Create a free Diverse: Issues In Higher Education account to continue reading. Already have an account? Enter your email to access the article.

University of Georgia Professor Receives $505,000 Grant for Study of African-American Adolescents’ Development in Atlanta Suburb

ATHENS, Ga.

A University of Georgia education researcher hopes a new, four-year study of the experiences of African-American adolescents in a predominantly Black Atlanta suburb will help explain the reasons behind a persistent achievement gap between African-American and White students.

“Adolescence is a period of time when young people are attempting to gain an integrated sense of self,” said Jerome Morris, an associate professor of social foundations of education in the College of Education and a research fellow at UGA’s Institute for Behavioral Research (IBR). “For African-American youth, this process can be further complicated by race, gender and class status.”

Morris has received a $505,000 grant from the Spencer Foundation to investigate issues of identity formation and negotiation in a project beginning in January 2006 called, “African-American Adolescents in a Black Suburb in the U.S. South: A Social Study of Schooling, Identity, and Achievement.”

Morris will explore the role of class status and context as mitigating factors to improve the educational experiences of African-American students. Unlike previous studies that have looked at African-Americans in either urban, low-income areas or predominately White and affluent areas, this one focuses on African-American adolescents in a predominately Black middle-class suburb.

“This study attempts to find out what might be different in the more middle-class Black suburbs and schools and how that might influence African-American adolescents’ understanding of school achievement and identity,” explained Morris.

Based in DeKalb County — considered “the heart of Black Mecca” because of its burgeoning predominantly Black population — Morris’ study will employ sociological and anthropological research methods to follow adolescents over a four-year span as well as evaluate the school district and county.

“By studying the school district, it will help us to understand how district policies and practices shape African-American schooling and will allow us to see the factors that surround academic engagement and promote students’ success, shape identity formation and inform teachers’ perceptions of African-American students,” said Morris.

DeKalb County is 80 percent Black, and has a predominately African-American school board as well as an African-American superintendent. The county is at the center of the largest growth spurt of any Black community in the United States and has outpaced other Georgia counties in “Black buying power.”

“Unlike many inner-city areas, poverty does not pervade this school system,” he said.

Morris and his family live in DeKalb County’s Stone Mountain, and he has collected anecdotal information from neighbors about the county’s schools for the past three years. In addition, an American Educational Research Association grant for $15,000 has enabled him to collect preliminary data for the study.

“The preeminent scholar on race in the 20th century, W.E.B. Du Bois, believed it was critical for researchers who study African-American culture, institutions and communities to spend an extended period of time living in African-American communities,” noted Morris.

In addition to his research, teaching and service, Morris also has served as president of UGA’s Black Faculty and Staff Organization and led efforts to create a senior-level administrative position that focused on diversity and equity, resulting in the creation of the Office of Institutional Diversity.



© Copyright 2005 by DiverseEducation.com

The trusted source for all job seekers
We have an extensive variety of listings for both academic and non-academic positions at postsecondary institutions.
Read More
The trusted source for all job seekers