The rap music lyrics were analyzed to flush out the hip-hop culture's perspective on the education of African American (AA) youth. It was found that there is a need for the implementation of more culturally relevant curricula in schools, which benefits the students to understand hip-hop culture.

Education researchers have suggested that the academic challenges faced by many ethnic minority students are linked to perceived cultural discontinuity between students' home- and school-based experiences. However, there has been very little empirical inquiry into the existence and effects of cultural discontinuity for these students. The purpose…

This paper investigated African American college students' responses to a set of interview questions selected from a larger survey instrument in an exploratory study of basic attitudes about HIV/AIDS. Forty-two participants responded to an interview schedule in an investigation of student attitudinal domains regarding the HIV/AIDS epidemic.…

This study examines how African American adult female students respond to a culturally relevant curriculum. Research confirms that adults enter college classrooms with a variety of experiences that they value and experiences to which they wish to connect. Black female students in particular possess knowledge unique to their positionality in…

Interviews with students at an all-Black, all-male school in a major northeastern city revealed that a significant proportion of the participating students had a strong preference for practical, demonstrative explanations of new concepts and information that are directly related to their everyday experiential realities. These findings suggest that…

"The Blacker the College the Sweeter the Knowledge," is a common saying heard among students who attend Black institutions, as well as many proud alumni. These institutions have, from their inception, served a unique mission in educating the masses of Black folk, thus creating the Black middle class. They have done much with little and have…

Social movement research suggests that protest is effective because it de-legitimizes existing policies and imposes costs on power holders. The author tests this hypothesis with data on African-American student protest and the creation of departments of African-American Studies. The author finds that nondisruptive protest, such as rallies and…

Schools in America are facing rapidly changing demographics, and because of those changing demographics, this article makes the following propositions. First, the increasing demographic changes in urban schools demand new leadership approaches. Second, because many of the urban educational demands are shaped by ongoing social and cultural issues…

The "Brown v. Board of Education" decision of 1954 legally authorized equitable academic conditions and access for African-American students in the United States' public school systems. However, in actuality, Brown did not lead to substantial "de facto" changes in equity and access. The American public education system…

The present study examined cultural orientation as a protective factor against tobacco and marijuana smoking for African American young women (ages 18 to 25). African American college students (N = 145) from a predominantly White university were administered subscales from the African American Acculturation Scale-Revised (AAAS-R); the shortened…

Research indicates that faculty/student relationships affect student satisfaction with college, academic achievement, and retention. However, evidence indicates that African American students at predominantly White institutions (PWIs) may not glean the benefits associated with relationships with faculty. The purpose of this study is to understand,…

This article examines a decade or more of scholarly and popular writings that blame the persistence of racial inequality in educational performance primarily, if not exclusively, on the cultural inheritance of African Americans. This article focuses in part on the ways in which contemporary rationales for educational inequality are linked to a…

The author discusses several culturally sensitive qualitative research approaches, revisits the Culturally Sensitive Research Framework, a theoretical framework for conducting culturally sensitive research in African-American communities and provides examples of research that has employed culturally sensitive approaches. The discussion then shifts…

John Ogbu's work on "minority education" has spawned a number of interesting and useful debates in the US. Having been both an early admirer and critic of Ogbu's work, I reviewed his work in an "Anthropology and Education Quarterly" article. The present article reflects upon Ogbu's work and upon my scholarly engagement with that corpus over the…

Americans know that Black and Latino children, by and large, are not reaching their full potential when it comes to learning and academic performance. But there are exceptions. The question that's being increasingly asked is how and why exceptions can become the norm. In the half century since the Brown v. Board decision, there remains a wide…