CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The formal and informal learning opportunities provided by multigenerational black communities in the South - and how similar grassroots efforts can turn around racial disparities in academic achievement in the U.S. today - are the focus of a new book by educational researcher Saundra Murray Nettles.
In the book, titled "Necessary Spaces: Exploring the Richness of African American Childhood in the South," Murray Nettles identifies seven experiences believed to be critical to black children's psychosocial development - connection, exploration, design, empowerment, resistance, renewal and practice.
These experiences, which the author collectively calls "necessary spaces," recur in the published autobiographical accounts of prominent African-American scholars, activists and artists in the context of discussing learning opportunities that profoundly affected them during childhood and that occurred in their homes, schools, churches, in nature and other community settings.
Murray Nettles also examines each of these necessary spaces in the context of her own childhood spent in Atlanta's Washington Park neighborhood and later in rural Clayton County, Ga., during the 1950s and 1960s.
These tightly knit intergenerational and occupationally diverse neighborhoods provided the necessary spaces that promoted achievement, including everyday interactions with adults who formally or informally acted as "coaches" for children, encouraging and modeling academic and practical learning.
"Neighborhood networks of lifelong learning matter for child development," Murray Nettles said. "Sometimes educational reform is remembrance and recovery of historical legacies."
In a chapter that explores educational initiatives by and for blacks in the late 19th century, Murray Nettles reflects on her family's legacy of education and attainment. Her paternal great-great-grandfather Alex Weems was a freed slave turned farmer who learned to read and write but never attended high school. His grandson and great-grandson, Murray Nettles' grandfather and father respectively, each attended Morehouse College.
Murray Nettles' father and mother were schoolteachers; each earned master's degrees in education.
Murray Nettles earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy and a master's degree and a doctorate, both in psychology, from Howard University. She also earned a master's degree in library and information science from the University of Illinois.
Murray Nettles is a clinical professor in the department of educational psychology, a unit within the College of Education at Illinois.
In her research, Murray Nettles has examined issues of gender, race and ethnicity, and the influence of community and environmental factors such as environmental toxins on children's academic performance.
Resilience has been a particular focus of Murray Nettles' research. And interwoven with the personal stories and insights in the book are social science theory and research, including examinations of several successful community-based initiatives that promote academic achievement and resilience among at-risk children and youth.
Among these is Stanton Elementary School in Washington, D.C., a high-poverty district that was plagued with deteriorating facilities and marginal academic performance when Murray Nettles began a longitudinal research project there in 1996.
Four years later, the turnaround in black male students' academic achievement at Stanton - brought about by the collaborative efforts of Stanton's principal, faculty members, parents and community partners - was the focus of an ABC "Nightline" documentary.
Murray Nettles and Stanton's principal, who has since retired, also collaborated on a research report that was published in a guidebook for educators on promoting resilience.
Murray Nettles said that her belief in the value of community partners helping children adjust to school was sparked early in her career, when she worked with political scientist and author Charles Murray at the American Institutes for Research evaluating the educational access and equity program PUSH for Excellence as well as the public-school reform initiative Communities in Schools, formerly known as "Cities and Schools."
" 'Necessary Spaces' is a culmination of some of the things that I learned along the way about children's development, especially among black children and poor children, in schools and neighborhoods," Murray Nettles said. "There's a wealth of information out there on child and youth development, but I think there's a dearth of narrative accounts that parents can use on a daily basis. That's what my book represents: I wanted to write in a personal way that speaks to parents and other community members, and at the same time provides social science data."
Relevant to educators, policymakers, parents and community members who work with youth, "Necessary Spaces" (published by Information Age Publishing in Charlotte, N.C.) provides practical examples that they can use to improve children's lives and revitalize neighborhoods.
Besides being the author of numerous scholarly publications, Murray Nettles is a published poet and the author of the book "Crazy Visitation: A Chronicle of Illness and Recovery" (University of Georgia Press, 2001), a memoir about her battle with a massive brain tumor that went undiagnosed for many years.