Abstract
Violent neighborhoods and low-performing schools continue to devastate young, low-income, African-American men and their families, despite individual and family use of kin and peer network navigation strategies. To learn more, interviews were conducted with 40 young African-American men, ages 18 to 22, from Baltimore City enrolled in a general equivalency diploma (GED) and job training program, and analyzed with modified grounded theory. Young men identified unsafe neighborhoods, chaotic schools, and disengaged teaching. Young men used safety and success strategies such as avoiding trouble and selecting positive peers to navigate unsafe environments. African-American families utilized kin network strategies such as messaging and modeling success, and mobilization for safety. Limits of unrecognized and unsupported strategies were related to: mobilization, limited educational partnership, and disproportionate family loss. Results indicate the continued urgent need for: (1) targeted violence reduction in high-violence neighborhoods, (2) calm and effective learning environments, (3) higher ratios of teachers to students to reduce chaos and improve learning, and (4) genuine teacher partnerships with families to improve access to positive role models, academic supports, and positive peer network development.
Highlights
As violent neighborhoods and low-performing schools further concentrate on young, low-income, African-American men, there are questions about how unsafe environments shape young men’s well-being
This paper focuses on young men in Baltimore City, Maryland, where in the year 2016, the homicide rate was among the highest in the nation [15], police brutality received national attention, and the percentage of young, African-American males who graduated on time from
The purpose of this research was to learn more about the experience that young African American men and their families participating in a general equivalency diploma (GED) program, living in a low-income, urban environment, have with navigating high-crime neighborhoods and low-performing schools
Summary
As violent neighborhoods and low-performing schools further concentrate on young, low-income, African-American men, there are questions about how unsafe environments shape young men’s well-being. There is a growing body of work on the relationship between neighborhood violence and high school dropout in low-performing schools, and the disproportionate impact on young, low-income, African-American men [1,2,3,4,5,6]. Less is known about the varied lived experiences and strategies of young African-American men and their families who navigate both violent neighborhoods and schools with high dropout rates. The four areas included: the unpredictability and lack of safety in high-violence neighborhoods, the chaotic environment of low-performing schools, traditional strategies of African-American families and youth, and limits of those strategies [7,8]
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