African Americans in Higher Education

"African Americans in Higher Education is a multidisciplinary text that is far-reaching in scope. The text presents 16 chapters focused on Black male identity, hip hop, adult learners, leadership at HBCUs, critical Black pedagogy, Black women’s narratives, Black single parenting, Afro-Brazilian music, resistance strategies, ontology of Africana rhetoric, visionary analysis, and cultural literacy. With such broadness and diversity, the challenge for the editors was in creating seamlessness within and among chapters that works together to create “a” story of the African American experience coherently in one book. The greatest strength of the text is in each author’s ability to simultaneously use personal experience, professional knowledge, and research to make chapters as personal and meaningful as they are scholarly and informative." (Click HERE to read full review at Teachers College Record.)

“Too often, the study of the relationship between African Americans and educational institutions is one in which African Americans are acted upon, as opposed to active agents and innovators whose interventions in spaces of education have the potential to transform those spaces into engines of Africana innovation and upward mobility. This volume, African Americans in Higher Education: A Critical Study of Social and Philosophical Foundations of Africana Culture, in many ways takes the latter approach and interrogates the ways in which Africana culture, methods and pedagogy inform the experiences of African American students, teachers and education researchers. From Africana curriculum and pedagogy in predominantly white institutions and HBCUs to the varied experiences of African American men and women as teachers and graduate students, this book allows readers to place African Americans at the center of discussions of race, gender, identity and education policy. Readers will also appreciate the attention given to African American youth in primary and secondary education. African Americans in Higher Education is a much-needed addition to Africana and education studies.”

Marcia Walker-McWilliams, Ph.D., Executive Director - Black Metropolis Research Consortium, University of Chicago Library

"This volume reflects on African American Higher education, and in doing so, offers a wide range of perspectives that highlight the historic and present-day systemic barriers, but perhaps more importantly, that thinks beyond constraint to possibility, and beyond victimhood to agency and resistance. What makes this collection special is that underlying frame is unapologetically Black, drawing on the Africana Studies tradition, and highlights the connection between education and Black freedom, Black joy, and community thriving."

Dr. Na'ilah Suad Nasir, President, Spencer Foundation; President-elect, American Educational Research Association; Member, National Academy of Education

“This collection of essays explores the African-American experience in education from a variety of interesting angles. Focused mainly but not exclusively on higher education, the book engages both campus concerns and community factors that contribute to the ongoing crisis that is black education in the USA. African Americans in Higher Education successfully incorporates the power of subjective inquiry and testimony with formal academic investigation to provide numerous critical insights. Spanning the 20th Century to contemporary times, discussing issues ranging from navigating PWIs to black autonomous efforts such as ASALH and many points between, this book is a timely contribution to the literature on African American education.”

W.S. Tkweme, Director of Graduate Studies, Pan-African Studies, University of Louisville

“This volume on the status of African Americans in higher education could not be more timely in its release. This is particularly the case given the current sociopolitical environment whereby there remains a strong refusal to systematically eradicate the ever-present existence of social inequality and practice of overt racism in the United States.”

Bruce A. Jones, Ph.D., Professor and Vice President for Research, Howard University

Preface

Introduction

1. James Earl Davis, Black Male Youth Identity and the Schooling of Peril and Possibility

2. Reuben A. Buford May, African Americans and Social Life at Predominantly White Institutions: The Case of Urban Nightlife

3. TaNeisha Page, Challenges Faced by African American Adult Students: Within Higher Education

4. Abul Pitre and Tanya Hudson, A Critical Perspective on Leadership in Historically Black Colleges and Universities

5. Kevin B. Thompson, Where Am I: An Analysis of the Incongruence Between Black Men & the Teaching Profession

6. James L. Conyers, Jr., Carter G. Woodson and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History: A Reflexive Analysis

7. Crystal Edwards, “You have to get your mind right for this:” Black Women’s Graduate School Experiences

8. Joshua Hughes, Black Men and Single Parenting

9. Corey LeFevers, Afrocentric Analysis in Brazilian Music

10. Monique Liston, Resistance and Resilience: Black Graduate Students and the Collaborative Construction of Counter-spaces in the Community

11. Selena Tate, Counseling Psychology of African Americans: A Review of Literature

12. Autumn Raynor, Anti-Black Ontological Violence in Undergraduate Textbooks

13. Deidra Lawson, Vertically Integrated: African American Studies Instruction as Co-requisite to Education-Based Ontological Manipulation

14. Leah McAlister Shields, Laveria Hutchinson, and Donna Stokes, Teaching Through Culture

15. Detra Johnson, Visionary and Social Justice Leaders

16. Katina Thomas, The Dimensions of a Departmentalized Literacy Classroom Infused with Culturally Responsive Practices: Its Impact on African American Second Graders

Biography

James L. Conyers, Jr.

James L. Conyers, Jr., (Ph.D. in African American Studies, Temple University) is Director of the African American Studies Program, Director of the Center for African American Culture and University Professor of African American Studies at the University of Houston. He is the author or editor of thirty-five books; serves on various editorial boards; and edits two book series.

Crystal L. Edwards

Crystal Edwards (Ph.D. in Africology, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee) a Visiting Scholar in the African American Studies Program at the University of Houston. Her research and teaching interests include: Intersectional identities, lived experiences of Black women and girls, Black girls in educational settings, Microaggressions, Black Feminist Theory and Africana frameworks.

Kevin B. Thompson

Dr. Kevin Thompson is the Program Manager and Adjunct Professor for the African American Studies Program at the University of Houston. His research interests include African American male educational experiences within urban and rural environments, African American male teacher attrition, and Afrocentric pedagogical practices.