Black Boys’ Academic Engagement: The Impact of School Racial Climate, Teacher Support and Attributions of Academic Success

• In Event: 1-077 - Staring Down the Gauntlet: African American Boys’ Racial Discrimination Experiences in Relation to Positive Development

Integrative Statement

School racial climate is comprised of various components that function in tandem at the school, classroom and individual level and impact the students’ self-perceptions. Previous research has demonstrated that Black boys perceive school racial climate more negatively than their White peers regardless of having a higher socioeconomic status (Watkins & Aber, 2009). Additionally, research has previously noted that Black students tend to have less positive relationships with adults at school (Voight, Hanson, O’Malley, & Adekanye, 2015). Though school racial climate is related to academic outcomes such as engagement (Konold, Cornell, Shukla, & Huang, 2017), the mechanisms through which this relationship occurs are less clear. Attribution theory posits that the way students interpret their academic achievements or failures has implications for engagement with future tasks (Weiner, 1985). Thus, it is important to examine the way that school racial climate relates to Black boys’ attributions about their academic achievement and their subsequent academic engagement. Given the previously mentioned work on the negative experiences Black boys have with their teachers, it is also important to identify the role of Black boys’ perception of teacher support on these relationships.
We examined data from a larger longitudinal study of 89 self-identified African-American boys in 6th - 8th grade (Mage = 11.22, SDage = 0.48). Students reported on their school engagement (modification of Fredricks, Blumenfeld, Friedel, & Paris, 2005) and perceptions of their school racial climate, teacher support, and attributions about success and failure in school.
A structural equation model (SEM) using full information maximum likelihood estimates yielded satisfactory model fit, χ2 (4)= 8.33 p = .08, CFI = .925, RMSEA = .110. Black boys’ perceptions of school racial climate significantly predicted their attributions of academic success (β = .51, SE = .13, p < .001) and failure (β = -.40, SE = .18, p =.025) to their academic ability. Furthermore, attributing success and failure to academic ability significantly predicted academic engagement for Black boys. Results also yielded a significant interaction (β = .27, SE = .11, p = .013) such that more positive school racial climate was related to boys attributing their academic success to their teacher more often when teacher support was high (β = .78, t = 4.00, p < .01; see figure 1).
The results of the current study demonstrate that school racial climate significantly relates to how Black boys make attributions regarding their academic successes and failures which has implications for academic engagement. Furthermore, teacher support has a significant impact on the way that Black boys experience school racial climate and make sense of their academic achievement. Findings will be discussed with regard to the ways that support from individual teachers can enhance Black boys’ broader school experiences around race in ways that allow Black boys fully engage in their schooling experiences.

Authors

• Alexandra Merritt, Virginia Commonwealth University
  Presenting Author

• Fantasy Lozada, Virginia Commonwealth University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Stephanie Rowley, University of Michigan
  Non-Presenting Author

• Beth Kurtz-Costes, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Non-Presenting Author