Fostering Persistence and Achievement in African American Middle Scholars: The Importance of Parents' Discussion of Racial/Cultural Heritage

Background and Purpose:   Research suggests that African American youth face a racialized terrain in K-12 education, whereby regardless of ability or educational history they tend to be disproportionately exposed to teachers with fewer qualifications, schools with fewer resources, higher rates of disciplinary actions, and overrepresentation in lower-level courses. In response, Black parents  often employ racial socialization approaches—i.e. specific messages about racial identity and its social significance—that are positively related to youth’s educational success. To date however, extant racial socialization studies have tended to focus on the prevalence and general themes of these practices, with very few studies examining the actual methods by which racial/ethnic socialization messages are transmitted and perceived.  In response, the current study employs qualitative focus group interviewing with African American families to uncover and thickly describe the strengths-based processes by which parents racially socialize their children, as well as how their children make meaning of these socialization experiences in relation to positive identity that support educational success. 

Methods: Data are drawn from in-depth, semi-structured focus group interviews of middle school youth and their corresponding parents.  Participants were recruited in collaboration with a majority-African American school district in western Pennsylvania, using purposive and snowball sampling to identify highly engaged parents and their children.  Students and parent dyads were spilt and interviewed in separate focus groups of 3 to 5 parent or student peers.  A total of 15 parent-student dyads were interviewed (n=30 interviewees in total). Protocols were designed to elicit participants’ perspectives on their family discussion and activities around race, particularly as they pertain to supporting the students’ academic success. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed using grounded theory approaches, iterative memoing, and thematic analysis.

Findings: Results provided nuanced details of several previously underexplored processes that caretakers use to promote racial pride and prepare children for biases, particularly in the school context. These include: ways of processing racially driven police shootings; seeking and enrolling their children in ethno-centric programs; using the history of collective struggle to promote perseverance; culturally educating children at home to compensate for a lack of positive representation in school curricula; and taking formal roles in the schools to insure their children’s access to quality educational opportunities. In general, parents’ use these activities and discussions as counter-narratives to help children deconstruct the negative image of African American’s intellectual and social inferiority, and also to insure that their children’s educational opportunities are not compromised in any way.

Implications/Conclusions

Social workers are called to look for strengths within individuals that can be leveraged for empowerment. In this regard, school social workers can help Black youth achieve academic success by engaging students and families in using the strengths found within the sociocultural resources in their racial/cultural heritage. Additionally, school social workers can engage teachers and schools to affirm the positive resources within Black’s racial/cultural heritage in their engagement with Black youth for successful education.