60 Introduction Since the beginning of time, storytelling has been vital for connecting, empathizing, and educating others through shared experiences (Learn to Flourish, 2018). It has provided varied opportunities to learn from others’ behaviors, avoid mistakes, innovate, and spark curiosity. If this theoretic principle holds true, why then has not public education embraced its practice as another innovative strategy of collecting the student experience? Practices such as these open the space for the amplification of student voice, allowing students new avenues to share their educational challenges and further assist the educational community with new methods to improve learning for all students across the nation. Educational researchers are gradually venturing into uncharted territory, creating a new blueprint meant to unearth improved initiatives that address existing educational issues in public campuses. Statement of the Problem In Texas, a notable academic disparity persists between African American and White students in public education. Over the past decade, African American students’ achievement and engagement have declined, despite access to educational resources in affluent districts (Goldsmith, 2003; Somilleda, 2022). Since the 1980s, “Black test score gaps with peers remain a pervasive component of the U.S. education system,” and research has suggested that something anomalous and unique occurs when analyzing the other struggles and barriers experienced by African American students (Badger et al., 2018; Cameron & McCall, 2020; Dulabaum, 2016; Huntington & Ackert, 2018, p. 1120, Lee, 2002). These components suggest that African American students are inundated with a range of factors aside from academics, causing a decrease in academic performance and comprehension (Cameron & McCall, 2020; Huntington & Ackert, 2018). To truly address the core of the concern, educators must first understand its attributing factors. Gathering understandings and perceptions directly from African American students, as they are “the experts in their learning” (Sudderth, 2022, p. 2), will employ districts with a deeper understanding of the specific complexities that exist within the campus climate. Thus, identifying the purpose of the overall hermeneutic phenomenological analysis—a study created to uncover African American students’ lived experiences in affluent campuses as a way to contribute in the framing and diagnosing of the primary problem (Thomas-Chevallier, 2016). Summary of the Study The purpose of the study was to better understand the lived experiences of African American students with an intentional focus on affluent districts located in the state of Texas. With the objective focus tuned into collecting “interpretive, material practices [of African American secondary high school students] to make their worlds visible”, the primary intent of the study remained engrossed on identifying a living, fluid process to determine factors that limit or affect a specific subgroup of students’ academic performance while actively enrolled in schools (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005, p. 3). LET THEM BE HEARD: A PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY ON THE PERCEPTIONS OF AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDENTS IN AFFLUENT SCHOOLS Chelsea N. W. MacKinnon, Ed.D. Journal of K-12 Educational Research 2024, VOL. 8, ISSUE 1 dbu.edu/doctoral/edd
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