Dispositions Toward (Collective) Struggle and Educational Resilience in the Inner City: A Case Analysis of Six African-American High School Students

Abstract

For more than 20 years, researchers have shown that the recognition of a limited opportunity structure on the part of marginal youth circumscribes their optimism toward the future and hence increases their likelihood of disengaging from school. This article, however, focuses on six, low-income, African-American adolescents who expected to realize their ambitions and were high achieving, all the while articulating an acute recognition of how race and class (and, in two cases, gender) operated to constrain the life chances of people like themselves. These students’ familiarity with struggle, including collective struggle, was the only biographical factor which distinguished them from the other respondents in the larger project of which they were a part. Thus, in contrast to the findings of some, their knowledge of struggle did not curtail their academic success but may have contributed to their sense of human agency and facilitated their academic motivation. Because this knowledge derived from their interaction with significant others, this article also maintains that the meanings that arise from immediate experiences and discourses are essential for understanding the diverse ways by which marginal people interpret and respond to their subjugation.

Second Language Writing and Bidialectalism: A Case for African American Student Writers

“…These findings clearly establish that lack of success for second language learners is not pre-determined. The same can be said for African American learners as evidenced by an array of studies (Mehan, Hubbard, & Villanueva, 1994;O'Connor, 1997) that demonstrate the reflexive relationships between agency and social constraints. Ibrahim (1999) similarly found that the second language classroom is not without "its politics and pedagogy of desire and investment" (p. 3).…”

Boys, Books, and Boredom: A Case of Three High School Boys and Their Encounters With Literacy

“…That is the most prevalent theme in our literature review. When struggling and reluctant readers have teachers whom they trust, they are more likely to engage with reading (Casey, 2008(Casey, /2009Heron, 2003;O'Connor, 1997;Paterson & Elliott, 2006;Sarroub, Pernicek, & Sweeney, 2007;Smith & Wilhelm, 2002). However, the fear of failure or the difficulty of the challenge at hand might be more powerful than the relationship (Smith & Wilhelm, 2004).…”

“…Struggling and reluctant readers tend to have a history of frustration and failure with reading in school (Casey, 2008(Casey, /2009O'Connor, 1997;Paterson & Elliott, 2006;Smith & Wilhelm, 2004). Researchers point to a couple of common experiences among youth: (a) As students progress through elementary and middlelevel grades (and eventually into high school), their experiences confirm their attitudes toward reading; and (b) those who continually encounter difficulty with reading repeatedly find themselves in unsuccessful situations, and these repeated situations of failure often cause feelings of anxiety, frustration, and eventually dislike for the act of reading.…”

“…However, the fear of failure or the difficulty of the challenge at hand might be more powerful than the relationship (Smith & Wilhelm, 2004). The teacher should be familiar with students' cultural capital-students' out-of-school literacies and other knowledge-and the influence it may have on their participation (or lack of participation) in reading (O'Connor, 1997;Paterson & Elliott, 2006).…”

Why Study the U.S. South? The Nexus of Race and Place in Investigating Black Student Achievement

“…A number of scholars have researched and written about the disparities that exist between African American 1 and White students' academic outcomes in the United States, such as differences in standardized test scores, grades, and high school graduation rates (Carter, 2005;Diamond, 2006;Ferguson, 1998aFerguson, , 1998bFordham, 1996;Horvat & O'Connor, 2006;Jencks & Phillips, 1998;Ladson-Billings, 2006;Lee, 2002;Mickelson, 1990;O'Connor, 1997O'Connor, , 1999; O'Connor, Lewis, & Mueller, 2007;Ogbu, 2003;Perry, Steele, & Hilliard, 2003;Thernstrom & Thernstrom, 2003;Tyson, Darity, & Castellino, 2005).…”