Never Give Up: High-Performing Black Boys and the Tumult of Middle School

• In Event: Excellence in Education Research: Early-Career Scholars and Their Work

Abstract

Never Give Up: High-Performing Black Boys and the Tumult of Middle School will provide a counter-narrative that challenges deficit-oriented conceptions of Black boys and men in the United States. From the perspectives of high-performing Black boys’ themselves, this book takes an asset-based approach to delineate how school context contributed to their academic success and positive identity development during early-adolescence. When school practitioners recognize and understand how Black boys engage their strengths, talents, and resilience to excel academically during a highly dynamic stage of boys’ development, this knowledge-base will prove invaluable toward supporting their early-adolescent Black male students, which is essential for their success in later years of school and life.

Author

• Joseph D. Nelson, Swarthmore College