This preliminary study explored the cultural socialization processes of 227 African American and European American parents of elementary schoolchildren. The Cultural Value Socialization Scales (K. M. Tyler, A. W. Boykin, C. M. Boelter, & M. L. Dillihunt, 2005) were used to garner parents' reports of their cultural value socialization activities at home. The scales contained written vignettes depicting persons involved in activity that reflected a specific cultural value. Ethnocultural values examined were communalism, verve, movement, and affect, and mainstream cultural values included individualism, competition, bureaucracy, and materialism. Regression analyses reveal that being an African American parent was predictive of competition and materialism scores. Race was not a significant predictor of the remaining cultural value socialization scores. Limitations to the study are discussed.

The current study builds on previous communalism research by exploring the enduring facilitative effects of communal learning contexts on academic achievement for African American children over extended time and while calling on critical thinking skills. In addition, this study sought to explore the communalism construct in a more applied academic environment that approximated real classroom conditions. This study examined performance differences in fraction problem solving among 96 low-income African American students in Grades 3 to 6 participating in either a communal or individual learning context. Pretest to posttest gains showed that students randomly selected for the communal learning context significantly outperformed students who learned in the individualistic context. Additionally, communal learning students outperformed their individual counterparts during each weekly domain assessments. Several promising results obtained draws the communalism construct to a more applied culturally relevant pedagogical tool.

The current study examined lasting learning effects of communal contexts for 124 African American third and fourth-grade students using a mathematics fractions unit with students’ regularly assigned teachers. Teachers in two experimental conditions received training on implementing communally or individually structured fractions curricula, and a naturalistic control was included whose participants did not receive the intervention. Findings revealed that students in the communal condition outperformed those who learned individually, and students in both intervention conditions outperformed those in the naturalistic control group. Survey of communal home-socialization obtained a relationship with identifying fractions performance. Implications for facilitative effects of culturally informed learning environments and teacher training toward enhanced academic achievement are discussed.

Disruptive classroom behaviors are a major schooling dilemma in urban schools. While several contextual and motivational factors have been statistically associated with disruptive classroom behaviors, one overlooked factor has been home-school dissonance. The current study examined the relationship between 260 middle school students’ reports of perceived home-school dissonance, several motivational antecedents of academic performance, and disruptive classroom behaviors. Six hundred sixty middle school students completed six subscales of the Patterns of Adaptive Learning Scales (PALS), including the Home-School Dissonance subscale, Mastery Goal, Performance Approach, and Performance Avoidance Goal Orientations, and the Disruptive Classroom Behavior subscales. Home-school dissonance scores were significantly associated with lower mastery goal orientation and lower academic efficacy scores. Home-school dissonance scores were also significantly associated with higher disruptive classroom behavior scores and higher performance approach and performance avoidance goal orientation scores. In addition, structural equation modeling with multiple mediators showed that mastery goal orientation and performance approach goal orientation mediated the relationship between home-school dissonance and disruptive classroom behavior.

The COVID-19 pandemic assumed an international health threat, and in turn, spotlighted the distinct disparities in civil rights, opportunity, and inclusion witnessed by lived experiences of African Americans. Although these harsh disparities have existed through the United States of America's history, the age of technology and mass media in the 21st century allows for a deeper and broader look into the violation of African Americans civil liberties in virtual real time. Also, historically, the sports world has been instrumental in fighting for the civil rights of African Americans; athletes such as Jesse Owens and Muhammed Ali led by example. This chapter will showcase how the sports world continues to support social justice overall and specifically during this international pandemic. The authors will examine contemporary events like the transition in support for Colin Kaepernick's protest against police brutality and the NBA play-off (Bubble) protest in 2020.