12 Years a Slave: Black Male Students' Perspectives on Past K–12 Urban Schooling Experiences

• In Event: Persistent, Consistent, and Insistent: Advancing Black Males' Educational Research

Abstract

This phenomenological study explores past learning experiences of Black students in U.S. public schools. Using critical cultural care theory as the theoretical and analytical framework, this study examines Black students’ past schooling experiences through the lens of racial “positionality.” To that end, this study positions Black students as the experts in their own educational understandings. Using semi-structured interviews and archival data, participants provide in-depth perspectives of their past public schooling experiences using retrospective reflective questioning. In doing so, participants provide individual reflections and also detail critical needs in educational reform. The study’s major findings included the following themes: relationships with teachers, classroom dissonance, mentoring, and motivational factors. The findings of this study are exigent for transformative conversations in school reform.

Author

• Marcia J. Watson-Vandiver, Towson University