développement continu d’une compréhension matérialiste de la circulation de la culture dans le circuit sociotechnique du jeu vidéo, ce mémoire se consacre à la notion d’idéologie en tant qu’appareil de reproduction sociale et son articulation au sein de ce circuit. Héritière d’un système économique global historiquement bâti pour conduire à une accumulation polarisée des ressources globales vers des métropoles impérialistes, la culture vidéoludique, principalement adressée à un public occidental, tend à renforcer les subjectivités nécessaires pour assurer la continuité de cette matrice coloniale du pouvoir. Par l’introduction des contributions formelles et activistes du troisième cinéma et de l’art du Black Panther Party, tel la cultivation d’une compréhension diagnostique, la proximité avec la formation d’une organisation politique et la conscience de la possibilité d’alternatives, ce mémoire s’intéresse aux possibilités d’alimenter de nouveaux usages de vieux radicalismes. Le mémoire se clôt sur des interventions issues du milieu du jeu vidéo qui entretiennent des similitudes avec ces arts engagés, soit par des plateformes alternatives qui permettent l’émergence de telles contre-histoires, soit par des actions sur les représentations effectuées par des créateur·rices qui délimitent des segments au sein desquels il devient possible d’opérer. De tels espaces critiques participent à faciliter l’accès à un processus de conscientisation. / Influenced by the continuous development of a materialist understanding of the circulation of culture within the socio-technical circuit of video games, this dissertation is dedicated to the notion of ideology as an apparatus of social reproduction and its articulation within this circuit. Inherited from a globally built economic system historically designed to lead to a polarized accumulation of global resources towards imperialist metropolises, video game culture, primarily directed at a Western audience, tends to reinforce the subjectivities necessary to ensure the continuity of this colonial matrix of power. By introducing the formal and activist contributions of the Third Cinema and the Black Panther Party's art, such as cultivating a diagnostic understanding, proximity to the formation of political organization, and awareness of the possibility of alternatives, this dissertation explores the possibilities of fueling new uses of old radicalisms. The dissertation concludes with interventions from the gaming milieu that bear similarities to these engaged arts, either through alternative platforms that enable the emergence of such counter-histories or through actions on representations carried out by creators which delimit segments within which it becomes possible to operate. These critical spaces can then facilitate the process of conscientization.