Presenter: Roderick L. Carey, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of Delaware College of Education and Human Development, Department of Human Development and Family Sciences

Title: Why Mattering Matters for Black Boys And Us All: Five Insights For Parents, Teachers, and Researchers From A Unique School Partnership Study

Abstract: Few rallying cries have echoed more profoundly than Black Lives Matter to challenge stakeholders to improve educational opportunities for racially marginalized children. And few groups are plagued by negative school-based outcomes more than Black adolescent boys. As educational stakeholders work to dismantle this group’s academic and social-emotional disparities it is key for stakeholders to grapple with how Black boys feel valued, appreciated, unique, or simply how they “matter.” In this presentation, Dr. Carey will explore how Black boys and young men matter in society and school through a racialized re-conceptualization of mattering (e.g., inferred significance and awareness). Dr. Carey will reveal qualitative findings gathered over five school years with over 30 adolescent Black boys across two urban high schools through The Black Boy Mattering Project and share next steps for educators, parents, and youth themselves.

Roderick L. Carey, PhD, is a scholar, teacher, and artist who has devoted his entire career in education to uplifting youth voice in his scholarship, teaching, and service to the community. Currently, Dr. Carey is an assistant professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Delaware. He teaches undergraduate courses on mentoring and helping relationships and families and children placed at-risk. He is the founder and director of The Black Boy Mattering Project, a partnership with Delaware schools that studies how youth perceive their significance to others and creates contexts for them to imagine mattering more robustly. He also publishes widely in top tier academic journals on how family and school factors influence adolescents’ ambitions. Dr. Carey co-created www.findingfutureselves.org, a website filled with resources to help educators support youth imagine and plan their lives after high school. He has presented at academic conferences locally, nationally, and internationally, serves on multiple editorial and community boards, and has offered commentary on new stories that have appeared in outlets such as USA Today. Prior to earning a PhD at the University of Maryland College Park, Dr. Carey taught high school English in Washington, DC for four years. He also holds a Master of Education in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University Graduate School of Education and a Bachelor of Arts in Secondary Education and English