#Black Boy Joy: The College Aspirations of Rural Black Male Students

Abstract

Too often research on Black boys emanate from deficit orientations and take a problem centered approach which overemphasizes stereotypes or pathologizes Black male students, overlooking their aspirations and successes. Utilizing the High School Longitudinal Survey of 2009 (HSLS: 09), we examine the postsecondary goals of Black male ninth graders as well as the relationships among their educational aspirations, college knowledge, and supportive school personnel using Community Cultural Wealth as the conceptual framework. We found that the educational aspirations of Black male ninth graders are high; however, their knowledge of college falls short of their educational aspirations and their relationships with teachers and school counselors. We discuss the strengths, attributes, and systems of support that are useful to rural Black male students as they transition through secondary education to post-secondary settings and call for a paradigmatic shift using family-school-community partnerships based on the findings

Keywords

• Black males, rural, high school, college, aspirations, education