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Future outlook among African American students.

Article Excerpt
Abstract

The study examined attitudes toward the future as a potential contributor to discrepancies in school achievement among 16 low-income, urban African American adolescents. Higher achieving students expressed more positive attitudes toward the future than lower achieving students. Boys, regardless of achievement, reported negative attitudes toward the future of society and were concerned with obstacles to a positive future. Findings suggest that gender based experiences among African American adolescents may shape their attitudes toward the future and contribute to the gender gap in their achievement.

Introduction

Thinking about and planning for future life transitions are major features of personal, career, and academic development among adolescents (Erikson, 1968, 1980; Nurmi, 2004). According to Nurmi (1991), the process of developing a representation of the future occurs in three phases: motivation, planning, and evaluation. First, adolescents develop expectations of the future based on knowledge of anticipated life events. The expectations and knowledge that adolescents develop regarding these anticipated life events motivate them to explore future personal and career options. Second, adolescents attempt to reach their goals through planning activities. The skills that adolescents are exposed to and their perceptions of ability provide a framework for planning. Third, adolescents evaluate opportunities to realize their goals and ambitions. It is the evaluation process that leads to the development of emotional attributions toward the future. Students who are optimistic and manifest positive representations of the future are more motivated to achieve academically and to actively plan for the future than students who manifest negative, pessimistic attitudes toward the future (Nurmi, 1991, 2004; Nuttin, 1985; Savickas, Silling, & Schwartz, 1984; Somers & Gizzi, 2001)).

The current study qualitatively examines attitudes toward the future among low-income, urban African American adolescents and introduces "attitudes toward the future" as a unique, yet potentially persuasive, contributor to discrepancies in school achievement among these youth. The study is guided by the belief that attitudes toward the future motivate current behavior and may serve as a motivating factor for school achievement (Nurmi, 1991; Nuttin, 1974, 1985; Phalek, Andriessen, & Lens, 2004). For the purpose of this paper, attitudes toward the future are defined by personal feelings and expectations regarding one's future and the future of society. The researcher attempted to answer the following question: What is the connection among attitudes toward the future, gender, and achievement? That is, to what extent do African American girls express attitudes toward the future that are qualitatively different from African American boys and to what extent do higher achieving students express attitudes toward the future that are qualitatively different from lower achieving students?

Method

Participants

The study included sixteen low-income, ninth grade African American adolescents from an urban high school in the northeastern region of the country. There were four higher and four lower achieving students from each gender group. Based on a 100-point scale, students earned an average grade point average of 75.29 for the first three quarters of the academic year. The average grade point average for higher and lower achieving students was 82.2 and 68.1, respectively.

Data Sources

Participants completed two semi-structured individual interviews. The first interview (~60 minutes) explored students' goals for and attitudes regarding their personal future and the future of society. Sample questions included: a) What are some of your goals and expectations? b) What feedback have you received regarding your goals and expectations? c) Do you feel you will reach your goals and expectations? d) What would keep you from reaching your goals and expectations? The interview included twenty-eight questions that were asked of all participants. The researcher was also open to ask follow-up questions and questions of clarification during each interview. During the second interview (25-45 minutes), preliminary findings and interpretations were discussed with each student based on information gained from the first interview. The second interview served as a method of data verification and provided an opportunity to clarify unclear responses from the first interview. Maxwell (1996) found the process of receiving feedback regarding data interpretation from study participants, known as member checks, to be an important mechanism to avoid data misinterpretation.

Data Analysis

Analysis relied heavily on the work of Patton (1990, 2001) and Miles and Huberman (1994). These qualitative methodologists suggest the use of matrices to...

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