Purpose - This study aims to understand the asset and success factors that contributed to college Completions of African American males who persisted through college.Only a dismall 22 per cent of African American males receive bachelor's degrees compared to 41 per cen of White males
Design/methodology/approach - The data were analyzed using interpretive phenomological analysis.The authors interviwed two first-generation African American males from rural backgrounds to capture their experinces of their process to collage completion.
Findings - Themes,based in cultural capital theory that impacted their college persistence were identified within their pre-college experinces,college experinces and post-college perceptions.Recommendations for helping rural African-American males attend and persist through college are offered.
Research limitations/implications - Only two participants from one predominately white institutionin the southeastern USA were interviwed.Rural students from other geographical areas might have different backgrounds,challenges,assets and successes.Although the interview questions were based on relevant literature,they may not have covered all key aspects of the participants'experinces.As in any qualitative study,biases of the researchers and research team may have influenced the results,although these were indetified and shared before reading any of the transcripts and then discussed several times during the data analysis process.
Practical implications - Educators not only should try to address the cultural capital limitations of these men but also highlight and build on their cultural assets.these assets include familial and platonic individuals who see their potential for success and encourage them to attend college to become something better than what they see in their community,reverse role models who encourage youth to make different choices than they did,media-based examples of succesful Black students,cultural messages of strength and determination and the exhortation to be an example taht other African-American boys could look up to.
Originality/value - This paper addresses the need for K-12 and higher education institutions to understand how to assits first-generation,rural African-American males in getting admitted to college,matriculating through college and graduating from collage.