African American Education in the US: Welcome

This guide will connect you to resources and research tips that will facilitate your exploration of historical and contemporary issues in Black/African American education in the US. These resources will support your examination of the changing landscape of neighborhoods and communities where BIPOC youth live in relationship to their educational experiences and opportunities.

In your study, you will find qualitative data in at least one of the categories below:

• Field notes from visits to/observations in a BIPOC community.
• Interviews with residents and leaders in a BIPOC community.
• Public or archival documents about a BIPOC community.

A critical analysis is an in-depth evaluation and critique of a work in any area of knowledge or a particular field of study. In this analysis, you will provide not only a summary or description but also your critical reasoning, where you will detail how and why something is important. A critical analysis will have more authority when the reasoning is supported by academic sources that are a part of this scholarly conversation.

An interesting reading: 

Your critical analysis will connect changes over time in a BIPOC community to educationally relevant issues, politics, and/or policies.*

1. Provide background information:
   1. Describe your topic and purpose
   2. Describe the neighborhood or community
2. Provide a summary 
   1. Identify an educationally relevant issue and changes in a BIPOC neighborhood or community and its schools. You could also identify a BIPOC youth group participating in educationally relevant programs or activities in the Denver Boulder metropolitan area.
3. Provide your interpretation supporting your analysis with evidence
   1. Apply theoretical tools and concepts to real-world examples where BIPOC youth live, work, and attend school
   2. Evaluate, discuss, or reason about the data you collected
   3. Describe the effects on the BIPOC group you studied in relationship to education
   4. Describe possible impacts at the micro and macro level in society
4. Conclusion

• Why should voters, school leaders, or teachers care about changes in BIPOC communities?
• What relevance or implication do changes in a BIPOC community have for the schools that serve youth in that community?
• How have educational policies or practices shaped or contributed to changes over time in BIPOC communities or the schools that serve BIPOC children?
• How have schools responded to (for better or worse) changes in communities where BIPOC youth live?
• What should be “ideal” responses to change or ideal relationships between communities and schools where BIPOC youth live and learn?.

*= information provided by Terrenda White, Ph.D.