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"Thank You For Saying My Name": Academic Recognition As A Counternarrative For Black Male Achievement, Kendra Lowery

Diversity, Social Justice, and the Educational Leader

The author reflects on her experience as a middle school administrator involved in a school-wide initiative to recognize academic growth and achievement. She draws upon Perry’s theory of African-American achievement (2003) to explain how this recognition, which included several Black boys, contributed to a counternarrative of Black male achievement. In contrast to the dominant narrative of academic failure and discipline problems (Dumas & Nelson, 2016; Grant, 2011; Howard, 2013; Monroe, 2005; Noguera, 2008), this recognition created a new narrative of academic excellence and achievement (Allen, 2015). The concerted effort by school leadership to include new and underrepresented faces in a …