Determined To Rise: A Conceptual And Counter-Narrative Analysis Of The Higher Education Attainment Experiences Of Three African American Men

This study presents anti-deficit counter-narratives of higher education attainment among African American men. Grounded in Critical Race Theory (CRT), this work disrupts anti-Black educational discourses and informs initiatives to improve community college degree completion for Black men. A hybrid qualitative/postqualitative research methodology was designed to examine the educational experiences of three African American men who completed a community college degree, and to inquire into how their counter-narratives both intersected with and were divergent from dominant social and educational discourses. This specialized methodology facilitated multi-faceted explorations and deconstruction of a single set of data, viewing themes and concepts, socially produced silences, marginalization, and agency and resistance through a CRT lens. It further facilitated philosophical explorations such as Angry Black Man Ideology and the role of neoliberal discourses in the community college.