Was the Recruiting Promise Fulfilled? African American Football Players 20 Years After Graduation

• In Event: 44.084 - Roundtable Session 18
  In Roundtable Session: 44.084-17 - Transition and Persistence to Higher Education

Abstract

The curricular experiences of 53 African American student-athletes participating on a Division I football team at an elite, private university in 1996 were studied and four dominant, developmentally meaningful categories emerged: Leadership Development, Pedagogy and Knowledge, Culture and Identity and Power and Authority. In 2016 those same students were surveyed and interviewed to revisit their undergraduate academic and athletic curricular experiences to see if they fulfilled Dewey’s model for the criterion of the value of school education (Dewey, 1916). Analysis indicates that academic and athletic curricular experiences contribute significantly to a quality life experience.

Author

• Bradley J. Bates, Boston College