A growing body of literature seeks to challenge the deficit-oriented narratives around Black students in mathematics by exploring the perspectives and experiences of successful Black students and professionals in the field—in doing so, aiming to provide counternarratives to the dominant discourse that center their participants’ voices, as well as to understand the factors that may influence Black students’ decisions to pursue advanced mathematics degrees and careers. Many such studies highlight racialized mathematics identity as a crucial factor for their participants’ long-term mathematics engagement; such studies seek to identify the sociostructural factors that contribute to its development, but generally do not examine the roles of different psychological factors. Despite evidence of the existence of relationships between mathematics identity development and specific cognitive factors such as mathematics conceptions, as well as affective factors such as mathematics self-efficacy, few studies have examined how these various constructs interact with identity development, and in turn, students’ mathematics engagement and learning outcomes. Fewer have examined these factors’ interactions for Black participants. A comprehensive understanding of how and why Black students decide to persist in mathematics necessitates an integrated approach that simultaneously examines the connections between participants’ psychological and sociostructural factors. In light of past findings around the significant role of mathematics self-efficacy in shaping students’ long-term mathematics engagement; prior findings around relationships between mathematics self-efficacy and identity; and the influences of mathematics conceptions on other affective mathematics beliefs, I chose for the present study to investigate the contributing factors for and interactions between mathematics self-efficacy, identity, and conceptions throughout the academic trajectories of several contemporary Black mathematicians. In doing so, I hoped to amplify my participants’ perspectives in the broader conversation around how to support Black students and students belonging to other historically excluded groups as they navigate mathematics learning environments that, at times, fail to stimulate, nurture, or uplift them. Using thematic analysis of several extensive semi-structured interviews, this narrative inquiry investigated these questions through the narratives of five contemporary Black mathematicians who were selected from a prior study on the impacts of sharing diverse mathematicians’ stories with students. Data sources included participants’ extant interview transcripts from both this study and other prior studies; as well as extensive follow-up interviews, online public engagement materials such as lectures and media publications, and my own memos. Data was coded using thematic analysis for both deductive themes related to the conceptual framework for this study, as well as emerging themes suggesting the existence of potential interactions between these constructs. Findings, which are reported in narrative form, suggest the importance of early and ongoing engagement with open-ended and reasoning-based mathematics tasks as a means of promoting broad conceptions of mathematics, self-efficacy for completing more challenging nonroutine tasks, as well as robust mathematics identities. Additionally, and in contrast to much of the literature around self-efficacy sources, findings from the present study highlight the particular importance of vicarious experiences of success by other Black mathematicians in shaping not only participants’ mathematics self-efficacies but their conceptions of mathematics, and accordingly, their dispositions toward mathematics.

The influence of systematic information interventions on black high school students in Virginia was examined in this study. The State Council of Higher Education in Virginia (SCHEV) sponsored a series of information intervention activities since 1982 to influence black high school student aspirations for college. This study was designed to examine influences on college aspirations attributable to the SCHEV activities. A survey originally designed by SCHEV and the Department of Education was modified to collect data from 1151 black graduating seniors from representative high school districts in Virginia. The data were analyzed by cross-tabulation and chi square procedures. Results of the analyses suggested that one information intervention—Better Information Workshops—had more influence on college aspirations than other interventions, including published brochures, videotapes/cassettes, and public service announcements. Respondents indicated that their aspirations were influenced significantly by parents, other adults, guidance counselors, peers, and teachers. Almost 70% of the respondents would be first generation college students. In addition, fewer males than females were found to aspire to college attendance. / Ed. D.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Education in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Education in the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education at the University of Zululand, 2004. / The present investigation consists of two objectives. The first aim is to investigate the nature of career aspirations of Black high school learners. The second aim is to find out whether learners' characteristics have an influence on their choice of a career. A questionnaire was administered to a group of 102 learners from grades ten to twelve. The findings indicate that a high percentage of respondents hold positive attitudes towards career aspiration. Results also indicate that variables such as year of study, age, gender and educational stream have no significant influence on career aspirations.

This study attempts to explore, theoretically and empirically, the experience of being black in a predominantly white university. It is more specifically concerned with perceived interaction between members of different cultural and ethnic groups, namely, between black and white. Using the existential-phenomenological method the experience of seven subjects, both male and female, were explicated. This explication revealed that black students become aware of their "difference" during interaction with members of the dominant white group. The black students perceive the behaviour of the white-dominant group to be racist and this creates a great deal of latent hostility, anger, and resentment. It is suggested that a programme be developed to diffuse the conflict situation during intergroup interaction at university.

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1938 K42 / Master of Science

M.A. (Psychology) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.Ed. (Education) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

A Musters thesis s.ibmittcd to the Fllclilly of Education, University of the WHwufcl'sl'and) Johannesburg, in partia! fulfilment of the requirements 1'01' the Degree of Master of Education, DCCCl11bcl' 1995. / This thesis concerns itself with resistance during tho decade of tho 80s. Much of the literature has focussed on student resistance. There has in general been very little that has examined resistance of student teachers, Student teachers are-vital change agents in education for the futuro. If there is to be any Intervention in teacher training colleges, then there needs to be an understanding of historical power relations and the f0n11S of'resistance in these institutions. The aim of the research report is to dccumer.t and explain why and how student teachers at the Mokopane College of Education become politically militant during the decade of the 80s. The contention is tha: under extremely repressive and authoritarian conditions such as those faced by student teachers in homeland lnstitutloue, resistance can take many forms. However, as the study concludes. it became general and militant in this instance, only when it was able to break out of its isolation and establish links with wider politlce! structures, This study is based on primary sources, interviews and secondary sources. It has engaged archival sources as well as important interviews from both activists and teachers who have taught under both Missionary and Bantu Education.

Thesis (M.A (Psychology))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Humanities, 2016 / Transformation initiatives in South African higher education institutions are informed by literature which has thus far explicated the high failure and attrition rates amongst Black university students with discourses asserting that the major contributing factors are disadvantage and language of origin. The current study endeavoured to investigate the learning histories of a group of high achieving Black female university students from socio- economically or educationally disadvantaged backgrounds in order to inform current transformation initiatives at South African higher education institutions. Seven female students who had previously participated in an academic development programme in the faculty of humanities at the University of the Witwatersrand, the Reaching for Excellent Achievement Programme (REAP), volunteered to participate in this study. Despite being second language students and coming from less advantaged backgrounds, these students achieved excellent academic marks and acceptance into various post- graduate programmes. Semi- structured interviews with an episodic narrative style were conducted. The method of data analysis found to be most appropriate for this study was thematic content analysis. The results revealed the importance of the influence of high school teachers on students’ perceptions of school and school subjects; the pace of adjusting to university; the significance of effective lecturing styles; the formation of an academic identity; acquiring academic literacy; and the importance of having social support (especially from university lecturers) for the successful academic performance of the participants in this study. This study suggests that perhaps there is more than individual effort that is required for academic success at university level. Further, it suggests that higher education institutions need to improve the lecturing styles of their lecturers, should ensure that all students are able to successfully adjust to the university environment early in their first year of study, should offer compulsory academic literacy courses to all first year students, and should consider providing all students with mentors who are university personnel. / MT2017

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 145-162).