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Students Who Identify As Black And Their Perceptions Of And Experiences With Public High School Student Council, Amanda R. Goddard

Educational Studies Dissertations

In recent decades, there has been a decline in the participation of Black students in high school student councils, causing concern that the Black student population is underrepresented in this traditional form of civic engagement. This hermeneutic phenomenological study investigated the lived experiences of Black individuals who attended Massachusetts’ public high schools and were faced with the opportunity to seek membership in student council. Three guiding questions focused on factors influencing a student’s decision to seek membership in the organization and the alignment between the portrayed purposes of student council with the participants’ actual experiences and perceptions. A modified snowball …