Berry, R. Q. (2005). Voices of success: Descriptive portraits of two successful African American male middle school mathematics students. Journal of African American Studies, 8(4), 46-62.

This paper is about the stories of two African American male middle school students who have experienced success in mathematics. Working within a phenomenological methodological framework, the author investigated the limitations these students encounter and the compensating factors these students experience. Critical race theory of education is the theoretical framework for this study, because it recognizes the role racism has played in the shaping of schools and schooling practices. The stories are told in the context of descriptive portraits. The descriptive portraits revealed the following five broad themes: (a) early experiences, (b) aggregated individual discrimination, (c) support systems, (d) drawing upon school/community resources, and (e) self-empowerment.

Full article can be found here:

http://people.virginia.edu/~rqb3e/Berry.voices-of-success.lib-iss.pdf