The Road I Traveled: Examining Black Students' Alternative Pathways and Nuanced Definitions of Success

• In Event: Black in the Ivory: Exploring Supports, Pathway, and Transitions

Abstract

This qualitative research study utilizes interview data from Black student participants to investigate alternative educational pathways and nuanced definitions of success. Drawing from ideas highlighted in Black Critical Theory and Community Cultural Wealth, this study underlines the ways in which Black students utilize various forms of capital to define success for themselves. Preliminary data analysis suggests that findings will correspond to two distinct categories: alternative pathways and nuanced definitions of success. Study findings serve to critique the current discourse of Black student success by widening our recognition of student success to go beyond the particular outcome of four-year university matriculation, as well as center relevant, self-defined successes of Black students, challenging prevailing and often exclusionary conceptualizations of success.

Authors

• Travis E. Dumas, Rutgers University
  Presenting Author

• Destiny D. McLennan, Education Northwest
  Presenting Author