Several theories suggest that African American culture facilitates academic achievement, but others suggest that identifying with Black culture contributes to the achievement gap by undermining the academic performance among youth. These opposing perspectives are labeled "cultural compatibility theories" and "cultural incompatibility theories,"…

The study sought to investigate persisting African American female college students' means of coping. The study used the lens of Womanist Theory, which places the lived experiences of these students at the center of knowledge creation, thus removing their experiences from the margins of society. The study provided insight into the lives of…

Drawing on interviews with first-generation college students (FGS), the author argues that the students' culture affects college attendance and success. Although FGS often have a vocational perspective to college, the author found that they seek meaningful work with good pay. The author also suggests that good decision making, academic…

Although hip hop culture has been one of the most significant urban youth movements over the last three decades, it has only recently gained attention within the educational literature as a force to be reckoned with. And even then, much of the literature seeks to understand how hip hop can be used to engage students in the official school…

In this article we assess the literature on cultural explanations for ethno-racial differences in K-12 schooling and academic performance. Some cultural arguments problematically define certain ethno-racial identities and cultures as subtractive from the goal of academic mobility while defining the ethnic cultures and identities of others as…

The number of immigrants of color residing in the United States reached 13.5 million in March 2005, the highest in U.S. history. By 2010 the number of Black immigrants and their children is estimated to reach five million, and will represent twelve percent of the Black population in the United States. To date, the majority of Black immigrants in…

This article is a cross-case study exploring two young African-American adolescent girls' experiences with school mathematics and the impact of the socio-cultural context upon their motivation and mathematical identity. Based on repeated in-depth interviews and ethnographic observation of their mathematics classroom, the researcher portrays…

Perhaps one of the most taken-for-granted features of contemporary social theory is the ritual and increasingly generic critique of Marxism in terms of its alleged failure to address forms of oppression other than that of "class." Marxism is considered to be theoretically bankrupt and intellectually passe, and class analysis is often savagely…

Deficiency theories of racial inequality are basically inadequate in explaining observed racial differences between groups. Nonetheless, throughout the history of our country, both political leaders and prominent educators have propounded the notion that the inferior social status of blacks is due to some inherent deficiency in their make-up.…

Analysis of essays by Black students in an urban community college demonstrates that some errors in adult Black students' writing cannot be analyzed merely within the traditional hierarchy of rules for writing. Consideration of sociological factors is germane to an evaluation of students' writing ability. (BJV)