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Journal of African American Studies

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ISSN (Print) 1559-1646 - ISSN (Online) 1936-4741
Published by Springer-Verlag

[2216 journals]

Are African-American Male Undergraduate Retention Programs Successful? An Evaluation of an Undergraduate African-American Male Retention Program
- Abstract: Abstract Research indicates an alarming trend of African-American male students failing to graduate once enrolled in colleges and universities (National Center for Education Statistics 2011). In response to this problem, various universities have implemented academic programs to provide support and retention for these students. This study examines a retention program with Freshmen African-American male students in a large metropolitan university. Specifically, this article seeks to highlight the impact of retention programs on African-American male students successfully completing their first year of college. Results from a mixed method design suggest that retention programs have a positive impact on African-American male academics, with specificity to increased grade point averages.
  PubDate: 2013-06-01
HBCUs Propel African American Male Mathematics Majors
- Abstract: Abstract While researchers have examined the educational experiences of African American male students at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), researchers have neglected to adequately hone in on the mathematics experiences of African American male students at these institutions. Studies reporting on their mathematics experiences usually call attention to African American male students’ lack of mathematics preparation for collegiate mathematics and/or the difficulties these students experience in collegiate mathematics courses. This qualitative study, however, highlights the importance of HBCUs in producing successful African American male mathematics majors. Findings provide evidence that HBCUs provide supportive structures, mechanisms, and people, especially African American male mathematics professors, who contribute to the mathematical success of African American male mathematics majors.
  PubDate: 2013-06-01
Sex Differences in Graduate School Choice for Black HBCU Bachelor’s Degree Recipients: A National Analysis
- Abstract: Abstract Data from the Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study were analyzed to identify factors that historically Black colleges and universities graduates considered when choosing a graduate school; follow-up tests examined differences between Black men and women in the national sample. Interestingly, we found that Black men and women consider the same three factors most frequently when making graduate school decisions: reputation of school and faculty, proximity to home or work, and availability of an academic program. There were clear differences between men and women, however, in the extent to which they considered access to financial aid and costs of tuition and fees. Implications for theory, research, and practice are highlighted.
  PubDate: 2013-06-01
Historically Black Colleges and Universities: Sustaining a Culture of Excellence in the Twenty-First Century
- Abstract: Abstract Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) continue to provide a substantial role in the black community and in higher education by providing a culture of excellence. Yet, their role in higher education is the center of many academic and political debates. Defining this role has been thwarted with questions of HBCUs relevance in society, in the African–American community, and in higher education. The relevance of HBCUs is neither the dilemma nor the question for higher education and HBCUs. The conundrum for HBCUs is ensuring that they are equipped with the necessary tools to address global and economic twenty-first century challenges. The purpose of this article is to examine existing challenges that contribute to HBCUs struggles in the twenty-first century in sustaining their culture of excellence. This article highlights how HBCUs are able to address challenges of accreditation, funding, and HBCU’s leadership and management in the face of global and economic challenges.
  PubDate: 2013-06-01
Prestige Among Black Colleges: Examining the Predictors of HBCU Peer Academic Reputation
- Abstract: Abstract This study uses hierarchical multivariate regression to examine whether traditional measures of college and university performance are salient predictors of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) US News and World Reports peer reputation scores when HBCUs are rated exclusively by HBCU administrators. Due in large part to their unique history and mission, HBCUs often underperform in relation to non-HBCUs on traditional performance measures such as selectivity, graduation rates, and institutional wealth. By using these markers as the primary means for determining the effectiveness of colleges and universities, it has been argued that the larger higher education community unfairly mischaracterizes HBCUs as lower quality institutions. This has led many in the HBCU community to call for a rejection of these traditional standards of assessing institutional quality. The findings of this study, however, suggest that HBCU administrators rely heavily on these traditional measures when asked to assess the quality of other HBCUs. The potential implications of this are discussed.
  PubDate: 2013-06-01
Cultural, Ethnic Differences, Parental Involvement Differences, and Educational Achievement of African Heritage Students: Towards Employing a Culturally Sensitive Curriculum in K–12 Classrooms, a Literature Review
- Abstract: Abstract For a long time, some researchers have reported on the underperformance of some African Americans in comparison to other minority and non-minority groups. During this time, there have been debates over the causes for the differences in educational achievement between the various subgroups (ethnic subgroups) of students studied. The purpose of this review of literature is to discuss the major reasons for the differences in educational achievement levels of students of African heritage (Afro-Caribbean, African Americans, and Africans). Cultural differences/influence and parental involvement factors will be discussed as potential reasons for the difference in achievement between African Americans, Afro-Caribbean, and African students within the USA. The study concludes with a call for the employment of more culturally sensitive curriculums to enhance K–12 learning for ethnically diverse learners of African descent.
  PubDate: 2013-06-01
Changing Attitudes About Computing Science at Historically Black Colleges and Universities: Benefits of an Intervention Program Designed for Undergraduates
- Abstract: Abstract The African American Researchers in Computing Sciences (AARCS) program aims to broaden the participation of African Americans from historically Black colleges and universities in the computing sciences at the faculty and research scientist levels. The AARCS program serves as a model that can be incorporated into larger programmatic endeavors at institutions of higher education to target African Americans and other underrepresented groups. This study highlights features of the program, presents key research questions and findings of the evaluation, and generates specific programmatic knowledge for those interested in interventions designed to increase the representation of African American computing scientists, as well as other scientific-related disciplines within higher education.
  PubDate: 2013-06-01
Extreme Makeover: Preserving the HBCU Mission Through Service Learning Pedagogy
- Abstract: Abstract Although scores of colleges and universities are being hit hard by the economic crisis, historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are considerably more vulnerable to these financial misfortunes. Efforts to merge or close down HBCUs have grown increasingly stronger due to decreased federal and state budget allowances and changing perceptions about the cultural and academic need for these historical institutions. However, HBCUs continue to play an important role in offering educational opportunities to underrepresented post-secondary populations while maintaining a mission of civic and social justice. Although the mission of these institutions has not changed, societal and financial conditions are constantly evolving. Consequently, if HBCUs are to remain in a position to educate students to become forceful civic and social change agents, strategies for continuing to advance the historic mission must transform. Moreover, as HBCUs become more racially diverse and funding levels decrease, a curriculum shift to an integrated and authentic service learning pedagogy will allow HBCUs a contemporary approach to preparing students to excel in academics and to affect change in their communities.
  PubDate: 2013-06-01
The “Black Girl Turn” in Research on Gender, Race, and Science Education: Toward Exploring and Understanding the Early Experiences of Black Females in Science, a Literature Review
- Abstract: Abstract For the past 40 years, research studies have largely focused on sex equity issues. However, within the last few years, gender equity issues have become a hotly debated area of research. One may contend that sex is biologically determined maleness and femaleness; whereas, gender is influenced by cultural, social, and historical factors. Although, there has been much emphasis on the unfair treatment or exclusion of girls from science, the focus was mainly on White, middle class girls with little focus placed on Black girls. Thus, this has fueled the debate for the promotion of the “Black Girl Turn” in research on gender, race, and science education, as over the centuries Blacks and girls have been denied their turn in science due to cultural and historical–biological reasons. This literature review concludes with a call for more student-based inquiry approaches that can explore and seek to understand Black females’ experiences in science.
  PubDate: 2013-05-12
Introduction
- PubDate: 2013-05-02
Exposure to Prison Sexual Assault among Incarcerated Black Men
- Abstract: Abstract Despite the enactment of the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (PREA), human rights abuses involving sexual assaults abound in US prisons. Exposure to these assaults may contribute to posttraumatic stress and antisocial behavior among incarcerated Black men, because their rates of incarceration are disproportionately high. However, research on exposure to sexual assault in US prisons is limited. An anonymous self-report questionnaire on prison sexual assault exposure was administered to 134 randomly selected incarcerated Black men. Forty-three percent reported hearing sexual assaults occurring within the facility and 16 % visually witnessed them. Sexual orientation was associated with witnessing sexual assault (χ2 = 3.68, df = 1, p < 0.05). Findings from this study suggest that sexual assaults may be common in US prisons despite the PREA directive to eliminate such incidents. Conventional violence prevention programs and interventions may not meet the unique needs of prison populations given the high exposure to sexually coercive behaviors reported.
  PubDate: 2013-04-27
The Impact of Demographic Variables on Professor’s Perceptions of Post-secondary Health Education Curricula
- Abstract: Abstract The focus of this study was to examine the differences in health educators’ attitudes regarding the effectiveness of the current health education curriculum at predominately White institutions and minority-serving institutions. More specifically, the researchers were concerned with the influence of the variables age, ethnicity, gender, years of teaching experience, and institution type on the attitudes of health educators regarding the health curriculum at colleges, universities, and junior/community colleges in the southern region of Texas. The researchers formulated and tested 11 null hypotheses in this study. Each served to determine whether there was significant statistical difference in health educators’ attitudes. Part I of the Fisher Health Education Curriculum Attitude Survey, developed by the lead researcher, represents demographic information data that were used to obtain background information about the respondents (see Appendix 1). Part II of the Fisher Health Education Survey was used to determine health educators’ attitudes regarding the health education curriculum as it relates to students’ social and emotional needs (see Appendix 2). The researchers established content validity for the instrument as well as reliability. A population sample of 214 health educators who were randomly selected from 2-year and 4-year institutions were invited to participate in the survey. A total of 168 participants returned the surveys, which yielded a completion rate of 79 %.
  PubDate: 2013-04-04
Framing MOVE: A Press’ Complicity in the Murder of Women and Children in the City of (Un) Brotherly Love
- Abstract: Abstract This article examines local press coverage of the 1985 police bombing of MOVE, which resulted in the deaths of eleven people, as well as the destruction of two city blocks leaving 250 people homeless. According to public opinion polls many Philadelphians seemingly showed little concern about the heavy-handed tactics used by the police; in fact, many praised the mayor and the efforts of law enforcement. News accounts from the Philadelphia Inquirer were content analyzed to determine whether or not the coverage was framed in a manner that may have influenced the public’s attitude toward the organization and its members, thus cultivating within the populace an attitude of indifference.
  PubDate: 2013-03-27
The Dialectic of Representation: Black Freemasonry, the Black Public, and Black Historiography
- Abstract: Abstract The investment of African American Freemasonry in abolition, respectability, and literacy reflected an anxious intersection between dissent and incorporation. Furthermore, although the first black lodge represented a small and self-selected group, black Masonic thought described black identity in the broadest descriptive and discursive terms. In seeming paradox, the desire of black Freemasons to be respectable also reflected their demand for recognition as a function of abolitionism and historiographical revision. In consequence, the earliest African American lodge of Freemasons labored to occupy two opposing positions simultaneously, that of a counterpublic and that of a universal public. This essay examines this tension to argue that the same traits that made black Freemasonry unique and novel—its narrow self-selection, its abolitionist origins, and its arguments in print—also structured its conscious drive to represent African Americans in debates about freedom, racial equality, and Masonic history.
  PubDate: 2013-03-24
Race in the Present Day: NBA Employees Sound Off on Race and Racism
- Abstract: Abstract Resulting from the 2008 election (and 2012 re-election) of the first African-American President of the USA and the overrepresentation of African-American male athletes in American football and basketball today, it is possible that many Americans buy into the notion of a postracial society. Utilizing critical race theory as a lens, we interviewed five employees of an NBA franchise to better understand their perspectives on the topic of race and racism in American sport and society as a whole and, more specifically, how it has impacted African-American male professional athletes. This was a departure from the majority of the literature on this topic, which tends to focus on African-American male athletes in college sport. Our analysis of the data revealed three major themes: (1) the theme race matters, illustrated how race and racism persist in the NBA and broader society; (2) the theme moving forward concerned the participants’ thoughts on how to go about dealing with race and racism in the future; and (3) the theme, LeBron James, was in reference to the backlash LeBron James received after deciding to play for the Miami Heat. Implications for future research are discussed.
  PubDate: 2013-03-12
Respectable Vamp: A Black Feminist Analysis of Florence Mills’ Career in Early Vaudeville Theater
- Abstract: Abstract Florence Mills was one of only a few African American women vaudeville performers to become an international success. Born in Washington D.C. in 1895 and raised in Harlem, New York, Mills was a child performer in dramatic and musical theater. Through analysis of Florence Mills’ performances in Shuffle Along (1921), Dover Street to Dixie (1923) and The Black Birds Revue (1926), I seek to reveal the ways Florence Mills made use of the cultural economies of vaudeville to resist dominant constructions of race and gender. In particular, I assert that Florence Mills manipulated white American and European desires to consume slave culture, and expanded economic and cultural possibilities for African American women entertainers.
  PubDate: 2013-03-01
Single Black Mothers’ Role Strain and Adaptation across the Life Course
- Abstract: Abstract This study examines how Black single mothers maintain resiliency, despite having family provider role strain (e.g., low income, joblessness, and underemployment). Guided by a strengths-based role strain and adaptation approach that addresses how ethnic-specific strengths facilitate resiliency across the life course, we extend Bowman and Sanders (Journal of Comparative Family Studies 29:39–56, 1998) work on Black unmarried fathers. We focus on the role of strong religious beliefs and extended family closeness in protecting psychological functioning, despite having family provider role difficulties. Multivariate analyses were conducted on a sub-sample of 617 single Black mothers using the National Survey of Black Americans, a national probability sample survey which includes data from 2,107 face-to-face interviews. The early postindustrial era of the late 1970s and 1980s created critical and unprecedented provider role challenges because both Black men and women faced the highest levels of joblessness and economic marginality since the Great Depression of the 1930s. As hypothesized, strong religious beliefs and extended family closeness operated as significant protective factors promoting more resilient outcomes—a sense of personal efficacy, self-esteem, and life satisfaction. These theory-driven findings can also guide future policy-relevant research on more complex provider role strain–adaptation processes among Black mothers facing chronic poverty during the 2007 Great Recession and beyond.
  PubDate: 2013-03-01
More than Jezebels and Freaks: Exploring How Black Girls Navigate Sexual Coercion and Sexual Scripts
- Abstract: Abstract Expanding on Black feminist scholarship and sexual script theory, this study explored the sexual negotiation strategies of Black adolescent girls. Specifically, in this study, I sought to understand how Black girls confront sexual coercion and ways that racialized and gendered sexual scripts influenced their resistance. Two focus groups were conducted with 17 Black American high school girls. Using thematic and dimensional analysis, four themes of individual and collective resistance emerged from the data including Personal Responsibility, Finding Sexual Autonomy and Desire, Media Transformation, and Giving Voice. Themes replicate and extend existing African American sexual scripts as reported by Stephens and Philips (Sexuality & Culture 7:3–49, 2003). Implications for future research and psychological interventions are discussed.
  PubDate: 2013-03-01
Naming and Reclaiming
- Abstract: Abstract This special issue of the Journal of African American Studies is an interdisciplinary collection of original research manuscripts, which contextualize Black girls and women’s experiences from Black feminist perspectives. Naming and Reclaiming seeks to achieve several goals: (1) discuss and critique intersectionality and the complexities of Black girls and women’s identities; (2) adopt a strength-based approach to exploring the assets, resiliency, resistance, and agency of Black girlhood and womanhood; and (3) draw upon interdisciplinary scholarship that reflects historical, sociological, psychological, and legal perspectives within African American Studies. The first section of the special issue consists of three articles that explore the representations of Black girls and women and their internalization and resistance of these representations. The second section relies on social science research to examine ways that Black women cope with daily gendered-racial oppression. We end our special issue with a Black feminist theoretical model designed to reclaim power for Black girls and women. Through this special issue, we decidedly focus on Black women’s resistance and agency with the hope of highlighting ways that Black girls and women attempt to successfully navigate a sociopolitical reality that places them at significant disadvantages economically, physically, educationally, and socially.
  PubDate: 2013-03-01
Understanding the Personal Goals of Black Male Community College Students: Facilitating Academic and Psychosocial Development
- Abstract: Abstract Similar to 4-year institutions, community colleges are struggling to find ways to increase the success rates of racial and ethnic minority students in general and Black males specifically. According to data from the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS), compared to their male counterparts, Black males have the lowest retention and graduation rates among their peers. Given this, using national data from BPS, this article has investigated the personal goals of Black males in community colleges and provided context for how community college officials can use these goals to facilitate Black male academic and psychosocial development. Indeed, this article is noteworthy as limited research has focused on personal goals for Black males in community college. The article concludes with implications for practice and future research.
  PubDate: 2013-02-20