African American Cultural Values Parallel Contemporary American Values in Graduate School Administration

Introduction

This chapter examines the idea of contemporary American values paralleling those of African American cultural values within the paradigm of higher education. This helps us to understand how universal principles translate across all cultures and backgrounds, especially in American society in the educational system for graduate institutions, by focusing on African American cultural values and on the positives for appreciating African American cultural perspectives. The lines blur in terms of parallel cultural values that African American families/students feel, along with the majority population in the United States, as well as similar values that other ethnic groups have held with respect to the impact of a good education. However, educational leaders must evaluate performance metrics of educator quality, educational services, activities, technology, educational leadership, and intentional education practice theory (IEPT) (teaching styles) in order to promote African American cultural values. Therefore, this study reveals evidence-based strategies that are used to examine graduate program effectiveness by enhancing African American cultural values.

Throughout modern history, there have been attempts to divide communities in the United States between groups as much as to point fingers for the blame of cultural division that exists today. Where is the opportunity in American society for true equality to be realized? Individuals attend graduate school to obtain a career, greater knowledge, to enhance expertise in a particular area of study, or to elevate their current career (Lundquist & Kelly, 2022). Worse still, some dominant groups in America have pushed a particular preference towards contemporary American cultural values in the direction of graduate education and career training that are preferred over the values of those groups that represent minority populations. Noteworthy particularly is that the status quo is to translate American contemporary cultural values as mirroring those of the White, Angelo-Saxon Protestant (WASP), primarily patriarchal populations or images as being preferable over those which might be counter to this narrative, especially among minority groups such as African Americans. Discriminatory media narratives tried to paint this mythical ideal and perpetuate it throughout the 20th century and into the present (Slotkin, 2001). However, we might want to entertain the question as to whether the idea of contemporary American cultural values was, in fact, different from the values outside of majority populations, such as those of African American communities, including higher education? Though we might appreciate the diversity of values and cultural influences as to what defines a true American identity, we can also realize that the values of the WASP-dominating culture are changing as much today as the electorate and the realization that a diversity of opinions amidst the local and national landscape tends to contribute healthily to a stronger nation overall (Fuller & Smith, 2022). We can also begin to see that, in fact, African American cultural values are universal and translate into all aspects of American culture (West, 2003). One important idea in this paper is to help us understand how this is so, how universal principles translate across all cultures and backgrounds, especially in American society in the educational system for graduate institutions.