The transcendental positioning of African American high school students: The impact of parental influence, peer accountability and black role models on the perceptions of black high achievers

Kelli Nicole Seaton, Purdue University

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of high achieving African American students who attended a predominately White high school in a Midwestern city. The methodology included several focus groups and follow-up interviews with purposefully selected participants. This study is distinctive because of the use of an Afrocentric Feminist Epistemology, heuristic inquiry, and hermeneutic phenomenology The amalgamation of these frameworks permitted the researcher to interact with the research process in a very unique way by using three perspectives that are similar yet varied in their approaches. Additionally, whereas some studies have focused on underachievement or low achievement of African American high school students, this study examined the supporting factors that have resulted in high achievement for Black students. Moreover, this dissertation significantly expands the current theoretical framing of high achievement to include a new theory entitled I proposed, called transcendental positioning. This study was not designed to refute the literature depicting African American students as “acting White” or as maintaining an emissary status Neither was it intended to invalidate assertions of schooling. Instead, by exploring students' perceptions of their experiences, this study extended the understanding of high achieving Black students and focused on the following research question: What are high achieving Black students' perceptions of the factors that have contributed to their achievement? The “acting White” and emissary status themes are too linear and deterministic in their approaches and so do not speak to the notion that in different environments, students may display different aspects of the self. To address the need to increase the breadth and depth of the African American experience, a theory of transcendental positioning was introduced, which more completely embodies the myriad of elements that Black students must negotiate through if they are to be high achievers. The result of using this theory to examine Black high achievement resulted in three primary supporting factors: parental influences, peer accountability, and Black role models.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Brock, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Educational sociology|Social psychology|Secondary education|Black studies|African American Studies

COinS