African American Studies Commons^™

A Phenomenological Study To Engage African-American Youth Voice In Deliberations Regarding Their Response To Schooling, Donna Michelle Coulter

Wayne State University Dissertations

To examine disparities in education, the researcher utilized a naturalistic approach to uncover how youth think, talk, and feel about their response to schooling. Findings are based on in-depth conversations with 12 inner city African-American kids enrolled in Urban, USA middle and high schools, rarely heard from in the scholarly literature. Students conveyed a belief system that schooling was the route to upward mobility, however, their responses to academic exercises seem to suggest an indifference. Primary findings suggest that students' (a) sense of safety and family tradition were key factors of student school selection; (b) understanding of how levels of …