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Being Myself in School: A Phenomenological Investigation of Historically Underrepresented High Ability Middle School Students
Lichtenstein, Melanie Joy
Lichtenstein, Melanie Joy
Abstract
Chimamanda Adichie (2009), Nigerian novelist, warns the “danger of a single story” is that it becomes the only story. Current scholarly research often features the stories of culturally, linguistically, and economically diverse students through deficit-lens while focusing on underrepresentation, underachievement, and undernomination. This deficit experience unfortunately becomes the “single story” for many high-ability and high-potential culturally diverse children in school. This phenomenological study aimed on centering the personal stories of middle school high-ability young adolescents who are members of historically underrepresented populations to answer the question: What is it like to be high-ability and a member of an underrepresented population in middle school? Using an assets-based lens, heuristic phenomenology, and arts-based inquiry; this study explores the lived experiences of historically underrepresented and high-ability middle school students (UHA). Four major thematic structures emerged from the descriptions of their experiences: (a) context, (b) curricular, (c) developmental, and (d) relationships. These thematic structures were used to create an emergent model of the intersectional experience of UHA middle school students to address contextual, curricular, developmental, and relational issues for young adolescents in school. The implications of this study are applicable to families, educators, policy actors, and researchers who are invested in creating culturally sustaining policies and pedagogical practices for high-ability historically underrepresented middle grades students.
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2019-01-01
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Education
DOI
http://dx.doi.org/10.25774/w4-ts6w-b841