Practical Curriculum Approach

Abstract

For decades, the achievement gap between low-income Black males and other groups is sufficiently documented and persists. This study calls for a new practical curriculum approach that provides the necessary conditions for how low-income Black males learn, stay engaged, and assist in building the capacity for positive self-efficacy. The significance of this curriculum approach would be improving academic achievement among the group, closing the gap, and facilitate long-term socioeconomic sustainability for the group that is most likely vulnerable to systemic barriers and prejudices. Through a qualitative approach and a historical design, the findings developed a curriculum approach grounded in Social Learning Theory, Human Capital Theory, and Career development Theory. The theoretical framework embodies and incorporates the practical approach found in (Yusuf & Nabeshima, 2012) and (Lee & Fredriksen, 2008) and could improve academic achievement among the group.

Keywords

education curriculum classroom career experiential curriculum core subject low-income Black males Black males self-efficacy Black males Identity

Black males over the last decade have consistently underperformed in academic achievement compared to White and Asian males, particularly in core subject areas such as mathematics, language arts, and the sciences. A sub-comparison of both low economic status Black males and White males demonstrated the persistent achievement gap. Core subjects are essential to matriculate into post-secondary institutions and thus critical for low-income Black males to achieve a post-secondary education. The data evidence of the persistent achievement gap between low-income Black males and their peers is irrefutable (e.g., Bailey, 2003; Coleman et al., 1966; Harris, 2010; Moïse, 2019; Musu-Gillette et al., 2016; Whitling, 2009).

Low socioeconomic and systemic conditions are partly the cause of the achievement gap for low-income Black males (e.g., Bowles & Gintis, 2011; Lewis et al., 2008; Harper, 2012; Hochschild, 2003; Lareau, 2003).

Disparities in Black Economic Status

Thirty eight percentage of Blacks live in poverty in the United States, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, Education Government Programs (2016). US Census Bureau (2015) data reports that Blacks (24.1%) compared to whites (9.1%) live in poverty in the United States. Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed that in 2015 Black males (21.6%) did not have post-secondary plans and were unemployed in comparison to their White peers (9.5%) (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2016). Lareau (2003) has effectively demonstrated the correlation between low socioeconomic status and low student achievement.

Conversely, Isaacs et al. (2008) found that income inequality is a significant experience for Black children from middle and upper-middle-class families. Comparatively, Only 31% of middle-class Black children earn more than their parents, compared to 68% of their White counterparts (p. 75). Based on Harris (2010) ‘s analysis, “in general, Black Americans are at a disadvantage across various measures of economic well-being” (p. 245). Caldwell & Ginther (1996), Hirschl and Smith (2018), Lee (2004), Ticas et al. (2019), have all shown a correlation between high-income and high student achievement with income being the best predictor of student achievement. Authors Synder and Shafer (1996) have evidenced the correlation between student achievement and positive income earnings and demonstrated the widening income gap between low-income and high-income. Between the 1970s and 1990s, those who completed a post-secondary plan and those who did not have widened significantly. Low-income Black male students who are already disproportionately represented in low-income households compared to their White peers are at a higher risk for academic and post-secondary underachievement.

Collectively (Beach, 2007; Caldwell & Ginther, 1996; Hochschild, 2003; Lareau, 2003; Snyder & Shafer, 1996) have sufficiently demonstrated the correlation between Black students’ low-income status and academic/post-secondary underachievement. Similarly, Kerby (2012) indicates that Black students’ response to these low economic conditions is overrepresentation in the criminal justice system. Rothstein (2014) asserts that the group has come to expect a low-income status and thus perpetuates the cycle of multigenerational poverty. (Anti-Poverty Network of New Jersey, 2017) notes low-income children mirror and accept what they have experience and adopt it as the norm. Taylor-Dunlop (1995) noted, Students from higher socioeconomic backgrounds (usually White) were more likely to utilize their home school guidance counselor. Conversely, students from low socioeconomic backgrounds, minorities such as Blacks and Hispanics who should have the most to gain fail to benefit from or make use of the available resources.

Therefore, most Black students, particularly Black males, internalize these economic deficits and cognitively respond in an anti-resilient manner by consistently underachieving academically and socio-economically.

Systemic Barriers

Obstructive historical forces and nested inequalities derived from an elitist ideology found in American political, economic, and social institutions insist on establishing that only one group can pursue happiness, property, and liberty while restricting others, for instance, low-income Black males'. These designed barriers are policies or programs, albeit state or federal, curriculum, teachers, schools, and communities, that consistently marginalize particular groups such as Blacks and Hispanics and prevent academic/post-secondary achievement for low-income Black males’. The same dynamic is also identifiable in national and local systemic educational processes (Banks & Dohy, 2019; Beach, 2007; Beckford, 1972; Hochschild, 2003).

Similarly, Bell’s (1992) racism reality theory is applicable in explaining the White/Black achievement gap and posits that a lingering legacy of slavery and an ideology of superiority affects every aspect of American life, including education. Bell (1992), Feagin (2006), and (Lewis et al., 2008) all conclude that Black academic/post-secondary success is challenging because of obstructive historical forces embedded in American society. Bell (1992) suggests that the educational experience of Blacks is comparable to a critical indicator of racism that is an established pattern of cyclical progress and regression and is a socially constructed part of American culture. It is now embedded, covert, and evolved. Feagin (2006) agrees and further postulates that all institutions in America, inclusive of education, had been affected by socially constructed determinants of race.

Being Black

The deficit perception of low-income Black males creates barriers to post-secondary achievement. Educational institutions where most of the demographic are White often always have low expectations, biases, and prejudices about Black intellectual abilities (ASHE, 2014; Harper et al., 2009; Jackson, 2007; Jackson & Moore, 2006). Harper (2012) suggests that low-income Black males’ racial stereotypes are a barrier to post-secondary achievement. Kerby (2012) asserted that Black students’ arrests are far more than their White classmates, have higher juvenile incarceration rates, and are most likely to be incarcerated in adult correction facilities.

Conversely, Paige and Witty (2009) noted that closing the achievement gap is more likely to achieve racial equality when you consider that academic achievement creates economic pathways equal to Whites because, as asserted by Ford and Moore (2013), racism will more than likely continue to exist. Harper (2012) puts forward valid questions on possible factors hindering post-secondary achievement among the low-income Black males’ such as,

1. How are Black male students' interest in school and post-secondary achievement nurtured and sustained by family members?

2. What assistance do Black males receive from educators and schools to achieve post-secondary success?

3. Which/what programs and experiences enhance post-secondary readiness for Black males?

The data support these questions because Black males, compared to White peers, as has been noted by President Obama, “by almost every measure” are consistently lagging or negatively disproportionately represented.

Self-Identification & Internalized Oppression

“A self-concept is the individual’s picture of himself, the perceived self with accrued meanings. Since the person cannot ascribe meanings to himself in a vacuum, self-concept is a picture of one’s self in some role, some situation, in a position, accomplishing some set of functions, or engaging in some form of relationships” (Super et al., 1963, p. 18). Whether in academics or limited socioeconomic success, this consistent underachievement President Obama refers to is rooted in how they negatively self-identify. Many engage in disidentification, the process where Blacks disengage from school to maintain their “urban black” identity and avoid “acting white” militates against student achievement for Blacks. (Ford et al., 2008; Darensbourg & Blake, 2013; Osborne, 1995, 1997; Peterson-Lewis & Bratton, 2004).

This dilemma then produces internal oppression whereby low-income Black males consciously and unconsciously accept the racial hierarchy of whites ranked above them and develops, according to Du Bois (2018), an inherent “double-consciousness,” constantly viewing themselves through the eyes of others, particularly whites (Johnson, 2008; Pyke, 2010). Waters (2009) and Anderson et al. (2004) noted this only serves to further the group’s identity crisis as, unlike other groups that are prone to change, low-income Black males' shedding this ascribed identity proves difficult.

The obstructive historical legacy, compounded by negative stereotypes and deficit perceptions associated with being Black (Beach, 2007; Beckford, 1972; Hochschild, 2003), has become the groups’ identity. Unlike Waters (1996) noted, White Americans of European ancestry have evolved to have many positive self-identity choices because of invented societal conditions and political and economic power. Consequently, being “Black” coupled with the Black male experience in and of itself presents a fundamental barrier to academic/post-secondary achievement, and for low-income Black males to achieve self-actualization, there must be a positive redefining of themselves.

Black Success

Fisher (2015) noted that a fundamental tenet of anti-deficit scholarship beyond underscoring institutional responsibility for student success is a success-based approach to improving low-income Black males' post-secondary achievement. Rather than focusing on Black men who fail to succeed in higher education, the anti-deficit paradigm examines Black men who have successfully overcome barriers to post-secondary achievement. Scholars and practitioners can glean from these Black males educational environments necessary to improve the experiences of other Black men navigating post-secondary education. Current research has made it possible to categorize the experiences that are integral to Black male success. Successful Black males, who demonstrate what Burton (2020), Eunyoung and Hargrove (2013), and Fisher (2015) call educational resilience—the process whereby an individual has been academically successful, despite obstacles—reiterate several common mechanisms for success.

Far fewer volumes highlight the effect and importance of cultural agency responsible for shaping Black males' academic trajectories (Warren et al., 2016).

Understanding how Black males’ “cultural agencies” affect post-secondary success requires being conscious of the considerable cultural differences in the group. Consequently, researching the complexities of the Black American education experience is now part of a growing scholarly paradigm that rejects scholars and practitioners' monolithic treatment of the group and suggests that delving into their differences is foundational to enhancing their status in post-secondary education (Wood, 2013).

Greene et al. (2008) and Darensbourg and Blake (2013) noted through their studies that “engagement” was fundamental to student achievement and post-secondary achievement for Blacks. Greene et al. (2008) found that Blacks with high engagement attitudes were more likely to accomplish post-secondary achievement than those who did not. Eunyoung & Hargrove (2013) and Fisher (2015) noted that student engagement was one of the chief mechanisms for the groups’ academic success; engagement is activities or experiences in and outside of school that are educationally meaningful. Sufficient research has demonstrated the positive correlation between student engagement and successful outcomes. Feldman and Astin (1994) contends that "[t]he single most powerful source on influence on the undergraduate student’s academic and personal development is the peer group [...] the amount of interaction among peers has a far-reaching effect in all areas of student learning and development."

Eunyoung & Hargrove (2013) and Fisher (2015) asserted that Black males have better academic experiences at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). According to Eunyoung & Hargrove (2013), such environments “offer a campus ethos that is rich in collectivist cultural values and maintain cultural integrity evident in Black Male student success in US higher education through their engagement and support programming” (Kim & Hargrove, 2013, p. 4). Palmer & Strayhorn (2008) noted similar conclusions in their research of academically underprepared Black Males that participated in HBCU supporting educational programs. Collectively they found that the participants in their study graduated despite their academic deficiencies, and their success was primarily attributable to self-efficacy. The participants reported that the program helped them take ownership of their success, prioritize, organize and concentrate, and eventually develop an academic efficacy. (Harper et al., 2009; Harper, 2009; Eunyoung & Hargrove, 2013; Palmer 2010a; Palmer 2010b; Palmer et al., 2013, 2014; Wood & Wood-Essien, 2012) have agreed that for Black Male post-secondary academic success to occur the following components must be present:

1. Educational background and supplementary resources that help prepare them for the rigors of college.

2. Parents or mentors/figures in their immediate community who can help them acquire college knowledge before matriculation.

3. Information about and access to funding sources such as Pell grant, institutional scholarship support, work-study programs, federally subsidized student loans that help them responsibly finance their education.

4. Peers or faculty/staff of color who can help them navigate informal channels of their college or university.

5. High-impact student engagement practices, both in and outside of the classroom, such as faculty-sponsored research or student-leadership experiences.

6. Degree of educational resilience that enables them to productively respond to racism (stereotype-threat and micro-aggressions) and an educational environment that emphasizes culturally competent pedagogy.

Despite limitations in controlling economic factors (Closing Achievement Gaps in Diverse and Low-Poverty Schools: An Action Guide for District Leaders, 2018), Harper (2012), Slavin and Madden (2006) concluded a multifaceted strategy incorporating the components of family support services, curriculum, and school agents are the best opportunities to correct the imbalance. However, while engagement, a multifaceted approach and attendance/participation at HBCUs is for the success of low-income Black males, this author asserts the Black Male in redefining himself must be independent of any dependency on one or more variable to achieve long-term sustainable success and therefore, must participate in a curriculum that allows the group to accomplish this. As noted by (Beach, 2007; Beckford, 1972; Hochschild, 2003), Ford and Moore (2013), respectively, nested inequalities and racism will more than likely continue to exist, and thus the group must be equipped to overcome these challenges on their own.

Practical Curriculum

As the data has shown, there is evidence of a correlation between low economic status and academic and post-secondary underachievement of low-income Black males, which compounds the persistent achievement gap between low-income Black males and their peers. Other factors discussed which contribute to their underachievement are systemic barriers and deficit perceptions attributed to them. Despite the causal evidence for underachievement and a persistent achievement gap, it would be incorrect to suggest academic achievement was nonexistent within this group. Low-income Black males who thrived did so under the conditions of having a solid support system in and out of school and possessed a will to succeed.

On the contrary, academic achievement among the group has seen marginal improvements throughout the United States. However, it is the inquiry as to what conditions facilitate the success of the few that scholars and academia should explore. Lee (2004) asked the question as to why within the subgroup of low-income students, some fail, some narrowly survive, and some, despite the low-income high-risk environment, thrive?

This author believes the conditions within the school curriculum in the United States must change to be ideal for improving low-income Black males’ academic achievement. Through a practical school curriculum implemented in schools in the United States, more than a few can succeed; the practical curriculum can create the right conditions for low-income Black males who lack the will to succeed.

One of the fundamental problems in the educational curriculum in the United States is the premise that despite its diversity, a uniform curriculum will accomplish student achievement among all groups represented. Unfortunately, the data available would suggest this is not so. For homogenous societies such as Finland and Singapore, to name a few, a uniform curriculum in previous decades worked well, and student achievement data attested to it, but even such societies have reformed their curricula to 21st-century student needs. John Kennedy’s article entitled Inside a Finnish school: What Finland can teach the world about education demonstrated that even in homogenous societies, there was still a need for the curriculum to recognize learning diversity among students (Kennedy, 2017).

Critics will suggest that the curriculum in the United States recognizes diversity and thus encourages differential lesson planning and delivery. They will point to class academic groupings based on student data, support staff for intense reading, math, science, technological support systems, and programs slated to improve the achievement gap. However, how have such an approach benefitted most low-income Black males? The curriculum is the driving force and the means for accomplishing student achievement; it should also connect with the student’s experience (e.g., Tomlinson & McTighe, 2006; Williams, 2002). Before and during the industrialization period, the curriculum for learning came through apprenticeship followed by vocational education, where experience solidified theory and practice led to mastery.

This simple but practical model embodies the new curriculum approach for providing the right conditions for learning, engagement, and socioeconomic sustainability for low-income Black males. Try to imagine a core subject such as science without science labs to practice theory, or engineers without a facility to test, so why then do we expect low-income Black males to acquire content, particularly those in the core areas such as mathematics, language arts, and science without an opportunity to apply? Therefore, the conditions necessary for low-income Black males’ success within schools begin with this simple but practical model, understanding, and planning based on how they learn and their participation in an experiential curriculum that provides consistent opportunities to apply theoretical content into practice.

Remedying Debilitation & Motivation

One of the fundamental barriers to academic motivation/achievement for low-income Black males is the group not seeing the benefit or outcome of institutionalized education. The reason for that is simply because, within the United States, they are competing values or perceived “shortcuts” to success, “the American way.” Therefore, asking about the benefit is reasonable since the return on investment [ROI] is long term.

Black males and particularly low-income Black males’ low socioeconomic condition have an immediate need to change their status and condition, balanced by their collective experience in a traditional educational institution driven by a curriculum that does not answer their question of “benefit” and self-actualization. Research and data have shown that their collective experience at all levels in such institutions reflects marginal success. The areas in which they have overrepresented compound their deficit position, high suspension rates, expulsion, juvenile incarceration, and academic underachievement, especially in core subject areas and sciences. Therefore, why would not the question be, “how does it benefit me?” Or just be demotivated and debilitated?

The practical curriculum addresses this issue with the critical component of making their curricular experiential almost immediate, where “positive transaction” is visible. The group can accomplish/understand/see/the value of being in an educational institution. Participating in a practical curriculum affords them the rare opportunity of academic success; this continuous experience builds their academic efficacy, motivates, and more importantly, changes the “language” from failure to success and self-actualization (Bandura, 1977). Accomplishing this resolves demotivation/debilitation in the short run and develops a long-term appetite for academic success. While not code-switching in its purest form, this concept burrows the tenets of changing the “language of failure” among low-income Black males to the “language of success” to gain short-term/long-term academic achievement and sustainable socioeconomic status.

Practical Curriculum & Community

Continuity is fundamental to long-term academic achievement for low-income Black males, and a multifaceted approach is paramount (Harper, 2012; Maxwell et al., 2018). Therefore, it is essential to be deliberate in having community partnerships within the communities of the target group; the community outreach arm of the practical curriculum would incorporate families, colleges, career pathways, and the police.

At present, there is a demand for an effective program for low-income Black males' parents/parent to improve their post-secondary achievement, as research has demonstrated a correlation between parentage educational level and student achievement. College and career workshops should be visible within the communities to market college matriculation and afford low-income families skill-based certificate programs, promote post-secondary achievement, and change the “language” from hopelessness within such communities’ opportunity and achievement. Also, within low-income Black male communities, there is a demand for experiential programs that cultivate deliberate interaction with positive, successful Black male role models to improve academic motivation/achievement and reverse the deficit position of the group. Incorporating an influential community policing program is essential to the community and the police force to accomplish acculturation, and acclimatization, as the “police” historically has been a symbol of oppression to such communities and particularly a danger to Black males. Therefore, reimagining community police and relationships would assist low-income Black males to reverse anti-law enforcement sentiments and fear.

Theoretical Framework

Olaniyan and Okemakinde (2008) noted, for sustainable economic growth of countries, there must be an investment in human capital through education. The theoretical framework used to develop a practical curriculum that improves academic motivation/achievement among the target group mirrors the model used in Singapore, Finland, and Ireland. The model developed simultaneously accomplished improvements in post-secondary achievement among low-income students and national sustainable economic growth. A fundamental core component of the model is the Human Capital Theory (HCT).

A curriculum design should play a pivotal role in addressing the core needs of students for accomplishment and autonomy (Tomlinson & McTighe, 2006). Dewey (1963) and Williams (2002) assert that the curriculum must connect with multiple aspects of a student experience. Super’s Career Development Theory (CDT) and Bandura’s Social Learning Theory (SLT) support developing and applying a practical curriculum, including an experiential component and programs geared at college/career readiness.

Bandura (1977) noted that the strengthening of self-efficacy occurs through an accumulation of positive experiences, and self-concept determines an individual’s career choice. Super et al. (1963) state that both variables are interdependent and mirror positive or negative states. Therefore, there is a correlation between low self-efficacy and negative self-concept; conversely, high self-efficacy develops a positive self-concept. Both variables are fundamental to understanding who, what, where, how, and why low-income Black males are motivated, exemplify behaviors, and hold certain attitudes toward academics and achievement in a school setting. Collectively, the components of the theoretical framework operating in an interdependency state are grounded in the practical curriculum with the sole purpose to improve academic motivation/achievement among low-income Black males.'

Lee and Fredriksen (2008) asserted that Singapore’s transformation from a developing to a developed nation understood how to compensate for limited resources by investing heavily in human capital and establishing a close link between economic productivity and education. Yusef and Nabeshima's (2012) observation of the use of this model in Singapore, Finland, and Ireland noted how rapidly these nations grew over a decade by adopting an approach of harnessing the potential of human capital, technologies and maximizing adequate investment in physical assets.

Hargreaves and Fullan (2012) emphasized that harnessing human capital is the potential for student achievement, educational sustainability, and economic growth. At the same time, human capital is paramount to developing sustainable economies and educational systems; equally important was the synchronization of the educational curriculum responsive to local and global market conditions that propelled these nations to success. Designed with the intent of educating and equipping students, particularly low-income students, with the cutting-edge technologies they will need in the global market, the curriculum was deliberate and strategic.

Singapore’s experience with education and economic productivity is not unusual. When industrialization began in the United States, vocational schools served as educational institutions designed to provide students with the skills necessary to be employed. It is a customized strategy for a specific clientele and uses human capital to foster economic sustainability nationally and individually. Low-income Black males will benefit from a similar model used in Singapore to ameliorate the post-secondary achievement gap and achieve comparable socioeconomic sustainability through a practical curriculum. Despite using this model in smaller nations, a similar tailored model can be applied to the United States achieving equal success.

Human Capital Theory

Most HCT applications demonstrate the adverse causal effect in income inequalities for Blacks. Ehrenberg and Smith (2012)

assert

Human Capital Theory conceptualizes workers as embodying a set of skills that can be capitalized on by employers. The skillset a worker has, which come from education, training, and the training that experience brings, generates a particular stock of productive capital. The investment in HCT yields a maximum RIO, more than investing in physical capital as an investment using HCT provides broad, long-term economic sustainability for an individual, state, and nation (p. 290).

Schultz (1961) “proved that the returns on human capital investment through training and education in the United States were greater than that based on investment in nonhuman capital” (p. 11). The application of HCT in Singapore, Finland, and Ireland brought economic success and facilitated low-income students with a path to accomplishing post-secondary achievement by harnessing human capital and establishing a close link between education and economic productivity (Lee & Fredriksen, 2008).

Incorporating HCT in a practical curriculum would mirror the three steps used in the Tiny Band of Nations. (1) HCT can mobilize and actualize an individual’s potential with minimal investment, (2) HCT can build strong self-efficacy and self-concept, (3) HCT can enable average/low socioeconomic individuals with competitive global economic skills, and (4) HCT investment benefits the nation for economic sustainability, innovation, and continuity.

To achieve HCT 1, a multifaceted approach encompassing HC such as educators, school programs, and targeted community engagement must occur to mobilize and make the target group believe they can be motivated and achieve academically (Harper (2012) and Slavin and Madden (2006). However, within the school system, this done but with little success as the data has shown because of low self-efficacy, low academic efficacy, negative self-concept, and, notably, the current curriculum does not support the efforts of HCT 1(Bandura, 1977; Hochschild, 2003; Synder & Shafer, 1996).

To accomplish HCT 2, low-income Black males will participate in an experiential, practical curriculum designed to meet their core needs that connect with more than one of their experiences, such as seeing the value of it, or benefit to self, family, and community (Dewey, 1963), (Williams, 2002), and (Tomlinson & McTighe, 2006). The practical curriculum would allow the group to acquire experience, skills, and knowledge that would allow them to change their low socioeconomic status and have “productive capital” and by doing so would develop a positive self-concept, a belief that they can actualize their potential, and in the long-term accomplish HCT 3 & 4. Therefore, applying the theoretical framework using the component HCT for low-income Black males' self-efficacy would have to be redefined to tangible value, economic opportunity, “productive capital,” and actualization to align with the group’s collective negative experiences.

Low-income Black males face numerous challenges such as low socioeconomic conditions, academic/post-secondary underachievement, systemic barriers, and deficit perceptions based on stereotypes, prejudices, biases, and racial discrimination. Paige and Witty (2009) recognized that closing the achievement gap may be the key to reducing most of the challenges that low-income Black males encounter, including deficit perceptions. As evidenced by research and data, closing the academic/post-secondary achievement gap correlates to the likelihood of attaining economic sustainability, which inherently affords low-income Black males equal sustainable economic opportunities like their peers.

Social Learning Theory and Super CDT

An essential function of HCT is to harness and develop human potential, acquire transferable viable skill sets, and contribute to individual and national economic sustainable pathways. However, more importantly, it is the capacity to develop positive self-efficacy and create pathways to careers. These two elements are vital to mitigating the post-secondary achievement gap between low-income Black males and their peers. Bacanli (2006) asserts that “self-efficacy expectations can be useful in understanding and predicting behavior” (p. 320). Bandura’s theory postulates how an individual’s self-efficacy influences positive or negative behavior depending on how high or low the self-efficacy is. Fortunately, any form of psychological procedure may alter the level and strength of self-efficacy. Individuals or groups participating in more dependable experiential sources are more likely to see more significant changes in perceived self-efficacy (Bandura, 1977). According to Bandura, there are four experiential sources in which self-efficacy occurs: (1) personal performance (accomplishments/previous success or failures), (2) vicarious experience (watching others, modeling, and mentoring), (3) verbal persuasion (verbal encouragement or discouragement), and (4) physiological and emotional (factors and perceptions of stress reactions in the body). Therefore, the theoretical context of the self-efficacy construct provides the means for understanding the development of self-efficacy beliefs and the means for their modification through interventions, incorporating positive applications within the four sources of self-efficacy.

These modifications occur in schools to change negative behaviors, improve academic achievement, subject areas such as mathematics or language arts, discipline, and deciding a career path. Bandura (1997) asserted that self-efficacy is a fundamental component of career development and career choice. The correlation between higher perceived self-efficacy and higher career options is evidence of the individual’s belief in accomplishing a task.

For example, Bandura (1977) examined the mathematical efficacy and noted that the lower the mathematical efficacy, the higher the elimination of careers requiring quantitative skills, and the higher the mathematical efficacy, the lower the elimination of careers requiring quantitative skills.

Super et al. (1960) conclude that “before a behavioral act can be performed, a repertoire of appropriate behavior must be present” (p. 10). Developing that repertoire of appropriate behavior is a byproduct of the strong self-efficacy necessary for career development. Self-concept is a fundamental component of individual career development, and in defining self-concept, Super et al. (1963) assert that self-concept is the individual’s picture of himself, the perceived self with accrued meanings. Since a person cannot ascribe meanings to himself in a vacuum, the concept of self is an image of the self in some role, situation, position, or performing some set of functions or in some web of relationships (Super et al., 1963).

Super (1957) states that the adolescent years from junior high school throughout high school are for exploration. This stage represents the age-appropriate cognitive developmental stages for formulating career interests, the capacity to recognize skills about specific job requirements, and the crystallization process whereby individuals attempt to implement the self-concept (Career Development Theories, 2003). It is the process of reality testing. Furthermore, it is the developmental stage for career preparedness in which both educators and guidance counselors can assist high school students in understanding the complexities of making the transition from school to work. The exploration and establishment stages represent the best opportunities to impact career preparedness effectively. The value of implementing a practical curriculum is that the curriculum would not primarily be effective as most career education/programs have been. Instead, it will be experiential, essential for low-income Black males to connect education, post-secondary achievement, career, and economic sustainability.

Conditions preventing low-income Black males’ post-secondary achievements, as demonstrated by research, suggest cultural agencies that influence low-income Black American academic trajectories (Warren et al., 2016) demand a new strategic approach relevant to the target’s group socioeconomic condition (Butler-Barnes et al., 2012). Zinser (2012) contends, “a new set of skills—in fact, a new education—is necessary for future citizens” (p. 64–73). The new strategic solution must include the missing experiential component to address the underachievement currently experienced by low-income Black males. Low-income Black males must be able to see the value of school and the curriculum and, more importantly, achieve higher perceived post-secondary efficacy (Bandura, 1997; Tomlinson & McTighe, 2006).

Given the nested inequalities to post-secondary achievement for low-income Black male students, the curriculum experience for the target group must connect to their reality (Dewey, 1963), (Williams, 2002). Also, it must be relevant in meeting their core needs, which is a path to long-term economic sustainability. One of the critical missing components in the standard core curriculum is not providing experiential activities allowing students to connect the relevance of the curriculum, the importance of career preparedness, and post-secondary achievement (Achieve.org, 2012). Low-income Black males, sitting in a classroom, not seeing how such an experience will change their individual, home, and community’s low socioeconomic conditions or change the deficit perceptions attributed to them because of their economic status debilitating and demotivating.

This dynamic must change to mitigate the post-secondary achievement gap between low-income Black males and their peers. One of the fundamental principles of a practical curriculum that makes this possible solution new is to afford low-income Black males the experiential component, seeing the value, improving self-efficacy, and a pathway to economic sustainability. Super notes that the exploration and establishment stages (ages 14–25 years) represent the best time to impact career preparedness and post-secondary achievement effectively. This stage is cognitively developmentally appropriate for formulating career interests and post-secondary achievement (Career Development Theories, 2003). While K-12 is the appropriate time to build post-secondary efficacy, Stone et al. (2008) assert that the curriculum must be relevant to students, particularly low-income Black males, to maximize positive outcomes. ASHE (2014), Larsen (2015), and Strauss (2013) concur that high-stakes testing curriculums, like the Common Core, are ineffective in preparing students for post-secondary achievement, particularly low-income Black males. Therefore, this researcher asserts that implementing a practical curriculum responsive to low-income Black males would be more effective.

This curriculum approach is grounded in the three theoretical foundations of HCT, SLT, and CDT (Bacanli, 2006; Bandura, 1977; Baron & Armstrong, 2007; Lee & Fredriksen, 2008; Olaniyan & Okemakinde, 2008; Super, 1957; Super et al., 1963; Yusuf & Nabeshima, 2012). The developed curriculum calls for deliberate instructional planning that must include (1) an understanding of how they learn, (2) planning grounded in the way they learn, and (3) content delivery in a manner that connects to their experiences. The experiential curriculum would accommodate consistent outside classroom content application through scheduled and organized “core subject application,” allowing low-income Black males to connect content knowledge into application experience. This connection is fundamental to the group’s engagement, relevant to their own socioeconomic experiences that value tangible experiences rather than abstract ones (Butler-Barnes et al., 2012; Darensbourg & Blake, 2013; Greene et al., 2008; Zinser, 2012).

Redefining Self-Efficacy for the Black Male

Many Black males, particularly low-income Black males, struggle with self-identification and internalized oppression caused by obstructive historical forces and low socioeconomic conditions, attributed deficit perceptions that they cognitively internalize over an extended period. The consequence is then debilitation, demotivation, low self-efficacy, and ultimately academic/post-secondary underachievement. (Bandura, 1977; Beach, 2007; Beckford, 1972; Caldwell & Ginther, 1996; Darensbourg & Blake, 2013; Du Bois, 1989) [1903]; Hochschild, 2003; Johnson, 2008; Lareau, 2003; Pyke, 2010; Snyder & Shafer, 1996; Waters, 2009).

Self-efficacy must be explicitly redefined to the group to accomplish academic motivation and improved achievement. Bacanli (2006) noted individuals acquire positive or negative self-efficacy through four experiential sources: (1) personal performance (accomplishments/previous success or failures), (2) vicarious experience (watching others, modeling, and mentoring), (3) verbal persuasion (verbal encouragement or discouragement), and (4) physiological and emotional. “self-concept” is a picture of oneself with accumulated meaning; since individuals cannot ascribe accrued meanings to themselves in a vacuum, it must occur through relationships, situations, or roles (Super et al., 1963) and the four experiential sources.

However, as shown through research and data, the collective experiences and idea of “self-concept” for Black males and particularly low-income Black males have persistently been cultivated at a deficit. Therefore, “self-efficacy” for Black males, particularly low-income Black males, will be persistently low and continually demonstrate low academic self-efficacy. In redefining self-efficacy for low-income Black male students, self-efficacy must mean “positive transaction” having value, whereby “if I do this” or “accomplish this” despite low socioeconomic conditions, the outcome will accomplish academic motivation/achievement and fundamentally important long-term positive, social, and economic change. As stated previously, low-income Black males sitting in the classroom and participating in a curriculum in which they cannot see how such an experience will change their individual, home, and community’s low socioeconomic conditions or the deficit perceptions attributed to them persistently facilitate a deficit outcome. As Dewey (1963) noted, the curriculum must connect with more than one of the student’s experiences, and for low-income Black males, being transactional is a critical part of their experience since they often operate at a deficit they always seek to maximize or measure the benefit to them.

To conclude, the cause of the achievement gap between low-income Black males and other groups is multilayered but certainly not irreversible. The findings based on the study suggest a curriculum approach utilizing a synchronized manner between content learned and the opportunity to apply in a real-time setting would go a long way in improving academic achievement among the group and particularly in core subject areas such as mathematics, language arts, and science.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Dwayne J. Crutchley

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