M. Christopher Brown – författare

The failure of American education to achieve racial diversity has resulted from the inability of educational researchers, policy makers and judicial officials to disentangle the complex definitions that have emerged in a post-segregated society. More specifically, the capricious aim of post-segregated educational settings leads to the confusing and often conflicting interchangeable usage of terms desegregated, integrated and diversity. This ambituity is further confounded by the imprecise definitions of equity, equality and opportunity. The proposed book will examine the role of language post-Brown v. Board of Education and the effects of that language on educational policy and practice. He also examines how the fundamental implications of language within post-Brown court cases, in pre- through post-secondary education, demonstrate the unspecified outcomes for desegregation and integration while concomitantly demand an educational continuum of equitable distribution. The arguments will further interrogate how education policy and practices implicitly contain a scholarly roadmap to forge equal opportunity and access, fifty years after Brown.

African American Males in Education: Researching the Convergence of Race and Identity addresses a number of research gaps. This book emerges at a time when new social dynamics of race and other identities are shaping, but also shaped by, education. Educational settings consistently perpetuate racial and other forms of privilege among students, personnel, and other participants in education. For instance, differential access to social networks still visibly cluster by race, continuing the work of systemic privilege by promoting outcome inequalities in education and society.

The issues defining the relationship between African American males and education remain complex. Although there has been substantial discussion about the plight of African American male participants and personnel in education, only modest attempts have been made to center analysis of identity and identity intersections in the discourse. Additionally, more attention to African American male teachers and faculty is needed in light of their unique cultural experiences in educational settings and expectations to mentor and/or socialize other African Americans, particularly males.