"Give Me Something That Relates to My Life" : Exploring African American Adolescent Male Identities Through Young Adul
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2013 "Give me something that relates to my life" : exploring African American adolescent male identities through young adult literature Angelle Leblanc Hebert Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations Part of the Education Commons Recommended Citation Hebert, Angelle Leblanc, ""Give me something that relates to my life" : exploring African American adolescent male identities through young adult literature" (2013). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 3588. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/3588 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. “GIVE ME SOMETHING THAT RELATES TO MY LIFE”: EXPLORING AFRICAN AMERICAN ADOLESCENT MALE IDENTITIES THROUGH YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of Educational Theory, Policy, and Practice by Angelle L. Hebert B.A., Nicholls State University, 1995 M.Ed., Nicholls State University, 2005 August 2013 For Richie, Caroline, Maria, and Abbie ii Acknowledgments I am so very grateful to the individuals in my life who have made this journey possible for me. Whether through their scholarly expertise, their continual support, or their insistence on seeing me complete what I began—I am most thankful for the help of these people. To my major professor, Dr. Jacqueline Bach, for her scholarly knowledge, patience, guidance, and flexibility in working with someone who had far too much on her plate at one time. To Dr. Steve Bickmore for his contagious enthusiasm for English education and for his mentorship through independent studies that helped build my foundations for research. To Dr. Susan Weinstein, who first turned me on to this research interest and enlightened my mind to ways of thinking besides my own. To Dr. Roland Mitchell for sharing his rich perspectives on African American male scholarship and for challenging me to work even harder. To Dr. Jim Wandersee for his gentle encouragement and inspiration. And to Dr. Petra Hendry for her inspiring brilliance and her challenging curriculum theory course that enabled my first sense of accomplishment at the beginning of this journey. Thanks to my work family at Nicholls State University for their understanding and encouragement of my scholarly pursuits. My dear colleagues, Dr. Leslie Jones, Dr. Gregg Stall, Dr. Elizabeth Block, and Dr. Tiffany Papa, have been instrumental in keeping me motivated throughout this process. I am especially indebted to Dr. Stephen Triche, who first saw within me possibilities for scholarly work; I wish to thank him for sharing his scholarly insights and for keeping me calm and rational in the final days before my defense. I am also grateful to the Bayou Central High School administration, faculty, staff, and students. The students I taught there provided my earliest experiences with the frameworks surrounding this research and inspired its completion. A special thanks to Ms. Rae Simmons and iii her second and third period English II classes, particularly the eleven African American male students with whom I worked for this project. Ms. Simmons‟ eagerness and openness to try anything I suggested for her classes made this project possible. And her willingness to accommodate my presence in her classes for over four months is equally appreciated. A heart- felt thanks to the eleven young men who shared their lives and inner thoughts with me. I have truly been humbled by their insights about life. Most of all, I am especially grateful to my family, for none of this would be possible without them. To my amazing husband Richie for his unwavering love and support throughout my seven years of doctoral studies. To my three beautiful girls who waited patiently for their mother‟s undivided attention, which they so rightly deserve. To my angelic mother-in-law and father-in-law, who selflessly took on parenting roles so I could complete this research. To Lindy for refusing to let me give up. And to my parents for instilling in me a lifelong appreciation for education and hard work. iv Preface Connections forged with texts offer a powerful avenue for encouraging African American males to engage in schooling. This is possible because the “exchange with the text can become for the reader a process of self-creation” (Probst, 56). Reading and engaging with texts becomes a source of meaning creation, as the reader interacts with the text to create new meanings, each reading bringing about new understandings (Sumara, 2002). As a site of potential identity formation, reading texts “culminates in a sharpened, heightened sense of self” because “some part of the reader‟s conception of the world is confirmed, modified, or refuted, and that changes the reader” (Probst, p. 56). In short, engaging in the act of reading has the potential to create spaces for African American males to explore their identities and connections with formal school literacies. Suggesting that reading literature can be empowering for African American males, Tatum (2009) states, “Engaging these young males in reading and writing texts that pay attention to their multiple identities…becomes a bridge to opportunities” (p. 14). Books that build so-called “textual lineages” are important because they build upon students‟ experiences and bridge the gap between their personal lives and their literate lives (Tatum, 2009). In this way, reading could offer classroom possibilities for African American males to explore their identities and shape their lives through powerful experiences via literature. And such experiences could help them explore the positive role of formal literacy in their lives. v Table of Contents Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................... iii Preface ............................................................................................................................... v Table of Contents ............................................................................................................ vi Abstract ............................................................................................................................ ix Chapter One: Introduction .............................................................................................. 1 African American Males, Schooling, and Identities ............................................... 4 African American Males and Agency ..................................................................... 6 African American Males and the Power of Texts ................................................... 7 Theoretical Frames................................................................................................ 11 Chapter Two: Literature Review .................................................................................. 14 Literacies ............................................................................................................... 18 The Hidden Curriculum ........................................................................................ 21 Surveillance: Sorting, Regulating, Classifying ..................................................... 25 Disproportionality ................................................................................................. 30 The Classroom Culture and What Counts as Literacy .......................................... 32 School Literacies ................................................................................................... 32 Examining White Subjectivities ............................................................... 37 Young Adult Literature ......................................................................................... 43 Reader Response ................................................................................................... 44 Chapter Three: Methodology ........................................................................................ 46 What Is Ethnography? ........................................................................................... 46 School Ethnography .................................................................................. 48 Why Ethnography? ............................................................................................... 50 Fieldwork and Participant Observation…………………………………….. ..... 52 Participant Observation ............................................................................. 52 Fieldwork .................................................................................................. 54 The Study ............................................................................................................. 56 Description of Context .............................................................................. 56 Data ...................................................................................................................... 57 Observations ............................................................................................