Theorizing the Underrepresentation of Black Males in Information Technology (IT)

Through qualitative inquiry, this study identifies and analyzes the factors that support or undermine the achievement of Black males completing IT degrees and entering the workforce. This paper presents the findings of a study examining the underrepresentation of Black male participation in IT guided by the Individual Differences Theory of Gender and IT. Throughout this paper there are common themes related to individual identity, coping mechanisms and environmental influences. This chapter portrays my experience and interactions with these Black men in regards to obstacles, roadblocks, diversions and ultimately success in pursuing and staying on an IT career path. The research centered around three district research questions. The first research question was how do Black male Individual Identity Characteristics influence IT degree pursuit and attainment? The second research question was in which ways do societal characteristics encountered by Black males influence IT degree pursuit and attainment? The final research question was how do Institutional Characteristics encountered by Black males influence IT degree pursuit and attainment? The findings could lead to a better understanding of how the factors that influence Black male participation could be used to recruit and retain Black males.

[1]  Robert T. Carter,et al.  Racial Identity and Education , 1994 .

[2]  C. Steele,et al.  Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African Americans. , 1995, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[3]  Shanette M. Harris,et al.  Psychosocial Development and Black Male Masculinity: Implications for Counseling Economically Disadvantaged African American Male Adolescents , 1995 .

[4]  Ronnie Hopkins,et al.  Educating Black Males: Critical Lessons in Schooling, Community, and Power , 1997 .

[5]  Michael D. Myers,et al.  Qualitative Research in Information Systems , 1997, MIS Q..

[6]  Anderson J. Franklin,et al.  Invisibility Syndrome and Racial Identity Development in Psychotherapy and Counseling African American Men , 1999 .

[7]  Eileen M. Trauth,et al.  Odd girl out: an individual differences perspective on women in the IT profession , 2002, Inf. Technol. People.

[8]  K. Cokley,et al.  Ethnicity, gender, and academic self-concept: a preliminary examination of academic disidentification and implications for psychologists. , 2002, Cultural diversity & ethnic minority psychology.

[9]  K. Cokley,et al.  What Do We Know about the Motivation of African American Students? Challenging the "Anti-Intellectual" Myth. , 2003 .

[10]  Jerlando F. L. Jackson.  Toward Administrative Diversity: An Analysis of the African-American Male Educational Pipeline , 2003 .

[11]  Sari M. van Anders.  Why the Academic Pipeline Leaks: Fewer Men than Women Perceive Barriers to Becoming Professors , 2004 .

[12]  Debra Howcroft.  The Choice of Critical IS Research , 2004 .

[13]  B. Hooks,et al.  We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity , 2004 .

[14]  K. Cokley,et al.  Racial(ized) Identity, Ethnic Identity, and Afrocentric Values: Conceptual and Methodological Challenges in Understanding African American Identity , 2005 .

[15]  Eileen M. Trauth.  Theorizing Gender and Information Technology Research , 2006 .

[16]  Liisa von Hellens,et al.  Qualitative Research in Information Systems , 2007, Australas. J. Inf. Syst..

[17]  Jeria L. Quesenberry.  Career values and motivations: a study of women in the information technology workforce , 2007 .

[18]  Eileen M. Trauth,et al.  An analysis of the influence of human individual differences on web searching behavior among blacks and whites: a case of health information searching , 2008 .

[19]  R. Estrella,et al.  Stuck in the Shallow End Education , Race , and Computing , 2008 .

[20]  Alexander von Eye,et al.  Race, Gender, and Information Technology Use: The New Digital Divide , 2008, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[21]  Claude M. Steele,et al.  Whistling Vivaldi: And Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us , 2010 .

[22]  Lynette Kvasny,et al.  Understanding underrepresentation in IT through intersectionality , 2012, iConference '12.

[23]  Eileen M. Trauth,et al.  The Future of Gender and IT Research: Embracing Intersectionality , 2012 .

[24]  Curtis Cain,et al.  Underrepresented groups in gender and STEM: the case of black males in CISE , 2012, SIGMIS-CPR '12.

[25]  Eileen M. Trauth,et al.  Black Males in IT Higher Education in The USA: The Digital Divide in the Academic Pipeline Re-visited , 2012, AMCIS.

[26]  Eileen M. Trauth,et al.  Stereotype threat: the case of black males in the IT profession , 2013, SIGMIS-CPR '13.

[27]  Lynette Kvasny,et al.  The Influence of Gender-Ethnic Intersectionality on Gender Stereotypes about IT Skills and Knowledge , 2016, Data Base.