The United States is more racially, culturally, and linguistically diverse now than at any given point in its history. Urbanization and immigration are key contributors to population growth and shifts, particularly in the southeastern part of the country. Educators are scrambling to determine how best to serve different demographics, and many families in new places are trying to adjust to unfamiliar school systems. For all concerned, this period of adjustment is marked by significant personal, curricular, and institutional development. However, one group of individuals has not maintained pace with the rest: African American males continue to lag behind their counterparts in every measured educational variable as outlined by the No Child Left Behind legislation, despite the educational, social, and economic changes of the past fifty years (since the 1954 landmark Brown vs. Board of Education decision). This book – beyond providing educators, parents, and students with a critique of present day educational experiences for those who are the «other» in America, particularly the black male – conceptually integrates queer legal theory, the tenets of critical spirituality, and notions of collaborative activism to construct a blueprint for realizing academic achievement and academic success for all students.

The Author: C. P. Gause is a former public school teacher, social service worker, and K-12 school administrator. He is currently Assistant Professor of Educational Administration in the Department of Educational Leadership and Cultural Foundations at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. He received his Ph.D. in educational leadership from Miami University. He is co-editor of Keeping the Promise: Essays on Leadership, Democracy and Education (Peter Lang, 2007), which was a recipient of the 2007 American Educational Studies Association Critics Choice Award. He served as the guest editor of the special issue «Edu-tainment», for the Journal of School Leadership and his work has also appeared in Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education. His research interests include gender and queer studies; black masculinity; cultural studies; critical race theory; critical spirituality; and collaborative activism. He is committed to the principles of social justice and democracy.