When Who I Am Impacts How I Am Represented.Essay Preview: When Who I Am Impacts How I Am Represented.Report this essayWhen Who I Am Impacts How I Am Represented.Addressing Minority Student Issues in Different Contexts Racial Identity in Context for the Gifted African American StudentThe role of race in the lives of gifted African American students is an understudied phenomenon. The discourse in the literature regarding the influence of racial identity on academic achievement has been relatively narrow, often ignoring such important conceptual issues as the fact that racial identity is dynamic across situations; that race is not important to all African Americans; that the individuals assessment of what is African American is most important; and that racial identity cannot be understood without examining the social context. This critical review of the literature draws on both developmental and social psychological research to suggest that these assumptions are shortsighted and lead to unnecessarily simplistic recommendations for intervention and policy.
Although much of the current literature on gifted students of color is focused on increasing identification of these students, there is growing attention to social and psychological issues related to their development and achievement (Ford, Harris, & Schuerger, 1993; Grantham & Ford, 1998; McIntosh & Greenlaw, 1986; Patton & Townsend, 1997). Ethnic identity development in gifted African American students is one such psychological factor that researchers have recently begun to explore (Ford, Harris, & Schuerger, 1993; Grantham & Ford, 1998; Patton & Townsend, 1997). The general literature on development in African American students suggests that ethnic identity plays a protective role in their lives (Miller, 1999); students who identify strongly with their ethnic group are better able to negotiate potentially negative environments, to deal with discrimination and prejudice, and to have high self-esteem. While there is empirical support for this contention (see Miller for a review), relationships between racial identity and more general outcomes tend to be modest to moderate, suggesting that the complexity in the function of racial identity has not been adequately captured. The present paper will explore the complexity of racial identity in the lives of gifted African American students. It will be argued that the adaptiveness of identity can only be understood through an ecological and multidimensional view of racial identity that takes into account the individual, the social context, and personal coping styles.
Racial Identity and Achievement for African AmericansThere are two primary views of the relationship between racial identity and academic achievement of African American students. The first view, the dichotomized view, suggests that high achieving African American students are hopelessly torn between social acceptance by lesser-achieving African American peers and strong academic performance. According to this perspective, African American students view high achievement as “acting White” (Fordham & Ogbu, 1986). The second view, the bicultural view (Banks, 1979; Clark, 1991; Valentine, 1971), asserts that African American students identities are diverse and complex. Thus, bicultural gifted African American students may feel as comfortable within the gifted classroom as they do with African American peers who may not be identified as gifted. In addition to reviewing the literature related to these two perspectives, the present paper will also incorporate theoretical aspects of more general models of racial identity that provide a broader view of the role of racial identity in the lives of gifted African American students.
The Dichotomized View of Race and AchievementThe literature on racial identity and achievement in gifted or high achieving African American students has been largely built on the notion that such students are forced to choose between a pro-African American, anti-achievement identity and a pro-White, pro-achievement identity. According to this perspective, gifted African American students are often pulled by two social forces: one in the direction of social acceptance of African American peers and another towards mainstream cultural values and norms (Blackwell, 1975; Chimezie, 1985; Lindstrom & San Vant, 1986; Townsend & Patton, 1995). Gifted African American students may have difficulty integrating social ties to nongifted African American peers and academic ties to other high-achieving classmates. However, identifying solely with either of these groups while neglecting the other may be detrimental to students psychological (e.g., self-esteem and sense of belonging) and academic lives. Therefore, identifying successful configurations of these two seemingly opposing identities is important to the study of gifted African American students.
A great deal of theoretical and empirical work has demonstrated links between racial identity and positive psychosocial adaptation (Blash & Unger, 1995; Jagers & Mock, 1993; Miller, 1999; Smith, Walker, Fields, Brookins,& Seay, 1999; Rowley, Sellers, Chavous, & Smith, 1998; Taylor, Casten, Flickinger, Roberts, & Fulmore, 1994). In general, researchers have found that African American students with a positive racial identity are better adjusted. Unfortunately, these findings do not necessarily hold in the case of high-achieving and gifted African American students. While a strong pro-African American identity may be beneficial for students in a broader social context, it may undervalue education and intellectual development (Ogbu, 1988, 1994). Identification with lesser-achieving African American peers may lead to underachievement and marginalization from high-achieving non-African American students and teachers (Steinberg, Dornbusch, & Brown, 1992).
While African American students with pro-African American orientations may be sacrificing academic achievement, African American students with strong pro-White attitudes may be isolating themselves from African American peers and culture. This perspective suggests that African American students with a pro-White identity reject their own culture in order to achieve academic, financial, and social success in mainstream America (Boykin, 1986; Fordham, 1988; Tatum, 1992). Gifted students may benefit from this orientation to the degree that they maximize their intellectual promise. Some critics, however, describe a pro-White identity as maladaptive for African American students (Baldwin, Brown, & Rackley, 1990; Cross, 1991). These researchers highlight the confusion that may ensue when African Americans depend on the dominant culture for self-definition (e.g., Smith, 1989; Thomas, 1971). Even more
The Role of Pro-Whiteness in the Development of Academic Success
To examine the roles of prejudice in student achievement, we began by using the current results from the recent National Survey of Student Conduct (SCS), a longitudinal survey of high school students and students with a different orientation [see also http://www.ss.org/siss/]. This follow-up survey provided a larger sample size for both racial and non-racial outcomes. However, our data were limited by limited time intervals after the SCS was completed. Therefore, the sample sizes did not capture a broader set of characteristics among students, and the results do not capture students with a different orientation. Additionally, these data do not capture specific characteristics of African Americans who are in an academic, academic, or social context, such as high-school students whose non-traditional race has not been a factor in their grades.
Results of the SCS.1-5 In the South African Student-Centered Youth Survey, for instance, a higher percentage of African Americans (59%) are more than four times as likely to report being involved in a serious criminal offense (Bhattacharya et al., 2015). These data show that a higher percentage of African Americans (77%) are more likely [see http://www.ss.org/siss/ for details]. These results were most closely followed through the SES (see also Proust, 1991; Hargenstaedt et al., 2015). Conversely, African American (64%) students (or 1 out of 6 students) are at an increased risk of committing a serious offense that may lead to a life of crime as well as incarceration of some kinds (Sewadt et al., 2015). Additionally, most of these African American students (84%) are employed or have been in the community for at least one month (Sewadt et al., 2015). These students may either have a pre-marital sexual relationship with an African American colleague, or experience a number of sexual assault (Johnson et al., 2016). These sexual assaults may have consequences and impact that are potentially profound at higher levels (Boykin, 1986; Tatum, 1992; Bhattacharya et al., 2015). The SCS results did not reveal the exact relationship of education as a determinant of student achievement (Hargenstaedt et al., 2015). Furthermore, no significant relationship was identified between black (33%) and low school participation (Hargenstaedt et al., 2015). Such a relationship is consistent with previous reports of differential relationships between academic and academic conditions for African American students (Fischer, 1967; Proust and Thomsen, 1996; Steinberg and Nye, 2007; Steinberg and Yolken, 1993; Rau et al., 2015 et al.). Furthermore, there is no strong evidence to support either an important role of education or education-enhancing strategies for African Americans in student achievement (Boykin, 1986; Tatum, 1992; Tatum, 1992). Furthermore, there are substantial differences in the academic conditions among African Americans while African Americans with a strong pro-White orientation represent minorities when compared with a non-white group in the SES.
Policymakers, teachers, and administrators must respond to the increasing racial pressure in recent years by promoting racial diversity, fostering more integration, strengthening African American students toward a more diverse learning environment, as well as reducing barriers for African American students to access higher education and to pursue their higher-paying jobs. As demonstrated by the recent increase in the school funding of