Term of Award

Spring 2007

Degree Name

Doctor of Education in Curriculum Studies (Ed.D.)

Document Type and Release Option

Dissertation (open access)

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Department

Department of Curriculum, Foundations, and Reading

Committee Chair

John Weaver

Committee Member 1

Saundra Nettles

Committee Member 2

Marla Morris

Committee Member 3

Camille Rogers

Abstract

African American males, as a group, are labeled at-risk of not acquiring the basic academic and social skills needed to function in todays society. Many of these students simply drop out of school and later find themselves incarcerated in the prison system of America. Educational resilience has been identified as a key component of students that stay in school and participate in their learning. This mixed method study explores what role technology, used in educational setting, plays in the educational resilience and community formation of African American males. The study revolves around a technology infused, three phase intervention for twenty 9th and 10th graders. The phases are: (a) a workshop that will focus on introductory computer applications, (b) a workshop focusing on the teardown and rebuilding of the PC, and (c) a video and music production workshop. Each workshop will last approximately ten hours. At the end of the intervention, focus group interviews will be conducted to gather feedback on participant use of technology, learning, community formation, self esteem and self efficacy, and also resilience. Using the theoretical framework of educational resilience, three research questions will be addressed. 1. What role does technology play in the formation of community? 2. What role does technology play in the educational resilience of at-risk students? 3. What are the conditions that impede or contribute to educational resilience? Technology facilitates activities that encourage community. The expectations of using some newer technologies made the participants eager to learn, share, and help one another. Sharing sites of interest, a sense of success, confidence, and pride helped to construct an engaged environment. An opportunity exists to expand the role of technology and take advantage of the holding power that is clearly evident as seen in the increasing use of ubiquitous personal technologies. Educational resilience can be enhanced by using technology to create links to the lived situations students and maybe even provide a means to economic gains. Technology can help create successful educational spaces that build and create interest in topics while also providing the means to bring relevance to the classroom activities of our students.

Research Data and Supplementary Material

No

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