The purpose of the study was to investigate how African-American males describe their school experiences when there were multiple generations in the family and how this impacted the students’ academic performance (p. 342)
Relevant topic
The topic is important in understanding factors that can contribute to the academic success of African-American males in school. The study examines the intergenerational educational experiences of boys and men in a select number of households. There has not been a lot of research conducted in this area (p.342) African-American males are attending college, however, their matriculation rates are still lower than any other group of students.
Hypothesis/hypotheses …show more content…
The author focused on the contextual factors that influenced the cross generational school experiences and achievement of African-American-males over a 6 moth timeframe. Through a series (two to three per individual) of in-person interviews conducted in the participants home (p. 343)
Active interviewing techniques were used which allowed for the interviewer and participants to have a free flow of information between the two. This was done over a two-year period of conducting the interviews for the three families, spending six to eight months with each family before moving to the next one. Because of the time spent with the participants the author was also able to conduct observations and in-depth interviews (p. 344)
Researcher created roadmaps and was able to identify 4 important intergenerational-thematic categories from the data which fitted into the collective framework (p.344).
Adequacy of the research design/data collection or sampling/research …show more content…
Justify your answer.
Even though in-depth interviews were conducted, I don’t see where the researcher followed back up with the participants to ensure there feedback was collect so this could be an impact to descriptive validity. An evaluative validity threat could also be present because the author closeness with identifying with the males in the study. The researcher’s shared ethnicity with the participants in the study, and the years of past teaching experiences of African-American boys.
Suggest how the authors could increase validity.
I would increase validity by having different people to conduct the interviews. I also would also would have had audio recordings to ensure that I captured the interviews correctly. I also believe that the researcher should have had more people in the sample size, and cut down on the amount of time to conduct the interviews. I think two years was too long of a time to conduct the research.
How would you extend this research? (What is the next step?)
The researcher could have gather interviews from other families in other cities. I would have conducted interviews with teachers, mentors, or other individuals who may have had an influence in the students’