Introduction
Topic and purpose
The topic delves into the educational system of schools where most of the students enrolled are African Americans. The purpose of this study is to examine life in segregated schools in the segregated schools from the perspectives of African American teachers and administrators of Emmett Scott high during the period 1965 to 1970. The researcher will consider the experiences of African American Administrators and teachers during and after the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court Case decision came out in order to develop a basis for comparison to current literature.
The negative aspects of this Black –segregated school have been well documented(Price, 2000, p. 5). This research will focus on area. This research area will delve on the productive characteristics of segregated schooling of African American Students. Emmett Scott High located in Rock Hill South Carolina had strong educational traditions. It had been an active contributor to the American Community. Eliza Walker Mill stated:
“After being born (Emmett Scott) much had been done to develop Emmett Scott to bring it into focus. An Alma Mater was born written by George L. Walker and put to music by Frontis Brooks. A boys and girls basketball team was established. We know that music 0played a very important part in the Negro race during the early years, therefore, Frontis Books organized a band a Booker T. Brown organized a choir”(Mill).
The accomplishments above had led Emmett Scott High School to its pedestal as one of the top African American Schools in South Carolina. This educational institution was instrumental in instilling pride and respect within its community.
Likewise, Siddle –Walker (1996) insisted in her study at Caswell Country Training School located in the other side state of North Carolina that:
“The history of the public schooling of African Americans during legalized segregation has focused almost exclusively on the inferior education that African American children are forced received. Indeed, the meager materials, the inadequate facilities, the unequal funding of schools and teachers, the lack of bus transportation, the failure of school boards to respond to black parents’ request are so commonly named in most descriptions of segregated education that they have created a national memory that that dominates most thinking about the segregated schooling of African American Children(Walker, 1996).”
Many efforts have been made to understand better what knowledge the African American education brings to the students, the teachers, the administrators and the community. Such studies have called the attention of the importance of education of the educators themselves and the importance of subject –related pedagogized knowledge. Many researchers have also been done to analyze the social situations that give meaning to the knowledge and the guidance that the teachers and administrators impart on their growing students. Teachers guide and mediate the students in a nurturing school environment.
The knowledge of education has concentrated attention on teaching understanding rather than simply for purposes of recall or mental calisthenics under the safety of the classroom roof(Lagemann & Shulman, 1999, p. 6).
Potential significance
The significance of the study is to ensure a broader context of understanding about the African American educational experience, its driving force and its institutions behind Emmett Scott’s success both within the four walls of the classroom and the community as well(Long, 2005, p. 29). This research will complement current researches on the life of the African American and the entire United States community as well. For, the countless silent voices of the Emmett Scott students, teachers, and administrators and other respondents to this research can now be heard and enshrined into the research world(Gibson, 2002, p. 2).
This study will serve as a jump –off point or significant related literature for other researches on the African American educational system(Perry & Delpit, 1998, p. 9). This will surely ensure that the ‘self taught’ educational of the African Americans during the civil war will never return(Randolph, 2007). African American education in many parts of the United States was discouraged(Morris & Morris, 2000, p. 5).
For, it was indeed a bumpy road for African Americans to ‘have a dream’ in education(Bonner & Evans, 2004, p. 4). This study will help increase the knowledge of parents, students, teachers and faculty to improve the African American educational system(Hrabowski, Maton & Greif, 1998, p. 7). This study will also benefit the African American faculty in tutoring the African American students in school(Myers, 2002, p. 12).
Framework and general research questions
The researcher will gather all interview notes. The researcher will also gather the materials gathered from secondary resources. The researcher will apply fairness in writing the gist of the interviews thereby not favoring one respondent over the other.
The study focuses on the academic and social culture of Emmett Scott High School. This study focuses on the period covering 1965 to 1970. This includes the study of the views of the students, teachers and administrators of the school during the same time period. Emmett Scott had had been an educational hallmark in Rock Hill, South Carolina then. It continues to be a hallmark even in our present time even though the school had been shut down in 1970 precipitated by desegregation. Many students had in our current generation still show reverence to it as one of the educational foundations of the state.
Currently, it is one of the community centers of the state of South Carolina. This analysis phase will determine the academic and social culture of Emmett Scott High School from the period 1965 to 1970. And, this analysis phase would determine the views of the teachers and administrators on their role in the education of their students of Emmett Scott high school from the 1965 to 1970 period. Lastly, the analysis phase will determine the views of the students about their teachers and administrators of Emmett Scott high school from the 1965 to 1970 period
The general research questions include:
- What was the academic and social culture of Emmett Scott High School?
- What were the teachers and administrators’ views on their role in the education of their students at Emmet Scott High School?
- What were students’ views about their teachers and administrators at Emmett Scott High school?
Conceptual Framework
Theatrical traditions
The study focuses on the academic and social culture of African American Students on the teachers, administrators and students of Emmett Scott High School. This study focuses on the period covering 1965 to 1970. This includes the study of the views of the students, teachers and administrators of the school during the same time period. Emmett Scott had had been an educational hallmark in Rock Hill, South Carolina then. It continues to be a hallmark even in our present time even though the school had been shut down in 1970 precipitated by desegregation. Many students had in our current generation still show reverence to it as one of the educational foundations of the state. Currently, it is one of the community centers of the state of South Carolina.
Related Research
A research done by Franklin showed that the failure of state and local official s to give equal and more than adequate educational finances for all African American or schools where a majority of the students are African Americans has been going on for many years in the history of the United States. The period that ended with the Civil War and the United States Supreme Court decision in the Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954 emphasized that it was illegal to segregate in the public school system. However, many White law makers in many of the Southern and Northern States counterattacked by refusing to fund public expenditures equally between the white Americans and the African Americans (Franklin, 2002).
Further, A research by Dodge in 2006 stated that it was ultimately the freed African American people’s dream to be education that helped ignite the civil rights movement. This dream was the spark that rallied the Northerners to finally overrun the Southerners and set the African Americans free from bondage. An estimated one thousand four hundred White Northerner Missionaries to pack up their backpacks and travel to the far South to educate the African Americans there during the period from 1862 to 1870s. In turn the freed African Americans helped the African Americans learn reading, writing and arithmetic (Dodge, 2006)..
Furthermore, a research done by Freeman in 1998 stated that the historical system of knowledge production and dissemination, where non- African Americans have started the ball rolling in the field of African American education have greatly minimized the capabilities and underestimated the potential of the African American youngster at almost all educational levels in the United States. Many of the faculty, students and administrators in a school environment having high African American enrollees lacked the cultural the minimum knowledge of the culture and psyche of the African American Student (Freeman, 1998).
Design and Methodology
Overall approach and rationale
The research proper will be done interviewing the teachers, administrator and students of Emmett Scott High School from the period 1965 to 1970. Likewise, secondary materials will be taken from library materials and other places. The method of data collection I will be using the Snow Balling or Chaining method emphasized by Patton. Patton reiterated that data gathering taken from many persons will snow -ball for it will include more and more research respondents. The design and methodology was centered on the effect of the academic and social culture of African Americans on the teachers, administrators and Students in Emmett Scott High School.
The rationale of the study is that the academic and social culture of African Americans affected the educational performance of teachers, administrators and students in Emmett Scott High School.
Participants/site
The participants of the study included administrators, teachers and students enrolled in Emmett Scott High School during the period 1965 to 1970. Likewise, the teachers and administrators of the researcher’s Alma Mater were called upon to give their comments, suggestions and criticisms about Emmett Scott National High School.
Data-gathering methods
A god education research begins not with what the researcher does but with what the topic should be directed to. But talking about why much education research is not good. Some of the tropes of this discussion are widely shares: the problem with some education researches is that they irrelevant, too academic, poor quality and filled to the rim with jargon. The purpose of this research is to spark more educational researches where primary and secondary data are gathered to complement each other in full circle(Billig & Waterman, 2003, p. 74). This will surely reach the goal of a finding that is unbiased and well backed –up with primary and secondary resources(Yates, 2004, p. 20).
The method of data collection I will be using the Snow Balling or Chaining method emphasized by Patton. Patton reiterated that data gathering taken from many persons will snow ball for it will include more and more research respondents. The Patton method best fits this type of research due to the easy availability of the respondents from the teachers, students and the administrations of both the researcher’s alma mater and Emmett Scott High School.
One major advantage of the Patton method is that research precipitates from the case narrative methodology. Additional data needed to complete this study will be taken when the researcher joins a reunion of former students, teachers and administrators in October this year. This will increase the possible subject areas that the researcher will include to wrap up the study(Yore, 2003).
Interviews
The research proper will be done interviewing the teachers, administrator and students of Emmett Scott High School from the period 1965 to 1970. The first subject of the interview will be Representative Sam Foster. He will forever be known as the last principal of Emmett Scott High when it finally closed its doors in 1971. The interview will be set on September 20, 2008 at 9:00 at the Red Grill in Rock Hill, South Carolina. A second resource person for this study would be Gladys Boulware. She was the teacher of Emmett Scott High School during the same time period under study. She transferred to the desegregated Rock Hill School after Emmett Scott closed down. The researcher’s interview with Ms. Glady Boulware of Nevada Las Vegas will be set this weekend. She continues to actively participate in the Emmett Scott reunion activities.
Secondary resources
Secondary resources will be gathered to complement the primary resources. The primary resources are the interviews with Emmett Scott Students, teachers and administrators enrolled from 1965 to 1970 and the teachers in researcher’s alma mater.
The secondary resources include documents that will wash away any preconceived bias and to find the missing pieces of the Emmett Scott research puzzle. The secondary materials will mainly come from the newspaper articles, class awards, yearbooks, and trophies. Additional data will come from the court records, School Board minutes, NACCP papers, civil rights documents and school and community newspapers.
Trustworthiness
Data gathered was focused on trustworthiness. The respondents of the study were scrutinized in terms of their contribution to the findings and conclusions will result from this tedious work of art.
Role of researcher
The role of the researcher is to gather primary and secondary resources. The primary resources focused on interviewing teachers, administrators and students of Emmett Scott High School during the period 1965 To 1970. Likewise, other persons interviewed included teachers and administrator of the researcher’s Alma Mater.
Ethical consideration
The research was done to gather information from respondents in a voluntary manner. Information gathered included personal and confidential information. The research was done to ensure that all data divulged by the respondents shall remain confidential. Social research should not cause harm to the persons interviewed in all instances. The respondents were asked to answer several questions were insured of confidentiality because they were not required to give personal information like name, age, address, contact number and the like.
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