Brian L. Wright

I Know Who I Am, Do You? Identity and Academic Achievement of Successful African American Male Adolescents in an Urban Pilot High School in the United States

This study explores racial-ethnic identity and academic achievement of five young African American men in 11th and 12th grade in an urban pilot high school. Data gathered through individual and group interviews and a questionnaire were analyzed to understand how academically successful African American male adolescents interpret their social and academic lives to achieve school success while also maintaining a healthy racial-ethnic identity (HREI). The findings reveal that the young men developed layered and complex notions of what it means to be African American, male, and successful against the backdrop of having achieved a HREI within a nurturing school environment.

Creating access and opportunity: Preparing African-American male students for STEM trajectories PreK-12

Purpose Research often neglects the full continuum of the STEM pipeline in terms of underserved and underrepresented populations. African American males, in particular, experience limited access, opportunity, and preparation along STEM trajectories preK-12. The purpose of this paper is to challenge this gap by presenting examples of preK-12 programs that nurture and promote STEM development and learner outcomes for underrepresented populations. Design/methodology/approach A culturally responsive, asset-based approach emphasizes the importance of leveraging out-of-school practices that shape African-American males learning experiences. From a practitioner standpoint, the need to understand the importance of developing a STEM identity as a conduit to better improve STEM outcomes for African-American males is discussed. Findings To respond to the full continuum of the pipeline, the authors highlight the role of families and STEM programs that support African-American male students’ STEM identity development generally with an emphasis on how particular out-of-school programs (e.g. The Children’s Museum of Memphis [CMOM], MathScience Innovation Center [MSiC]) cultivate STEM trajectories. The authors conclude with how preK-12 settings can collaborate with local museums and other agencies to create opportunities for greater access and improve the quality of African-American males’ STEM preparation. Originality/value The intellectual value of our work lies in the fact that few studies have focused on the importance of examining the full continuum of the STEM pipeline with a particular emphasis on STEM development in early childhood (preK-3). Similarly, few studies have examined the role of identity construction and meaning-making practices as a conduit to better STEM outcomes for African-American males prek-12.

Accomplished Urban Teaching

This article discusses the relevance of four dimensions of urban teaching: foci on relationships and shared authority, linking classroom content with student experience, incorporation of familiar and culturally compatible communication patterns, and development of counter narratives that challenge stereotypical conceptions of at-risk students and families. Three veteran former urban teachers and current teacher educators discuss insights from such dimensions informed by current research, the literature, and their various roles in urban schools. Outcomes of the effort reveal that the dimensions are interrelated and contribute to the discussion of whether accomplished urban teaching requires additional teacher knowledge, skills, and attributes, or one-size-effective-teaching fits all.

Science Learning for ALL Young Scientists: Exploring, Investigating, Learning, and Growing Together With Ramps and Pathways in Diverse Settings

Physical science activities provide multiple and varied opportunities for young children to actively observe, engage in, interact with, and interpret experiences in the physical world within diverse, inclusive settings. If all learners are to gain access to, fully participate in, and achieve maximum profit from early science opportunities, educators need to understand, believe in, and value science as a learning experience for all children. Thus, educators need to view all children as science learners. This article examines key principles central to maximizing early physical science learning opportunities with the full range of learners within democratic learning communities and demonstrates how teachers can satisfy these principles using early physical science activities, particularly activities using ramps and pathways.

Five Wise Men: African American Males Using Urban Critical Literacy to Negotiate and Navigate Home and School in an Urban Setting

This study explores a psychosocial concept coined by the author referred to as “Urban Critical Literacy” (UCL). UCL is an emergent four-step strategy employed by five African American young men as they navigated their cultural worlds of home and school in an urban setting. Critical literacy is the theoretical conceptual framework that underlies this research. Data collected through individual and group interviews and direct observations of home and school are further grounded in constructivist theory to help guide the investigation and documentation of how the participants used UCL. The findings revealed that the participants employed UCL as a strategy to help navigate and negotiate peer pressure, styles of communication, dress, and stereotypes as well as school personnel’s unfavorable perceptions of them that can potentially impede their school success. The young men critically identified and reflected on these issues in ways that empowered them to make responsible decisions without jeopardizing their ac...

Multicultural: Multicultural Pathways to STEM: Engaging Young Gifted Black Boys Using the Color-Coded Bloom-Banks Matrix:

Jerold, an African American boy, is a rambunctious, imaginative, and intelligent first grader who asks a lot of questions and always has an elaborate explanation full of abstract, layered details to share during science class. He is a critical thinker who is being screened for gifted education services. Jerold’s almost all White classmates are captivated by his questions—questions they had not considered. He works well with his classmates and enjoys science experiments, but gets frustrated when his teacher (Ms. Flower) does not understand what he thinks is happening scientifically. When Ms. Flower, a White female teacher, invites students to the science area of the classroom, Jerold is the first one to arrive with his mind racing, hand raised, and ready to participate. For 2 weeks, these first graders have been investigating plant growth and development using bulbs. As part of their experiment, students were told that they would force bulbs into bloom. Ms. Flower also told them that part of being a scientist is observing and documenting the changes that take place over time using “scientific language.” To carry out this experiment, she instructed Jerold and his classmates to pick up the following materials from the science center: one clear cup for planting, a few marbles, stones or pebbles, a small bottle of water, and a bulb. Assigned to science cooperative learning groups, Jerold and his partner Lilly gathered their materials and returned to their desks. Eager to get started, Jerold filled the cup with marbles, Lilly placed the bulb on top with the root side down, and then Jerold poured in the water until it is just barely covered the bottom of the bulb. Together, they held both sides of the cup containing their bulb and walked over to place it on the sunny window ledge of their classroom. Fast-forward 2 weeks. Ms. Flowers walks around to talk with groups of children about their observations and documented changes to their bulbs. She arrives at the window ledge where Jerold and Lilly placed their bulb and invites them to join her to discuss their observations. With surprised looks on their faces, both children are amazed by the growth of their bulb. Before Ms. Flower can ask a question, Jerold, with his usual contemplative look, interjects a question: “Did you put magic in there or something?” Too often, Black children, especially Black boys, quickly lose interest in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) when their ideas are not seriously taken up by teachers because their sense making may be unfamiliar to teachers. This lack of familiarity can serve to downplay and minimize the reasoning and sense making (e.g., experiences, knowledge, beliefs) resources that Black boys use as they engage in STEM learning. When this happens, Black boys disengage, and may resort to misbehaving, which contributes to not being referred to or screened for gifted education; but it can result in suspensions, as well as underachievement and achievement gaps. For these reasons, it is important to take a closer look at early childhood education and STEM as they relate to Black boys in the early grades so that serious consideration is devoted to creating viable pathways to STEM in the early childhood classroom. Like Jerold and the STEM assignment 722577GCTXXX10.1177/1076217517722577Gifted child todayGifted child today research-article2017

Untapped Potential: Recognition of Giftedness in Early Childhood and What Professionals Should Know About Students of Color

Early recognition and formal identification of gifted children are important in helping them learn during their primary years and preventing disengagement and negative attitudes toward school. This is especially the case for children from low-income, racially, linguistically, and culturally different backgrounds. In this article, we suggest some equity-based changes to ensure that all children have access to the rigorous academic environments they need and deserve.

Metaliteracy: A Race or a Journey?

Prior to my grandmother’s death, she shared a shoebox filled with numerous pictures, drawings, and letters that I ðShellyÞ had written over the years. As a kind of memorial and testimonial to the impact my grandmother had on my life, I purchased a three-way picture frame and placed a small orange finger paint handprint ðI made at grandma’s house at age 4Þ, a letter I wrote tomy grandparents on a small sheet of drawing tablet paper ðat age 8Þ, and a small person figure I drew ðat age 5 or 6Þ. I placed the frame prominently on my home office desk as a daily reminder. I soon discovered, however, that I was not the only one gazing upon the items placed in the frame. One day, while I was preparing dinner, my daughters approached me from behind and asked with giggles, “What is this?” I turned around to find them holding the picture frame. With great affection, I responded, “That frame is a tribute to your great grandma. That is a handprint, a drawing, and a letter I wrote when I was a little girl and spent time at her house. She saved those things to give to me many years later.” Glancing downward once again upon the picture frame, my daughters pointed to the small letter with smirks and asked indignantly, “Did you write that? That’s awful!”My daughters declared, “Look at the spelling! You misspelled ‘grandma,’ ‘grandpa,’ and ‘feel.’ You left out ‘hope’ and you did not use a question mark at the end of your question. Your penmanship is sloppy, and the sentences are crooked because you didn’t use the right kind of ðlinedÞ paper” ðsee fig. 1Þ. Surprised and dismayed over their relentless critique of my early attempt as an emergent writer, I reminded my daughters that this was not a school assignment. Nonetheless, they could neither grasp nor appreciate my genuineMetaliteracy promotes literacy activities, strategies, and practices as meaningful tools to actively engage in, and make sense of, world experiences. Counsell (2007) completed a phenomenological case study to investigate what happened as the life histories of one beginning and one veteran third-grade teacher intersected Florida’s high-stakes testing at demographically different communities. Classroom observations and field notes completed in each classroom revealed divergent instructional and methodological approaches and activities specific to literacy/metaliteracy (reading and writing) that resulted in different learning experiences and outcomes. This article highlights and questions whether high-stakes testing and subsequent teacher-directed skill-drill strategies used to increase standardized test scores actually impede or support metaliteracy (defined as literacy for life meaning and understanding). This study suggests that Florida’s hyperrational steering system can potentially repress social actors, particularly vulnerable populations such as the beginning teacher at the struggling low-income school, to internalize the values of the test and the authority of the state.