What's the Missing Link in CTE & Adult Education for Marginalized Black Males?

It’s quite evident that education is beneficial to anyone who wants to better understand the world in which they live, as well as to create better opportunities for employment and career advancement. This is especially true for people of color who continue to be part of the marginalized when it comes to education and employment. A good education can lessen these academic and economic gaps, but as of yet, it cannot eliminate them.

Among the most marginalized within all levels of education are Black boys and men. Blacks are often victimized by inequitable practices from various institutions. These issues are systematic and often stem from years of unjust policies, and practices that perpetuate academic failure.

I recently finished a research project regarding this particular phenomenon and presented my findings at the African diaspora Pre-Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina last week. To be specific, the phenomenon I’m referring to is the particular challenges that face Black boys and men at practically all levels of postsecondary education. My research generally focuses on Black males in postsecondary education, so this project clearly fit my research and teaching interests. We usually hear about higher education, 4 year institutions in particular. However, we also must not ignore the influence of K-12 as this is where the margins actually begin. There were 45 participants in this qualitative research study from 4 different states and institutions. Our research design focused on narratives and utilized Gloria Ladson-Billings theoretical framework of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP).

Following in Huge Footsteps

There are quite a few scholars that address these issues in K-12 and higher education such as S.R. Harper (Penn), V.L. Bush (CSU Los Angeles), F.A. Bonner (Prairie View A&M), R.T. Palmer (Howard), T. Strayhorn (Ohio State), M. Alexander (Ohio State), G. Ladson-Billings (Wisconsin), J. F. L. Jackson (Wisconsin), K. Freeman (Southern University), M.J. Cuyjet (Louisville), P.L. Carter (UC Berkeley), J. Duncan-Andrade (San Francisco State), D. Stovall (Univ. Chicago, Il.), T.E. Dancy (Oklahoma), C.M. Steele (UC Berkeley), P. Noguera (UCLA), T. Howard (UCLA), and many … many others. A growing section of scholarship focuses on community colleges and men of color, thanks in large part to Dr. J. Luke Wood and Dr. Frank Harris III, co-directors of the Minority Male Community College Collaborative (M2C3), and Associate professors in the Administration, Rehabilitation and Postsecondary Education Department at San Diego State University.

All of these scholars and their contemporaries cover the gamut in what we typically refer to as traditional education; however, what we don’t hear as much about is what’s happening to Black males who pursue alternative education. This includes Adult Education and Career and Technical Education or CTE. This is a growing field now that Common Core is a mainstay and now that Obama’s “My Brother’s Keeper” initiative in effect in order to address some of the opportunity gaps that persist for all boys and men of color, along with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) which replaced the failing No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). No doubt, traditional education will continue to be the focus of most educators, but we can no longer ignore the growth of CTE and Adult Education as these fields help close the opportunity gaps for people of color, especially Black boys and men who seek to overcome disparities in dropout rates and unemployment.

The Homogenization of Student Challenges

One of the most common complaints among the participants of this study had to do with their interactions and relationships with faculty, staff and administration. Though alternative education does provide opportunities where traditional education sometimes “drops the ball”, it is important to point out that the same obstacles that Black boys and men face in traditional education are essentially the same in alternative education. Systematic and sociological inequities still exist, however, what I also discovered in this study was that some of these issues are often avoided because they were considered to be too personal or of little interest to many traditional academics. I’m not suggesting that they don’t care, for practically everyone in the study demonstrated concern and were motivated to help their students succeed. However, there was a tendency to homogenize the issues of marginalized students as if all problems are rated equally and simply viewed as a normal part of the educational process, therefore, we should simply stop complaining and pull ourselves up by our boot straps. The problem with this perspective is that it doesn’t account for the individual effects of White Privilege, systematic inequities, racism, inequitable school policies and practices, microaggressions and the psycho-social outcomes that occur as a result of all of these damaging and distracting factors.

Additionally, what many educators and administrators fail to realize is that students should be viewed with equal value, while their problems should be viewed independently with varying degrees of value and impact. Each issue has its own unique set of outcomes for each individual student. For example, a student who can’t get financial aid might have to work part-time, while another will have to drop out of school completely as they are unable to cover all necessary or minimal expenses to remain enrolled. Another student who’s on an athletic scholarship might require tutors, while another will have to drop sports all together in order to focus on academics, which may result in losing an athletic scholarship, thereby creating additional financial hardship for this student.  These are two actual examples from the study. These are not trivial issues for in many cases, marginalized students do not have parents or other relatives to rely on for financial support as a result of their own culturally and historical socioeconomic status.

Another problem with this kind of discounted thinking is that it ignores a very serious root cause of what contributes to the problem that many Black boys and men face on a regular basis; unmitigated apathy. In K-12 Gloria Ladson-Billings and other prominent scholars recommend that we create an atmosphere of care, to show genuine concern for students. However, once marginalized students matriculate to postsecondary education, they still come from marginalized conditions. Once in postsecondary education, the common attitude is to maintain a professional detached relationship between students, faculty and administration. This was an unspoken but often practiced reality on the campuses of our participants. 

Institutional Accountability 

In K-12, culturally competent educators try to meet students where they are in order to help them “find their way”. But in postsecondary education, with few exceptions, marginalized students often have somewhat distant relationships and inconsistent interact with faculty. In a few cases in our study, they are completely on their own due to schedule restrictions or limited office ours or an unwillingness to discuss issues by telephone, and responded to emails intermittently. When the participant was asked why they didn't talk to the department chair or the dean, they said that "they didn't want to make waves, and the professor travels a lot anyway." This, and other related factors suggest that systematic inequities and practices also exist within CTE and Adult Education programs. And like traditional education programs, accountability is required from the institution as well as the student. This detachment serves absolutely no one as it contributes to marginalized students feeling unsupported or alienated, and often leads faculty and administrators to prejudgments of their students. To be fair to faculty, some students also self-isolate themselves because they don’t have a connection with faculty or are trying to deal with personal matters that seem inappropriate or too sensitive to share with faculty. The result, ultimately, is the same. Even when students are proactive in trying to seek help and support from faculty and administration, the “boot-strap” approach is often played out and the relationship between faculty and student breaks down before it even has a chance to begin.

Though most of these transactions are unintentional, the outcome remains the same; Black freshman continue to drop out of college at alarming rates as a result of these common practices and challenges within the academe’. This is not always the case, and there are lots of faculty that pay attention to the needs of their students and make the effort to keep in touch or stay connected. Unfortunately, based on this study, this was not the case for the majority of our participants. If this continues, Black males will continue to experience lower graduation rates, higher unemployment rates, and higher incarceration rates that will have an effect on the psyche, masculinity, dignity, and quality of life for /black boys and males for generations to come.

Enter Alternative Education…..

Career and Technical Education (CTE) helps level the playing field for marginalized students who are at risk of dropping out of school and are in need of practical skills that ensure employment options. Traditional education promotes a 4 year plan of completion, but the reality is that most students will require 6 years to complete a “4-year” bachelor’s degree. For marginalized students, six years can seem like a life-time. CTE programs understand this concern and focuses on programs that can lead to gainful employment in a fraction of that time.

What’s Missing?

CTE is different from Adult Education, but still relies on the same approach to teaching as Adult Education: ANDRAGOGY. The late Malcolm Knowles is commonly referred to as the father of modern adult education and andragogy which focuses on a specific set of principles. The primary principles deal with self-directed learning, utilizing the experiences of the student as a center for relevant learning, and teaching as a problem- centered approach instead of a content -centered approach. Knowles' approach works just fine in educational environments that are didactic and focused on individuals rather than groups. This is problematic when teaching Black males in postsecondary education because their culture relies so much on community, a dialectic approach, and a shared learning process that does not exist within the theory of andragogy.

Applicable Frameworks

This research study utilized Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP) as a framework, but would also have benefited from other "culturally friendly" frameworks such as Paulo Freire’s theory of Critical Pedagogy, and Derrick Bell’s Critical Race Theory. These frameworks are appropriate and equally as applicable to the challenges that Black boys, men and other marginalized students of color still face when navigating through alternative education. Unfortunately, most educators in CTE or Adult Education either don’t consider these approaches, or are unfamiliar with them. They aren’t typically taught in CTE or adult education programs or credential programs that focus on CTE or adult education. As more students of color focus on developing practical skills for employment, having an approach to teaching that is relevant to the culture of your student population becomes paramount.

Retention and Engagement

Our findings revealed the lack of engagement for Black students enrolled in CTE/ Adult Education programs stems from feeling excluded or alienated. The participants indicated that this was not intentional for the most part. The primary reason was based on what the participants described as "differences in their motivation for completing their education program." Most of the Black male students in our study stated that their primary reason for enrollment was to prepare for a career that paid well and didn’t take years to achieve. However, another contributing factor was time. Many of our participants were on their own versions of a "count-down" to complete school before a set of undesirable conditions took place. Examples of some of these conditions include expiring rental agreements, preparing children who were about to start school, wedding plans, plans to move into a house, or from their parents’ home into their own apartment, and a few were preparing for fatherhood as their significant others were on thee verge of having their baby. Unlike most of their non-Black peers, our participants were seeking to establish a level of stability in their lives that was already established for most of their non-marginalized peers. In short, the stakes were higher.

Our participants also indicated that as beneficial as CTE programs are, the cost of enrollment was rarely offset by administration, and typically required them to use student loans in order to pay tuition and other school fees. Most of our participants had no problem qualifying for financial aid. However, most were also reluctant to accumulate a lot of debt that they know they couldn’t write off, avoid or delay. Another contributing factor deals with the general difference in confidence that our participants would secure employment compared to non-Black students enrolled in CTE programs. Even though our participants had almost complete confidence in themselves, they didn’t have as much trust in the job placement opportunities after graduation, even though they knew it was their best chance at financial stability in the long run. As a result, the motivator of financial stability became a stronger motivator for Black males than any other motivating factor found in our literature review, such as self- esteem, social status, or the ability to acquire material things like cars or jewelry, both items associated with Black male stereotypes.  

Final Thoughts

This is merely a summary of the actual research study results. What I’ve concluded is that CTE and Adult education are especially beneficial for black boys and men who often fall through the cracks in traditional education programs. However, the need for a more culturally relevant approach to working with students of color is already evident and the need is only bound to grow.