Black Male Student Scholarship: A Content Analysis of Sixty Years of Urban Education

• In Event: Part 1: Celebrating the 60th Anniversary of Urban Education: Past, Present, and Future Directions

Abstract

This systematic content analysis examined six decades of scholarship in Urban Education (1965-2025) to investigate the representation and thematic focus of research addressing Black male student experiences in urban educational contexts. A comprehensive search using key terms (“Black males,” “African American males”) yielded 363 articles, which underwent rigorous screening procedures to establish a final sample of 59 articles published between 1995 and 2024. The temporal distribution of black male student scholarship revealed concentrated publication activity, with 20% of these articles published in 2016, alongside notable gaps in coverage during earlier decades. Employing an inductive coding framework, a multidisciplinary research team comprising Black males, school counselors, K-12 practitioners, and higher education scholars conducted a systematic analysis of article titles and abstracts. This analytical approach identified five primary thematic domains: policy, leadership, pedagogy, psychosocial, and academic. The multidimensional nature of Black male student scholarship was evidenced by frequent cross-domain categorization of articles. Quantitative analysis revealed psychosocial (n=47) and academic (n=47) domains as predominant themes within the literature. Findings illuminate the evolving scholarly discourse surrounding Black male students in urban education, characterized by increased attention in recent decades, contrasted with periods of limited scholarly engagement in earlier years. This content analysis contributes to understanding the development of research on Black male students in urban educational settings and identifies research gaps that warrant future investigation to advance a comprehensive understanding of this population's educational experiences and outcomes.

Authors

• Dakota W. Cintron, Cornell University

• Monique Nia Golden, University of Connecticut

• Paul Singleton, The Potomac School

• Desmond A McGlone, George Mason University

• Jessica Fort, Virginia Commonwealth University

• Colin Byrd, Bowie State University

• Erik Hines, George Mason University

• James L. Moore, National Science Foundation