ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 focuses on the data that shapes this book. The data has been generated by two complementary research studies of young Black males in the UK. Both challenge durable narratives about young Black males as underachievers and seek to produce an asset-based perspective. The first research, conducted in 2003–05, focused on the educational ambitions experiences of young Black people aged 14–19 in two UK cities – London and Nottingham. The second research study was undertaken in 2016/17. It comprised of 10 Black male university students (aged 18–22) from three universities in Birmingham, UK. At their core, both studies aimed to understand the challenges young Black men experience but, in particular, attempt to understand the positive contributing factors and influences to their education.
The chapter provides an overview of the two studies, their aims and objectives and the educational policy contexts which led to the studies being conducted. By focusing on student’s voices, educational narratives and intersectionality, the chapter illuminates how Black oral history traditions, critical race and Black feminist frameworks and epistemologies coalesce, and in the process, help to break the dominant epistemological framework that over-emphasises young Black men’s status as devalued victims.
