Racial Identity-Rooted Academic Motivation of First-Year African American Students Majoring in STEM at an HBCU.

Felicia Gangloff-Bailey,Kimberley Edelin Freeman,Jason M. Jones,Cynthia Eileen Winston-Proctor

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.669407

Felicia Gangloff-Bailey, Kimberley Edelin Freeman + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.669407

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Abstract

The purpose the present study is to explore African American undergraduate students' perceptions of their experiences and academic motivation within a Historically Black College or University (HBCU) learning environment. As part of a larger study, we collected 212 open-ended survey responses from first year students in STEM majors about how the HBCU context shapes their academic motivation. We used semantic thematic data analysis and found three major themes and corresponding sub themes that were salient in the development of students' academic motivation: place (institutional climate, HBCU mission and tradition, and absence of marginalization); pedagogy (culturally relevant pedagogy, positive faculty-student relationships, African American curriculum and instruction, racial socialization); and people (people “like me”; student, faculty and alumni models of high achieving African Americans). We discovered that HBCU institutional factors engendered academic motivation that is rooted in students' racial identity and suggest the construct of racial identity-rooted academic motivation. Given the important and unique realities of African American students that impact their educational experiences, engagement, identity development, and achievement in various types of school contexts, self and sociocultural variables must be included in research and theory on the motivational psychology of African American students. Implications for higher education practice and future research are discussed.

Highlights

Specialty section: This article was submitted to Educational Psychology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology
We discovered that Historically Black College or University (HBCU) institutional factors engendered academic motivation that is rooted in students’ racial identity and suggest the construct of racial identity-rooted academic motivation
The purpose of this study is to explore how HBCUs shape the academic motivation of first-year students in STEM majors

Summary

Introduction

Specialty section: This article was submitted to Educational Psychology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology. There is a lack of deep knowledge about the development of African American students’ academic motivation in varying educational contexts Scholars, such as Banks et al (1978), Cokley (2001, 2015), Freeman et al (2002), and Graham and Hudley (2005), have called for more diverse research approaches and theories in the study of the motivational psychology of African American students. While research that compares the motivation of white and African American students typically depicts African American students’ school motivation and achievement as lacking or low, HBCU research on HBCU students reveals positive academic and psychological development of African American students These unique Black educational contexts are critical socializers of many African American students and studying students in HBCU contexts can provide more culturally grounded research regarding the academic motivation of African American students. Examining HBCU students and contexts in depth is warranted

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