Academic success, resilience and ways of being among high achieving African-Caribbean pupils

This research is concerned with how African-Caribbean pupils develop and maintain identities as academically successful students. It examines the oral accounts of approaches which African-Caribbean pupils, parents, teachers and community activists employ to build resilience and viable 'ways of being' high achievers. The research employs an interpretive methodology. The literature review section provides an historical context for writing on race and education, and patterns of inequality in education. Participants’ oral accounts were produced in semi-structured interviews and focus groups. The data chapters explore students’ understandings and definitions of ‘educational success’, ways of being high achievers and draws on Critical Race Theory to accentuate black homes and communities as places and spaces of cultural asset and wealth. This thesis builds on existing research on African-Caribbean resilience, by exploring resilience as a dynamic process. It moves beyond the underachievement thesis and the cultural deficit model to exploring pupils’ own accounts of their school experiences and considers the inter-subjective development of identity, resilience and ‘success’ within school systems that have tended to produced consistently successful outcomes for some black pupils. It provides a basis for considering, and developing, ways of promoting success among African Caribbean and other disadvantaged pupils