Targeted Intervention in Education and the Empowerment and Emotional Well-being of Black Boys

Abstract

If we are to help diminish some of the negative schooling experiences and behaviour often manifested in Black boys, such as frequent displays of anger, defiance to authority, low self-esteem, and their deployment of coping strategies, which further contributes to their disengagement or expulsion from school, we have to ensure that their health and emotional well-being in schools is optimised. Black boys in the UK comprise the largest proportion of young people who have been excluded from secondary schools, and they are often among one of the lowest groups of underachievers in the UK. It is against these bleak backgrounds of underachievement and disengagement from the mainstream education system that this present study posits the argument for increased targeted intervention, not only to improve academic performance but also to improve the emotional well-being in Black boys. Drawing upon case studies of targeted intervention strategies employed in schools and the community over a period of nearly two decades, by the education charity called Excell3, this chapter argues that greater levels of targeted interventions can result in higher levels of social aspiration, educational attainment, self-esteem and emotional well-being among Black boys.

Citation

Byfield, C. and Talburt, T. (2020), "Targeted Intervention in Education and the Empowerment and Emotional Well-being of Black Boys", Majors, R., Carberry, K. and Ransaw, T.S. (Ed.) The International Handbook of Black Community Mental Health, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 293-306. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83909-964-920201019