Within-group Ethnic Differences of Black Male STEM Majors and Factors Affecting Their Persistence in College

• Main Author: Shane Y. Williamson
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Lindenwood University 2010-04-01
• Series: Journal of International and Global Studies
• Online Access: http://www.lindenwood.edu/jigs/docs/volume1Issue2/essays/45-73.pdf

The present study examined how familial and institutional factors interact with the academic experiences of a diverse group of Black males enrolled as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors at one university. Ogbu’s (1998) Cultural-Ecological Theory of Minority School Performance, a theoretical framework, posits that the manner by which a group achieves minority status, coupled with community and family educational values, impacts academic achievement. Immigrants, voluntary minorities, perform better academically than involuntary minorities (nonimmigrants) because they are more accepting of and more likely to adapt to the White middle-class norms upon which schools in the United States are based (Ogbu, 1994, 2004). While the data overall are positive for the sample, when viewed by ethnic group, it was evident the African and Caribbean students are more academically integrated to campus than African American students. The African students, more so than any other ethnic group, are connecting, interacting, and forming relationships with faculty outside of the classroom; conversely, African American students in this study reported having the least amount of effective connections with faculty. This research study found that for the Black male STEM students in this project (a) their families are a pivotal force, (b) academic experiences vary across ethnicities, (c) faculty mediate student success, and (d) there is a lack of interactions between ethnic groups (Black Distance) on campus.