Abstract
Statement of the Problem
The purpose of this work is to explore the lack of African American male administrators, staff, and faculty in higher education. African American males make up less than 3% of faculty, staff, and administration in the United States (Love, 2019). Many African American males in K-12 suffer due to being educated from the Eurocentric perspective in all subjects academically (Woodson, 1933). African Americans do not see themselves represented positively in textbooks and so they are less likely to see education as a space where they belong (Cunningham, 2019; Dyson, 2015). This qualitative study examined the experiences of eight African American men who worked in higher education at Richmen University as faculty, staff, or administrators. Their personal testimonies provided insight to whether their representation in K-12 education affected their interest in higher education as a career.
Conclusions Reached
Many of the African American males who participated in this study did not have an African American male role model in their K-12 experience. This lack of representation was the very reason many of them chose to work in education after college. They understood the need for undergraduate students to see themselves reflected in these roles in order to better prepare the next generation of leaders. When students are not being educated by someone who looks like them and comes from similar backgrounds, the students are forced to assimilate to the wants and needs of their Eurocentric instructor or to suffer the consequences. African American male students must overcome the barriers of racism (Woodson, 1933) and assimilation (Cunningham, 2019; Dyson, 2015) as well as navigate through a lack of representation to survive in the K-12 system in America.
Richmen University and others like it should emphasize and intentionally hire African American males at their institution in an attempt to shift the racial power in favor of African American males. They should also calculatedly conduct outreach to their local K through 12 schools with their newly hired African American male faculty, staff, and administrative population. This can result in an increase in students, which can ultimately result in an increase in applicants, and eventual hires.