Date
9-17-2026
Department
School of Education
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy in Higher Education Administration (PhD)
Chair
Matthew Ozolnieks
Keywords
African American male, higher education, academic integration, social integration, southern predominantly White institution, persistence, retention, dropout theory
Disciplines
Educational Leadership | Higher Education
Recommended Citation
Jones-Gore, Kattie, "The Title of the Dissertation: How African American Males Overcame Challenges To Persist at a Predominantly White Institution in the South: A Phenomenological Study" (2026). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 8965.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/8965
Abstract
The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to understand the lived experiences of African American males who graduate from a predominantly White institution (PWI) in the South. The theory guiding the study is Vincent Tinto’s dropout theory. The dropout theory suggests students will persist in graduation if they are academically and socially integrated in the college environment. The central research question in the study was: What were the lived experiences of African American males who persisted to graduation from a predominantly White institution in the South? Purposeful snowball sampling was utilized to obtain 10 African American male participants who graduated from a PWI in the South. The setting was Ledone University, a predominantly White institution in the southern region of the United States. In-depth interviews, focus groups, and reflective letters were utilized to collect the data. The data analysis approach utilized was Moustakas’s transcendental-phenomenological reduction, imaginative variation, and epoche` methodology to understand the meaning, nature, and essence of the phenomena lived by the participants. The research revealed four themes: community, mentorship, academic integration, and social integration. The 10 African American males overcame challenges to graduate from a predominantly White institution by experiencing the importance of finding their community, mentorship, academic, and social integration. The recommendation for future research is the impact of mentoring on the academic success of African American males in higher education. A qualitative research design is appropriate to provide rich and textured narratives.
