The Interdisciplinary Model of African American Students’ Academic Profile

• Published in: The Urban review Vol. 56; no. 3; pp. 444 - 469
• Main Author: McGee, Taylor
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01-09-2024; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Academic achievement; African Americans; Black students; Civil rights; Community and Environmental Psychology; Critical race theory; Curricula; Education; Educational attainment; Interdisciplinary aspects; Jurisprudence; Liberalism; Minority & ethnic groups; No Child Left Behind Act 2001-US; Race; Racial discrimination; Racism; Resilience; School boards; Sociology; Students; Asset-based theory; Academic success; African American students; Academic profile
• ISSN: 0042-0972; 1573-1960
• DOI: 10.1007/s11256-023-00672-7

In recent years, researchers have shifted from pathologizing Black youths, when investigating the Black-White achievement gap, to focusing on factors contributing to their resilience and success. A critical review was conducted of three widely cited asset-based theoretical frameworks that are used to examine African American students’ academic achievement. The review delineates the contributions and limitations of each model when studying African American students. In doing so, a new framework, linking the strengths of all three existing models, is presented as a tool to challenge existing educational practices and foster new theoretical and methodological contributions to this area of research.