| Popis: |
This thesis seeks to develop an understanding of how Black males received and perceived education within the further education (FE) sector in England. Using phenomenological inquiry and narratives provided by the Black males I consider how they engaged with education in the post compulsory sector and their views regarding the quality of their educational experience while studying at college. I explore the encounters they experienced in terms of accessing the taught curriculum, their experiences of the institutional cultures in FE and the relationships they were able to form with college staff members. I suggest that race is an underlying feature of many of these encounters and influenced both the nature and the outcome of the encounter. I examine how Black males chose to interact with structures and systems and the mechanisms they developed to help them navigate education, including accessing staff, peer and family support and how these different systems were significant to their achievement within colleges. By using phenomenological inquiry, I present a challenge to some of the more popular presentations of Black males and demonstrate how some Black males use their own agency to promote success within education. The main ethnographic work for this inquiry was completed in two, medium-sized, general FE colleges in the east Midlands over a period of fifteen months from October 2005 until December 2006 and employed multiple techniques including observation, focus groups, individual interviews and photographic techniques together with an analysis of numerical data of student achievement, to produce rich, contextualised, composite pictures of the educational journeys of Black males in FE within the two study colleges. Using the data assembled I review how education systems could be organised in order to provide Black males with a better chance of achieving academic success in education and how education systems need to respond to more effectively meet the needs of this group. |
