Date of Award

5-2026

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Educational Leadership, Research and Technology

First Advisor

LaSonja Roberts, Ph. D.

Second Advisor

Wayne Stitt, Ph. D.

Third Advisor

Luchara Wallace, Ph. D.

Keywords

Black males, college-going, relational capital, scholarship, self-efficacy

Abstract

Despite the expansion of place-based scholarship programs across the United States, Black males from urban communities remain significantly underrepresented in post-secondary enrollment. Though these scholarships are designed to provide expanded or universal access to higher education, Black males disproportionately underutilize this financial resource. This qualitative investigation examines the lived experiences, perceptions, and contextual factors influencing Black males’ decisions regarding place-based scholarship utilization and college attendance.

This study, grounded in Critical Race Theory (CRT) and self-efficacy theory, employs a qualitative design to explore participant experiences. Participants are recruited through outreach to local alumni networks and community organizations, with eligibility limited to individuals who graduated between 2005 and 2020 and met the scholarship’s residency requirements. Supplementary survey data informs and contextualizes focus group discussions with ten Black males from a midwestern urban community, all of whom had access to a place-based scholarship but either did not use it, did not enroll in post-secondary education, or stopped out before degree completion. Data are analyzed using MAXQDA, guided by CRT tenets such as interest convergence, racism as endemic, and counterstories, strengthening the study’s depth and transparency.

Five themes emerge: expectations based on race, contextual and environmental factors, sense of belonging, home and family dynamics, and community and mentorship. A theoretically significant finding is that high self-efficacy, rather than producing college enrollment, may generate informed, protective avoidance of environments that participants accurately perceive as hostile. This pattern challenges Bandura’s self-efficacy theory, which presumes a neutral or supportive institutional context, and reveals that for Black males navigating racially hostile systems, the relationship between self-efficacy and outcomes is context-dependent and mediated by systemic barriers.

Relational capital emerges as a critical mediating variable between self-efficacy and college enrollment, particularly in the form of sustained, culturally responsive mentorship from Black male educators in small, personalized settings. Across all three focus groups, participants consistently emphasize the influential role that mentorship plays in shaping their educational trajectories. This study extends Strayhorn’s (2021, 2014) belonging research by establishing that belonging deficits originate in K-12 settings and produce lasting effects on enrollment decisions and advances a CRT-informed critique of place-based scholarships as a potential site of interest convergence, serving institutional interests while leaving systemic barriers to college access intact.

Implications include the imperative to invest in relational infrastructure alongside financial support, beginning in K-12 settings. Future research should develop validated instruments to measure relational capital and examine how pre-college relational experiences shape post-secondary outcomes for Black males and other historically marginalized populations.

Access Setting

Dissertation-Open Access

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