“He’s More Like a Brother Than a Teacher”: Adult-Youth Relationships in a Program for African American Males

• In Event: Adolescent–Adult Relationships as Developmental Spaces: Mechanisms Underlying Positive Development for Diverse Youth

Abstract

While the achievement gap between African American males and other student populations have been a focus for both researchers and in the public media, scholars have less often sought to understand the qualitative experience of Black male students in public schools. This paper explores the role of relationships in school engagement for 9th graders enrolled in a manhood training program for African American male students in a comprehensive urban high school. Drawing on interviews of 25 youth, we compare students’ sense of relationship with their African American manhood training program instructors with their sense of relationships with other teachers, and explore the nature of student-teacher interactions in this program.

Findings reveal that the young men developed a sense of connection to their African American male instructors in the program that they did not have with most of their regular teachers. These relationships were characterized by trust, mentorship, and the students’ sense that they were listened to. Analysis of video data illustrate that these relationships were facilitated by particular kinds of student-teacher interactions during the program sessions and pedagogical moves on the part of the instructor. Implications for supporting the achievement of African American males in public schools are discussed.

Authors

• Nailah Suad Nasir, University of California - Berkeley

• Maxine Ramona McKinney de Royston, University of California - Berkeley

• Kihana Miraya Ross, University of California - Berkeley

• Jarvis Ray Givens, University of California - Berkeley