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African American Urban Public High School Graduates’ Experiences Concerning Mathematics

Rashid, Lorenzo A

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2016, Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Education, Cleveland State University, College of Education and Human Services.
This interpretive qualitative study explored African American urban public high school graduates’ experiences concerning mathematics, how these experiences may play a role in the choice to further their mathematics education, and how the Model of Academic Choice (MAC) may facilitate in the understanding of the experiences. It examined the lived experiences of seven African American urban public high school graduates concerning their mathematics education. Through criterion-based sampling, the seven participants selected had graduated from a public high school located in Northeast Ohio school districts having similar characteristics. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews that explored participants’ kindergarten through post-secondary mathematics experiences. Vignettes chronicled each of the participants’ mathematics experiences and an analysis of emerging themes from within and across vignettes were presented. The emerging themes were tediousness in learning mathematics, student engagement in the classroom, educational trajectory, reality check regarding the effectiveness of one’s kindergarten through grade twelve experiences in preparation for college, persistence, classroom environmental conditions, feelings about learning mathematics, behaviors resulting from feelings about learning mathematics, expectations of self and others, attributions of success and/or failure, one’s sense of self as a student and one’s self-concept of ability in mathematics. These themes parallel with the MAC constructs of cost, participant’s task specific beliefs, participant’s goals and general self-schemata, past events and related experiences, persistence, cultural milieu, affective reactions and memories, expectancies, participant’s interpretation of past events, and self-concept of ability, respectively. The MAC proved to be a good theoretical framework for explaining the participants’ experiences. The results of this study may be instrumental in having educators and policy makers alike reflect upon their practices to improve the academic outcomes of African Americans in mathematics education. This research contributes additional lived experiences of African Americans to the bank of qualitative research to help in understanding factors that may promote or hinder the participation of African Americans in STEM-related courses.
Joanne Goodell, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Anne Galletta, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Brian Harper, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Mittie Davis Jones, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Roland G. Pourdavood, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
212 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Rashid, L. A. (2016). African American Urban Public High School Graduates’ Experiences Concerning Mathematics [Doctoral dissertation, Cleveland State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=csu1485039549995587

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Rashid, Lorenzo. African American Urban Public High School Graduates’ Experiences Concerning Mathematics. 2016. Cleveland State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=csu1485039549995587.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Rashid, Lorenzo. "African American Urban Public High School Graduates’ Experiences Concerning Mathematics." Doctoral dissertation, Cleveland State University, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=csu1485039549995587

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)