African American Male Student-Athletes Complicate Prescribed Identities as “Underprepared” Freshmen and Adopt Literacy Identities

• In Event: Roundtable Session 30
  In Roundtable Session: Identity Matters in Leadership: Aspects of Race, Gender, and Culture

Abstract

At Division I universities, African American (AA) male-student-athletes are given scholarships focusing on their sport-competencies. Academic abilities may be regarded by coaches/instructors as secondary to athletic prowess. Many student-athletes are gifted but only about one-percent will pursue professional sports post-graduation. Their academic selves/identities are critical in transforming athletic opportunities toward future success. This paper describes an instructional framework that draws on 10 AA male-student-athletes’ work from a yearlong academic seminar for underprepared freshmen between 2010-2013, and asks how progressive approaches to teaching “experimental” nonfiction writing facilitated/complicated student-athletes’ literacies in the classroom: in what ways did student-athletes 1) adopt prescribed identities/practices as underprepared freshmen and 2) challenge these notions as they engaged in “experimental” nonfiction writing throughout the year.

Author

• Rossina Zamora Liu, University of Iowa