I did not do any work on my dissertation this past week. I worked 7 days a week in support of Texas Windstorm Insurance Association due to the enormous volume from claims of Hurricane Ike. I should get some done this weekend as I will not be working and the family will be in Houston looking at houses.

Kai

Today I discovered another book that speaks to where I would like to go with my study. The title of the book is: The Dilemmas of Being an African American Male in the New Millennium: Solutions for Life Transformation. Here is a link to the book. These guys are already in the space I want to be in. I ordered a copy so that I can maybe include it in my literature review depending which way I go with it. A couple of weeks ago I purchased and read another one called The Black Male Handbook. These are both books that are speaking to the problem that my study intends to address. Today I got word that one of the men I would like to interview for my study indicated he would be interested in participating. He is the prototype for what I would like the participants to be. I am very excited. I will continue reading the Salas study this week as well.

This week I started reading the second of the dissertations suggested by Farzin. This second study has convinced me that I absolutely would like to do the same kind of study. The difference is that this study focuses on Hispanic women and it is looking at business leaders. I would be looking at Black males and I do not wish to look at one group. I want to look at a cross-section and I would like my population to include participants who have overcome hardship of some kind such as Jeff Henderson. Jeff is the chef that went from prison to being the Chief Chef of the Bellagio.

The study I am reading is called “The Operative Paradigm of Hispanic American Women Business Leaders: A Narrative Qualitative Study”. The study was written by Diana P. Salas. The Salas study convinced me that what I want to look at has merit and it also provided a model of using narrative as a method of inquiry. I read the introduction and part of the literature review. I have been having a hard time thinking about what I should include in my introduction and what I literature I should review. There is not much literature on Success Factors of African American Males that is not looking at a particular population such as leaders or college students. That is not what I wish to do. I wish to look at everyone who meets my criteria of rising above hardship.

Salas gave me a few ideas but I certainly could use any help. My goal is to complete the reading of the study this week. Again the idea in reading these was to determine if this is the kind of study I wished to do. I have determined that. I wish to move forward. So, after this week I will be ready to start. I will send you a copy of the Salas study that I am reading.

This week I spent four hours reading for my dissertation. I am reading a study that Farzin suggested that I read in May. This study is exactly what I wish to do for my study so it was very helpful for me to read. It was a study done for a Pepperdine student and Vance Ceasar was the chair. The title of the study is: “Success Strategies of Iranian American Leaders”. It really gave me an idea of how my study could be done. Amin looked at leaders and defined in the study how she was measuring success. My idea is to look at Black males who have grown up in disadvantaged areas and see what success factors emerge. Why is it that I am pursuing a doctorate degree in some of my best friends who grew up with me are incarcerated or addicted to drugs. Are their strategies that have been employed and are there commonalities between those who have excelled even though they share a common community. Are there special challenges that must be overcome for the African American males. Amin's study suggest this is the case for Iranian Americans. I also started reading Creswell again and reviewing my notes to try and determine if my design would be phenomenology or narrative as a method of inquiry. My goal for next week is to get into the second study that Farzin provided. It is a similar study done on Hispanic women. I would like to research the story of those African American males who against the odds have succeeded. Do they have strategies in common? And if so, what are they? The title I have been thinking of is “Success Strategies of African American Males” or maybe “Success Stories of African American Males” if I use a narrative method of inquiry.