Research often overlooks the cultural significance of outdoor spaces for Black communities and their interactions with nature. Because of this prevalent oversight, there is a lack of emphasis on successful examples of how nature interactions have positively impacted Black children. This research study counteracted deficit models in environmental…

Historically Black youth have been labeled as needing to be "saved" and "fixed" because they are "at-risk," "broken," and more likely to subscribe to deviant behavior. This deficit rhetoric frames community-based education programs (CBEPs) that serve Black youth as vital spaces that must prevent and save…

The current study examines the contribution of racial congruence on young children's speech and language production to determine if African American children produce more or different language with an African American assessor, as opposed to a White assessor. Participants for the current study were selected from a larger group of children…

African American English (AAE)-speaking children's ability to judge the grammaticality of sentences was evaluated by their clinical status and grammatical structure. The study originated from a need to understand more about the tense and agreement systems of AAE speakers with specific language impairment (SLI) relative to their typically…

Education is the cornerstone of American society. However, American society has a long history of providing unequal access to education resources, often to the detriment of Black children. Black children are often perceived as threatening, even when only 4 years old. Relative to their White peers, Black children receive a disproportionately high…

Youth of color are severely underrepresented in STEM which is can be attributed to low socioeconomic status, lack of representation, varying levels of racism faced within different institutions and systems. Without proper support and representation, youth of color can begin to feel that STEM is not a field they identify with or feel they belong.…

This dissertation is an effort to better understand Black children's conceptions of smartness and the ways that teachers communicate smartness through their practice. Here, I reimagine smartness as a verb rather than a noun--that is, smartness is about what one does that is smart. I develop a conceptual framework that attends to race, mathematics,…

The first manuscript, "Measuring Reading Motivation: A Cautionary Tale" (Jones, 2020) is a mixed-methods study of Black girls' reading motivation while engaging in a summer reading program grounded in the Black Girls' Literacies Framework (BGLF; Muhammad & Haddix, 2016). This manuscript serves as the catalyst for this line of…

Safety, security, freedom of expression, love, and support are critical components for adolescent youth that encourage growth and development. This study explored how Black girls make sense of their educational experiences while partnering with school staff through the RoyalSapphires program. Children must be in relationships with well intended…

This qualitative study explores the transition to kindergarten special education of four Somali autistic children in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This dissertation answers a single, two-part research question: What aspects of the transition to kindergarten process do stakeholders find facilitate the transition process? What parts of the transition do…

"Teaching Spiritual Themes to African American Children: A Picture Book Approach" is a research project that used picture books to teach the four spiritual themes, 1.) love, 2.) forgiveness, 3.) kindness, and 4.) perseverance. This project was conducted in an after school program at Fifth Baptist Church, on Cary St. in Richmond, VA. The…

The purpose of this study was to describe and explain the 5th grade mathematics teaching practice of an African American female teacher in a predominantly African American classroom that consistently meets and/or exceeds Michigan's mathematics proficiency standards. Using multiple emancipatory lenses, and a single case study method that employed…

This qualitative study used a triangulation of survey, conversational interviews, and observations in an authentic setting to explore the phenomenon of reading motivation from the perspectives of a specific group of individuals. Five participants, all African American fifth grade boys qualifying for meal subsidies, gathered in a local youth…

The purpose of this study was to examine the validity of the "DELV-ST" by comparing it to two other screeners, the "Fluharty-2" and the "Washington-Craig Language Screener" (WCLS). The participants were 73 African American Pre-K and Head Start children, aged four- to five-years-old. Fail rates were higher than what…

Academic achievement gaps for African American children have been associated with disparities in early cognitive development, inequitable access to high-quality education, and father absence, often resulting in lower rates of graduation. Examining ways that may mitigate this problem is important to families and educators. The purpose of this…