Why have we been trying to Solve a Non-Academic Issue with an Academic Solution?

Abstract

This research will use evocative autoethnography to examine how effective the Office of Black Male Student Achievement (OBMSA) was with Black Male students’ success by centering relationships. This study will be examining data expanding a period of August 2014 to May 2021. The research will be conducted using traditional qualitative research strategies. These are the researcher’s account of events that will include detailed notes, emails, personal interactions, program evaluations, videos, interviews, 100 day listening tour, school board meeting presentations, and focus groups. I utilize three bodies of literature; Culturally Responsive School Leadership’s tenet of critical self-awareness; Critical Race Theory’s tenet of counter storytelling and finally, School Culture for Black Males. Due to the academic outcomes that have been garnered by this large urban district prior to the creation of this department, Black Males were at or near the bottom on every academic success indicator. This study posits that these three theories were absent within the broader system which lead to the previous desperate outcomes. Leaders aren’t making decisions consistently based on race, the system has continued to share the disparate narratives regarding our Black Males and their academic outcomes from a deficit lens, and the culture of the school hasn’t been designed with Black Males in mind. The director’s accounts and implementation will be cross-examined based on the four stakeholder groups of parents & families, community members, educators, and primarily by the Black Males that provided the critical feedback/insight during the initial 100 days of listening. This “listening tour” was the foundation to creating the belief framework that has been used as a road map for the department. The current study provides an in-depth and panoramic view of the birds-eye experience of the researcher, largely based on the collective and individual voices of the Black Males that the department was designed to support. This design lends itself to a checks and balances of sorts, that can be an important and critical feedback loop. Situating the experiences of Black Males, providing the venue for their true authentic voice, and/or, what has worked best for them. In doing so, we will witness the importance of critical self-awareness for educators, the telling of the Black Male story from an asset based by their voice, and finally when the culture is designed with them in mind you will get successful outcomes.