Male Higher Education Research Articles

Themes on Black college males’ mental health and future directions for research in student services

AbstractIn this article, we discuss major themes on Black males’ mental health that have emerged from this monograph. We will also discuss and emphasize how various institutional agents such as student affairs practitioners, faculty, and administrators can use this information to better support Black males in higher education. Finally, we will also discuss implications for future research in student services.

An overview of Black males and mental health in higher education: Implications for practice and research

AbstractThis article discusses some critical underlying factors that facilitate mental health concerns for Black males in higher education. This article also focuses on the role that student affairs practitioners and faculty can play in supporting Black males on college campuses with mental health needs. This article concludes with recommendations and critical research to further research and practice.

Understanding the identity work and aspirations of Indigenous males navigating elite Australian higher education

ABSTRACT In Australia, there has been increased attention to attracting Indigenous peoples into higher education but, despite a recent growth in enrolment numbers, they remain severely underrepresented. This underrepresentation is particularly notable among Indigenous males, who are the least likely to attend. In this paper, we investigate the experiences of four Indigenous young men who attended an elite higher education institution. Aligned with other research on the experiences of Black and Minority Ethnic males in higher education, the article captures how their experience in privileged institutions compels them to reflect on their own positionality and the cultural interface between Indigenous and non-Indigenous knowledges. All data were thematically analysed and this paper reports on two key themes: influencers to pursue higher education and motivational factors at university. In considering the journey of these young men into elite higher education spaces, we are interested in the discursive constitution of their Indigenous identities and how their aspirations are realised in reference to a strong sense of cultural pride and social justice.

Gender differences in the intention to study math increase with math performance

Even though females currently outnumber males in higher education, they remain largely underrepresented in math-related fields of study, with no sign of improvement during the past decades. To better understand which students drive this underrepresentation, we use PISA 2012 data on 251,120 15-year-old students in 61 countries to analyse boys’ and girls’ educational intentions along the ability distribution on math assessment tests. We analyze the percentages of boys and girls intending to pursue math-related studies or careers as a function of math performance. First, we show that for both boys and girls, there is a positive and linear relation between the probability of intending to pursue math and math performance. Second, the positive relation is stronger among boys than among girls. In particular, the gender gap in student intentions to pursue math-related studies or careers is close to zero among the poorest performers in math and increases steadily with math performance. Third, as a consequence, the gender gap in math performance, to the detriment of girls, is larger among students intending to pursue math than in the general student population.

Understanding gender disparity: factors affecting higher education self-efficacy of students in Malaysia

Purpose Gender disparity is a global phenomenon where females outnumber male participants. It has been observed that males are the early leaver from higher education, thus reflecting a severe concern about social instability. Malaysia is a prominent example where females outnumber males in higher education. In this context, this paper aims to examine the effect of individual, social and financial factors on the higher education self-efficacy of male and female students. It develops a comprehensive understanding of gender-based decision factors in pursuing higher education. Design/methodology/approach The hypothesis was formed based on a comprehensive literature review following the hypothetico-deductive positivist approach. These hypotheses were tested based on a sample of 250 respondents. A multiple regression analysis was deployed to test the relationship between the dependent variable and its predictors. Findings The results suggest that male and female students’ self-efficacy depends on five determinants, i.e. family influence, peer influence, career expectancy outcome, gender roles and institutional factors. Male students tend to be influenced more by these five determinants than females. Additionally, male students with better financial backgrounds are more likely to have higher self-efficacy, whereas gender roles negatively affect male and female students’ self-efficacy for higher education. Research limitations/implications The breakout of COVID-19 resulted in the selection of limited students in Malaysia. Due to restricted movement orders, it was impossible to reach out to the students for data collection. Future research could include a broader area to include multiple other regions of Malaysia. For a broader aspect, the study could be conducted in other areas/countries where the problem of less male participation exists. Practical implications The relationship between higher education self-efficacy is assessed with social, financial and institutional factors for male and female students. It will enable the stakeholders and policymakers to make better decisions in increasing the self-efficacy of students to attain equity in higher education institutions. Social implications The finding of this paper will assist in increasing male participation in higher education institutions to avoid any social instability. Originality/value This paper contributes to the literature in understanding the causes of gender gap reversal, focusing on Malaysian higher education institutions. It also provides empirical evidence to look at potential factors that affect the higher education self-efficacy of male and female students.

Special Admission: How College Sports Recruitment Favors White Suburban Athletes

If this book serves as a reader's first entry into the perils of college athletics, they will not be able to look at any sporting event the same. Special Admission coincides with the timing of Operation Varsity Blues, the college acceptance scandal orchestrated by Rich Singer. Kirsten Hextrum contends the fact that families have been paying for their children to be admitted to schools for decades based on false athletic careers is not a big transgression as college admissions have always been “rigged” (xi). She begins the book by assessing the rise of Caylin Louis Moore, a Black male football player from Los Angeles who attended Texas Christian University. He later became a Rhodes Scholar in 2017. Such an honor led many news outlets to recognize Moore's feat (a Black male coming out of poverty receiving such an esteemed scholarship) as a rationale for how sport provides an opportunity for social mobility for people from economically deficient communities. It is an argument that has influenced and shaped much of the discourse around the problems with college athletics. Hextrum claims this type of positioning is based on a false assumption about the utility of a college education.Special Admission disputes the claim that “America is an open and upwardly mobile society.” Hextrum uses the narratives of various student-athletes focusing on issues of race, gender, and socioeconomic status to highlight this point. She contends sports have never been a meritocracy but rather an effort to promote the success of white males in higher education. Hextrum gives a history of how the United States is the only country that integrates sports into the fabric of higher education. In other countries, participants in interscholastic sports are not allowed to play at the collegiate level; rather, they are given the opportunity to attend an academy or turn professional. Why is that not the case across the sporting landscape in the United States? Hextrum argues it is because higher education is authorized through the state. Such a framework may seem awkward to a general reader, but this approach provides a greater understanding of the power dynamics at play within college admissions and athletics. This is seen through the recruitment process, which overwhelmingly favors white athletes from middle-class communities. The author contends this is based on residency, attendance in school districts with adequate resources, and social connections that provide them with ample sporting opportunities.Hextrum's book is well researched using an array of scholarly works in education and sport studies, along with interviews that allow the reader to learn about the experiences of white student-athletes. The author identifies this population of participants in “nonexploited, non-revenue-generating sports” as critical to her overall synthesis (19). Their stories enrich the narrative of this text. The discussion surrounds how the population gained unwarranted access for perceived athletic abilities. The honesty with which many of them realize their privilege is surprising, especially since the meritocracy argument is believed on many fronts. While it can be debated whether they are exploited or not because they do not bring great financial rewards to their respective schools, the inability of students to balance the demands of school and athletic competition across racial, gender, and socioeconomic lines illustrates larger issues within the structuring of college athletics as well. Hextrum's attention to the relationship between college athletics and the admissions process is important. Selection committees have come to favor certain populations who fit prescribed criteria for student-athletes and embrace lower academic standards with a greater guarantee for admission. White middle-class families are given access to highly selective institutions that provide higher graduation rates, better placement in top graduate programs, and better job opportunities through sport.Hextrum does not simply identify the problem of privilege within college athletics. She also provides solutions, encouraging schools, the administrators they hire, and student-athletes to embrace new elements of change to create equity in higher education. For example, new selection criteria need to be developed by admissions offices that will value more than a zip code, one's physical capabilities, and connections to pay for play sporting opportunities. She also argues for a reorganization of college athletics that allows for new sporting forms to be included, recommending activities like karate, surfing, skateboarding, and tai chi. While these recommendations are worthwhile and should be considered, such propositions will be hard to enact, considering many schools focus on their profit margin when determining what non-revenue-generating sports to support financially. Overall, sport studies scholars and practitioners must add Special Admission to their libraries. This work provides insight into the interconnectedness of college athletics and college admissions and how the college athletics arms race encompasses so much of the higher education experience.

Digital badges affect need satisfaction but not frustration in males in higher education

Digital badges are debated as a possible motivator in higher education, but their impact on basic psychological need satisfaction and frustration still requires research. Particularly need frustration has not been addressed systematically yet, specifically in relation to gender. Investigating whether and how badges affect both need satisfaction and need frustration, this study extends existing research on badges, motivation, and gender and discusses implications for theory and practice. During a digital seminar lasting for 8 weeks, we conducted a mixed-method experiment with N = 64 (32 women) undergraduates (M = 22.95 years, SD = 4.06). Participants were divided into an experimental (badges) and a control condition (no badges). We measured need satisfaction and frustration with pre-post online questionnaires. Univariate two-way analyses of variance revealed no effects of condition or gender. In the badge condition only, we used repeated-measurement analyses of variance and qualitative content analyses. Females and males estimated the seminar as equally need-satisfying, but males perceived working with badges as less need-satisfying than working for the seminar overall. Need frustration was not affected. Qualitative data implied that the needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness could be better supported by underlining the value, ease of use, and social aspects of badges. Gender effects might exist because of a male preference for competitive game elements or ease of use. Conclusively, digital badges, even if not perceived as particularly need-supportive, can be a motivator in digital learning without frustrating the basic needs. This work adds empirical evidence from the perspective of need frustration to existing research on motivation and gamification. It can be conducive to an optimal promotion of female and male students’ motivation in digital learning.

“You Are Going to School”: Exploring the Precollege Experiences of First-Year Black Males in Higher Education

Black males are often underrepresented in postsecondary education settings and frequently encounter many barriers in getting to college. Our aim in this qualitative investigation was to understand the precollege and college experiences of Black males who successfully enrolled in a postsecondary institution. Through a focus group interview, seven Black males in a living and learning community shared their experiences prior to and during enrollment at a highly selective, predominantly White institution. We used the grounded theory approach ( Strauss & Corbin, 1998 ) to analyze the focus group data and pinpoint thematic explanations of precollegiate and collegiate experiences of Black males. Based on the thematic findings, we offer specific recommendations on how school counselors can help Black males prepare and eventually matriculate in higher education.

Latino Males in Higher Education, Experiences Affecting Retention

ABSTRACT As the Latino population continues to grow in the United States, it is important for Latino youth, and specifically, Latino males, to obtain a college degree. As other demographic groups graduate from colleges and universities across the country, Latino males continue to lag behind their non-Latino peers in obtaining their college degrees. Specifically, this study discusses the challenges that Latino males face during their first year in college.

African American Males Learning Online: Promoting Academic Achievement in Higher Education

Online education is expanding within higher education. However, attrition rates for African American males enrolled in higher education in general, and in online courses specifically, is on the rise. Because the future of our nation depends on how well our educational institutions develop, nurture, and deploy talent, an investigation was conducted to identify factors that promoted online course completion among African American male undergraduate students. Ten males who successfully completed online courses were interviewed, and significant themes were identified. Factors that contributed to online course completion were financial assistance, prior academic achievement, previous information technology (IT) training, continuous academic enrollment, student selection of topics perceived as uncomplicated and less demanding or familiar due to sufficient prior knowledge, use of handheld digital devices, and a non-prejudicial learning environment. Based on these findings, recommendations are made that include strategies policymakers and educationists can implement to promote academic achievement and degree attainment among African American males in higher education.

Ni Latino, Ni Negro: The (In)Visibility of Afrolatino Males in Higher Education Research

For decades, academic researchers have reported on the lack of educational success of men of color in higher education. Many fixate on their lack of academic progress rather than attempting to understand how to adequately serve their needs. In response to the lack of asset based, solution driving research, many academics adopted the issue of young men of color as their educational platform. Yet, in their attempt to accentuate and position young men of color as competent and able individuals, the majority of researchers have overlooked AfroLatino males. In fact, AfroLatina/os as a whole remain largely invisible in higher education research since the majority of researchers adhere to monoracial and homogenous perspectives of race and ethnicity. Thus, this study highlights the lived experiences of six self-identified AfroLatino males in higher education by centering their experiences as racialized men on campus. Findings illustrate how AfroLatino males are forced to navigate a campus climate that does not acknowledge their physical presence (as AfroLatino males) or their academic needs. Further, they reported being forced to negotiate strict racial and ethnic categories in addition to language in order to gain peer acceptance on campus.

Race, Sport, and Sociocognitive “Place” in Higher Education: Black Male Student-Athletes as Critical Theorists

The purpose of this research was to further examine the juxtaposition of race, sport, and higher education. It utilized an existential-phenomenological approach to obtain data from a purposeful case selection of three Black male student-athletes enrolled in a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division 1 collegiate football program. Through the lenses of social-cognitive theory and critical race theory, the results elucidated (a) the impact of race as a psychological, cultural, and social anchor of “place” for Black male student-athletes on a predominantly White college/university campus, and (b) race intersectionality with age, gender, social class, and environment to influence their educational experience. The contributions of Black male student-athletes as critical theorists are highlighted, and a model depicting the relationships between race, sport, and the sociocognitive “place” of Black males in higher education as articulated by the participants is presented.

The Gender Shift in Enrollment Patterns in Higher Education: A Case Study of a School Administration Program

Recent trends in higher education suggest that there are more women than men enrolled and that more degrees are being conferred to women across all levels at the associate, bachelor's, master's, and the doctorate levels (Hussar &Bailey, 2011; Wang & Parker, 2011). I offer theoretical perspectives about the rapid growing female enrollment in higher education, arguing that it is a major force in shifting college student demographics. The conclusions are based on an investigation of student enrollment patterns in a school administration program at a large comprehensive university in southeastern United States from 2000 through 2011. The results revealed that in this program, females outnumbered males by 2:1. Chi-square tests revealed statistically significant gender differences in enrollment patterns across age, semester, academic year, type of program, and type of campus. A further test using logistic regression analysis confirmed these findings. These results mirrored national trends where females now outnumbered males in higher education.

Student enrolment in Malaysian higher education: is there gender disparity and what can we learn from the disparity?

Access into higher education has traditionally been dominated by males. However, the current situation in Malaysia as well as in many developed and developing nations is that females have outnumbered males in higher education. By comparing gender enrolment, this paper illustrates the extent of gender disparity in Malaysian higher education across different higher education institutions, levels of study and fields of study. The disparity across the three dimensions can be summarised as a trend in which there is over-representation of females in public universities, in all disciplines except engineering, manufacturing and construction, and at all levels except the doctorate. Importantly, although set in Malaysia, this paper has wider implications where the trend of gender disparity underlined two areas of concern, namely an overly emphasised academic admission for transition from schools into higher education and the differentiated willingness of households to spend on higher education for their sons and daughters.

Thriving Latino Males in Selective Predominantly White Institutions

Researchers focus disproportionately on the underperformance of Latino males in higher education. In response to this research gap, this study explores how Latino males conceptualized and embodied success at selective, predominantly White institutions. Using qualitative data available from The National Study on Latino Male Achievement in Higher Education, this article elucidates how participants exhibited five qualities associated with the thriving quotient. Implications for research, policy, and practice focus on promoting thriving among Latino male undergraduates.

Mental health and school dropout across educational levels and genders: a 4.8-year follow-up study.

BackgroundEducation is a key determinant of future employment and income prospects of young people. Poor mental health is common among young people and is related to risk of dropping out of school (dropout). Educational level and gender might play a role in the association, which remains to be studied.MethodsMental health was measured in 3146 Danish inhabitants aged 16–29 years using the 12-Item Short-Form Health Survey and examined across genders and educational levels. For students, educational level at baseline was used; for young people who were not enrolled in school at baseline (non-students), the highest achieved educational level was used. The risk of dropout in students was investigated in administrative registers over a 4.8–year period (1st March 2010–31th December 2014). Odds ratios (OR) and 95 % confidence intervals (CI) were calculated for mental health and in relation to dropout in logistic regression models, adjusting for age, gender, educational level, parental education, parental income and ethnicity.ResultsPoor mental health was present in 24 % (n = 753) of the participants, 29 % (n = 468) in females and 19 % (n = 285) in males (p < 0.0001). The prevalence differed from 19 to 39 % across educational levels (p < 0.0001). Females had a statistically significantly higher adjusted risk of poor mental health than males (OR = 1.8, CI = 1.5–2.2). Among the students the lowest risk was found at the elementary level (OR = 1.3, CI = 0.8–2.3), while students in higher education had a statistically significantly higher risk (OR = 1.9, CI = 1.2–2.9). The lowest-educated non-students had the highest OR of poor mental health (OR = 3.3, CI = 2.1–5.4). Dropout occurred in 8 % (n = 124) of the students. Poor mental health was associated to dropout in vocational (OR = 1.8, CI = 1.0–3.2) and higher education (OR = 2.0, CI = 1.0–4.2). For males in higher education, poor mental health was a predictor of dropout (OR = 5.2, CI = 1.6–17.3), which was not seen females in higher education (OR = 1.2, CI = 0.5–3.1).ConclusionsPoor mental health was significantly associated to dropout among students in vocational and higher education. Males in higher education had five times the risk of dropout when reporting poor mental health, while no such association was found for females.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12889-016-3622-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Black Males on White Campuses: Still Invisible Men?

am invisible; understand, simply because people refuse to see me. Like the bodiless heads you see sometimes in circus sideshows, it is as though I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass. When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves or figments of their imagination, indeed, everything and anything except me.-Ralph Ellison, The Invisible ManBlack male undergraduate (UG) students, like many other underrepresented populations in college, are confronted with a multitude of challenges, and uncovering the true realities faced by these students is the first step in exploring ways to help them succeed. White and Cones (1999) contended that there are four major psychological and social challenges occurring within the Black male population, including constructing an identity and defining themselves, developing and maintaining close relationships, coping with racism, and discovering adaptive possibilities within the Black way of being. Understanding the Black male UG experience from the students' perspective can help produce the true narrative that informs this population and the professionals who work with them. Further, Black male UG students can begin the re-evaluation process of understanding what it means to be a Black male in a predominantly White institution (PWI) and use their new knowledge to better navigate and succeed in these institutions.BackgroundExtant literature has confirmed that Black males attending PWIs struggle with racism (White & Cones, 1999), feelings of exclusion (Harper & Hurtado, 2007), and serving as representatives of Blackness for their white peers (Fries-Britt & Turner, 2002). Allen's (1992) study comparing the experiences of Black college students at HBCUs vs. PWIs provides compelling evidence of the challenges still faced by Black college students at PWI campuses. Washington (2013) explored attrition of Black males in higher education in the state of California but highlighted this is a national problem. Harper (e.g., 2009, 2013, 2015) has conducted multiple studies of Black males in higher education. His work highlights the socio-political, economic, and educational challenges faced by Black men in every sphere of their lives and aims a closer look at their experiences in higher education. Extensive reviews of the literature (e.g., Sedlacek, 1987; Willie & Cunnigen, 1981) over the last five decades report stereotyping and stigmatizing remain major problems for Black men in academia and the issue persists today. These stressors have deleterious effects on Black men trying to secure higher education.For example, Reynolds, Sneva and Beehler (2010) reported that institutional racism-related stress was negatively correlated with extrinsic motivation but positively correlated with intrinsic motivation. In their study that examined the relationship between micro-aggression and self-esteem, Nadal, Wong, Griffen, Davidoff, and Srike (2014) found racial micro-aggressions in educational and workplace settings are harmful to self-esteem. In an examination of the relationship between racial discrimination and depressive symptoms, Banks (2010) found the relationship between these constructs was mediated by college hassles. Results suggest that with reduction of college hassles, racial discrimination and depression might be decreased.Furthermore, Watkins, Green, Goolson, Gindry, and Stanley (2007) examined how stressful life events impact mental and physical health of Black college men. Black college men from PWIs reported school related stressors as being more pronounced than those who attended HBCUs. HBCU stressors were not school related.Most of these studies are quantitative in nature though some qualitative studies providing a critical examination of resilience factors rather than detrimental factors (e.g., Anti-Deficit Achievement framework) have been conducted (see Harper, 2012, 2015). In light of existing literature and informed by a national report produced by the SER. …

BOOK/MEDIA REVIEWS

Black Males in Postsecondary Education: Examining Their Experiences in Diverse Institutional Contexts, edited by Adriel A. Hilton, J. Luke Wood, and Chance W. Lewis. Charlotte, NC: Information Age, 2012, 231 pp., $85.99, hardcover; $45.99, paperback.As an African American male who persisted through the Ph.D., I often wonder, what are the salient supports that influenced my postsecondary experience that other African American males need as approximately two-thirds-who even make it to college-drop out? Is it faith, family and friends, mentors, peers, institutional choice, self-motivation, or engagement? Adriel A. Hilton, J. Luke Wood, and Chance W. Lewis, explored these same issues in their edited volume, Black Males in Postsecondary Education: Examining Their Experiences in Diverse Institutional Contexts. The text is composed of eleven chapters, each exploring the experiences of African American males who attend diverse institutional types.Lewis, in Chapter one, noted that scholarship examining the experiences of African American males in higher education has virtually ignored the impact of institutional context and culture. He concluded the chapter with an overview of the remaining 10 chapters.In Chapter two, Wood and Hilton conducted a meta-synthesis of the literature on Black males at community colleges over the past 40 years. They stated that three types of factors influence the experiences of Black males at community colleges: (a) economic, (b) academic, and (c) external. They concluded with policy recommendations included in the literature, presenting them by levels or groups (i.e., high school, institutional, state, federal), and called for additional research noting (at the time) that only eight peer-reviewed journal articles were published on Black males at community colleges in the past 40 years.Chapter three, written by Fountaine, included a literature review and overview of for-profit colleges and the access they provide African Americans. For example, Fountaine noted the University of Phoenix-Online Campus was the producer of Black associates, bachelor's, and master's degrees. Because literature concerning African American males at for-profit colleges is narrow, at best, she concentrated on African American trends, generally. However, her overview of for-profit institutions was extraordinary as research and scholarship on these institutions is limited.A personal favorite, Chapter four by Berhanu and Jackson qualitatively investigated the experiences of two African American males who attended an Ivy League institution for master's degrees using an aspiration theoretical framework. The authors found that the males chose their institution because of prestige, they were engaged partly to deconstruct stereotypes about African American males, and faced issues of race and racism on the campus.Gasman, Lundy-Wagner, and Commodore, in Chapter five, wrote about experiences of Black males studying at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). The authors reviewed literature, and provided a descriptive overview of Black males at HBCUs using the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS, see https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds). They noted that Black males make up the majority of students at two-year HBCUs, and HBCUs are vital for Black males who transfer from two-year to four-year colleges.In Chapter six, Newman, Mmeje, and Allen explored the experiences of African American males at predominantly White institutions (PWIs), analyzing existing literature and exploring trends at the top 50 national universities. They noted that Rice University had the highest graduation rate for African American students and California Institute of Technology had the highest percentage of males among African American students (81.8%). Newman, Mmeje, and Allen provided the most detailed list of recommendations for practice in the volume. …

Reversal of gender differences in educational attainment: an historical analysis of the West German case

Background information: During the late 1970s and the early 1980s, West Germany witnessed a reversal of gender differences in educational attainment, as females began to outperform males.Purpose: The main objective was to analyse which processes were behind the reversal of gender differences in educational attainment after 1945. The theoretical reflections and empirical evidence presented for the US context by DiPrete and Buchmann (Gender-specific trends in the value of education and the emerging gender gap in college completion, Demography 43: 1–24, 2006) and Buchmann, DiPrete, and McDaniel (Gender inequalities in education, Annual Review of Sociology 34: 319–37, 2008) are considered and applied to the West German context. It is suggested that the reversal of gender differences is a consequence of the change in female educational decisions, which are mainly related to labour market opportunities and not, as sometimes assumed, a consequence of a ‘boy’s crisis’.Sample: Several databases, such as the German General Social Survey, the German Socio-economic Panel and the German Life History Study, are employed for the longitudinal analysis of the educational and occupational careers of birth cohorts born in the twentieth century.Design and methods: Changing patterns of eligibility for university studies are analysed for successive birth cohorts and gender. Binary logistic regressions are employed for the statistical modelling of the individuals’ achievement, educational decision and likelihood for social mobility – reporting average marginal effects (AME).Results: The empirical results suggest that women’s better school achievement being constant across cohorts does not contribute to the explanation of the reversal of gender differences in higher education attainment, but the increase of benefits for higher education explains the changing educational decisions of women regarding their transition to higher education.Conclusions: The outperformance of females compared with males in higher education might have been initialised by several social changes, including the expansion of public employment, the growing demand for highly qualified female workers in welfare and service areas, the increasing returns of women’s increased education and training, and the improved opportunities for combining family and work outside the home. The historical data show that, in terms of (married) women’s increased labour market opportunities and female life-cycle labour force participation, the raising rates of women’s enrolment in higher education were – among other reasons – partly explained by their rising access to service class positions across birth cohorts, and the rise of their educational returns in terms of wages and long-term employment.

Is The Black Male College Graduate becoming an Endangered Species? A Multi-Case Analysis of the Attrition of Black Males in Higher Education

The purpose of this study was to examine how some black college students survived the phenomenon of low graduation rates, also known as attrition, occurring among black male students attending colleges in the state of California. Current research indicated that this phenomenon is a nationwide issue. The gap between black male college students and none-minority college students is significant and an indication of either discriminatory practices or inefficiencies within the system. This multiple case study involved a series of semi-structured interviews and field observation over a three month time-frame. The data was coded and triangulated. The findings pointed to several psycho-social factors that supported our framework of Social Network Theory and Resiliency Theory.