@lucianyatesiii One of the most misunderstood and misapplied educational concepts in today’s educational literature is the phenomena that Duckworth and her colleagues called “grit” (Duckworth, 2016; Duckworth, Peterson, Matthews, & Kelly, 2007; Shechtman, DeBarger, Dornsife, Rosier, & Yarnall, 2013; & Tough, 2012). Grit is defined as “the perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Grit entails working strenuously toward challenges, maintaining effort and interest over the years despite failure, adversity, and plateaus in progress” (Duckworth, Peterson, Matthews, & Kelly, 2007, p. 1087-1088. Also see, Fitzgerald, & Laurian-Fitzgerald, 2016). Grit is “… not just resilience in the face of failure, but also having deep commitments that you remain loyal to over many years” (Duckworth as quoted in Perkins-Gough, 2013, p. 16). Grit is further described as a trait-level skill, and several studies have shown that grit predicted achievement beyond measures of talent (Duckworth, et al., 2007; Duckworth & Quinn, 2009). For instance, Duckworth and her colleagues studied 1218 freshman cadets at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point (Duckworth et al., 2007; Duckworth and Quinn, 2009). Results showed that grit was a better predictor of summer retention than any other variable studied, such as Whole Candidate Score, high school rank, SAT, Leadership Potential Score, or Physical Aptitude Exam.
In another study, Duckworth and her colleagues studied the participants of the 2005 Scripps National Spelling Bee (Duckworth et al., 2007, & Duckworth & Quinn, 2009). Of the 273 finalists, 175 elected to participate in the study. It was found that grit “predicted advancement to higher rounds in competition” (p. 1097) more so than verbal IQ, study time, or prior competitions. Strayhorn (2014) studied the role grit played in the academic success of Black male collegians at predominantly White institutions (PWIs). His sample was 140 full-time Black male students in a large research university in the southeast. He found that:
1. Grit was positively associated with academic outcomes such as grades in college for black males at PWI’s;
2. Grit positively predicted achievement even more so than did talent;
3. Grit was positively associated with Black males’ grades at PWIs;
4. Achievement was a product of talent and effort. (Strayhorn, 2014, p. 7).
Yates, et al. (2015) studied the grit of African American male pre-service teachers. The participants were fifteen African American male pre-service teachers enrolled in the Thurgood Marshall College Fund’s Teacher Quality Institute. It was found that these African American males’ grit scores were higher than the cadets in Duckworth’s study (Duckworth, et al., 2007; Duckworth & Quinn, 2009). The authors conducted a qualitative portion of the study to ascertain the source of the students’ grit. Data were organized and coded as outlined by Creswell (2003) and following Lincoln and Guba’s (1985) standards for trustworthiness in qualitative research (credibility, transferability, dependability, and conformability). Three themes emerged that explained the participants’ acquisition of grit:
1. The role of the family in teaching grit;
2. The role of life circumstances in teaching grit;
3. The role of spirituality in teaching grit (Yates et al., 2015).
Although the research is relatively detailed that grittier students, students with higher grit scores perform better in our schools (GPAs), there are those who deny grit as a viable strategy for increasing student achievement in our schools. For instance, Brooks (2016) in an op-ed in The New York Times, argued that using grit to better students’ GPAs was a waste of time because GPAs were “one of the more destructive elements in American education”, (p. A23). He posited that GPAs “rewards those who can answer other people’s questions and stifles creativity” (p. A23).
In a case study, Golden, an assistant professor at Chapman University, tells the story of a twenty-year-old African American male named Elijah who did not complete his studies for his High School Equivalency diploma (Golden, 2017). He argued that when a student fails, we say the student didn’t have grit, or we argue that poverty damaged him, or the teachers didn’t provide the correct instruction. Golden (2017, p. 343) argued that we must look at social inequities present in our educational systems and our broader society. Grit alone, without the understanding of injustice, race and class bias, discrimination, and inequities in our schools, only served to mask what really is needed in our schools.
One writer for the New Yorker, David Denby, argued that reformers in the country must admit that we don’t know how to educate poor children (Denby, 2016). Duckworth, according to Denby, only casually acknowledged the relation of student success to family income. He further asserted, “family background, opportunity, culture, landing at the right place at the right time” often trumps grit and is the difference in the success of people (Denby, 2016).
Perry (2016) argued in the Hechinger Report that ‘Black and Brown boys don’t need to learn “grit,” they need schools to stop being racist’. He saw grit as a call for students to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. His central contention was students are not successful because of structural and societal inequality and discriminatory public policy. He ends his argument by stating that “students need highly trained teachers, nurturing climates, scholarships, and hard human capital to make a real difference” (Perry (2016).
Fundamentally, I agree with Brooks (2016), Golden (2017), Denby 2016), and Perry (2016) that other issues must be addressed for our students to be successful. However, until racism, race and class bias, discrimination, and grades are abolished, what should our students do? Since these issues are not new and many of our ancestors have navigated these same waters, and as I have tried to rectify my own beliefs about grit and the education of students of color, I think we should consult history and how we have managed to maneuver these racialized waters before. From the Mayflower to the Age of Trumpism, we as a people have been successful in large part because we have believed in ourselves and worked around and through structural racism. As in Yates, et al. (2015), the extent to which one has been successful is because our families, nuclear and extended, taught us to be “Gritty.”
Consider the following:
1. I can do all things through Christ, who gives me the strength.
2. Boy, if you get an education, no one can take that from you.
3. You can’t do what the white folks do. You must be better!
4. Go out there and “act like you got some sense.”
5. You must work smarter, not harder.
6. Remember, you are a representative of me.
7. We owe it to our ancestors to be successful.
8. People died so you could have the right to go to school.
9. You are from kings and queens; you are royalty.
These are just some of the statements that I remember were pounded into my head from early childhood through adulthood by my parents, my grandparents, teachers, and the extended family. These lessons were internalized and became the essence of our beings. I’m pretty sure this was a universal truth in the African American community. In a way, our forefathers were teaching us grit. Part of why I am successful is these lessons and my willingness to incorporate these teachings into my daily life. It would be a shame to rob this current generation, who need these teachings, just as much, if not more than any generation before, by denying the essence, significance, and power of grit. It would be paramount to professional malpractice!
REFERENCES
Brooks, D. (May 10, 2016). Putting grit in its place. The New York Times, p. A23.
Creswell, J.W. (2003). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Denny, D. (June 21, 2016). The limits of Grit, The New Yorker.
Duckworth, A. (2016). Grit: The power of passion, and perseverance. NY: Scribner.
Duckworth, A.L., Peterson, C., Matthews, M.D., and Kelly, D.R. (2007) Grit: Perseverance and passion or long-term goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(6), 1087-1101.
Duckworth, A.L. & Quinn, P.D. (2009). Development and validation of the Short Grit Scale (Scale-S). Journal of Personality Assessment, 91(2), 166-174.
DOI:10.1080/00223890802634290
Fitzgerald, C.J. & Laurian-Fitzgerald, S. (2016). Helping students enhance their grit and growth mindsets. Journal Plus Education/Educatia Plus, 14, 52-67.
Golden, N.A. (Mar 2017). There’s still that window that’s open: The problem with Grit, Urban Education, 52(3), 343-369. Doi:10.1177/0042085915613557
Lincoln, Y.S. & Guba, E.G (1985). Naturalistic Inquiry. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
Perkins-Gough, D. (2013). The significance of grit: A conversation with Angela Lee Duckworth. Educational Leadership, 71(1), 14-20.
Perry, A. (May 2, 2016). Black and Brown boys don’t need to learn “grit”, they need schools to stop being racist. Hechinger Report, May, 2, 2016.
Shechtman, N., DeBarger, A.H., Dornsife, C., Rosier, S., & Yarnall, L. (2013). Promoting grit, tenacity, and perseverance: Critical factors for success in the 21st century. Washington, D.C., U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Technology, Center for Technology in Learning, SRI International). http://www.ed.gov/edblogs/technology/files,2.
Strayhorn, T.L. (2014). What role does grit play in the academic success of Black male collegians at predominantly White institutions? Journal of African American Studies, 18, 1-10. Doi:10.1007/s12111-012-9243-0.
Tough, P. (2012). How children succeed: Grit, curiosity, and the hidden power of character. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Yates, L. III, Moore, J., Vairez, M.R., Jr., Barber-Freeman, P.T., Ross, W., Parker, W.H., & Bautista, R. (2015). The grit of African American male pre-service teachers. Journal of the Texas Alliance of Black School Educators, 1(2), 11-38.
In another study, Duckworth and her colleagues studied the participants of the 2005 Scripps National Spelling Bee (Duckworth et al., 2007, & Duckworth & Quinn, 2009). Of the 273 finalists, 175 elected to participate in the study. It was found that grit “predicted advancement to higher rounds in competition” (p. 1097) more so than verbal IQ, study time, or prior competitions. Strayhorn (2014) studied the role grit played in the academic success of Black male collegians at predominantly White institutions (PWIs). His sample was 140 full-time Black male students in a large research university in the southeast. He found that:
1. Grit was positively associated with academic outcomes such as grades in college for black males at PWI’s;
2. Grit positively predicted achievement even more so than did talent;
3. Grit was positively associated with Black males’ grades at PWIs;
4. Achievement was a product of talent and effort. (Strayhorn, 2014, p. 7).
Yates, et al. (2015) studied the grit of African American male pre-service teachers. The participants were fifteen African American male pre-service teachers enrolled in the Thurgood Marshall College Fund’s Teacher Quality Institute. It was found that these African American males’ grit scores were higher than the cadets in Duckworth’s study (Duckworth, et al., 2007; Duckworth & Quinn, 2009). The authors conducted a qualitative portion of the study to ascertain the source of the students’ grit. Data were organized and coded as outlined by Creswell (2003) and following Lincoln and Guba’s (1985) standards for trustworthiness in qualitative research (credibility, transferability, dependability, and conformability). Three themes emerged that explained the participants’ acquisition of grit:
1. The role of the family in teaching grit;
2. The role of life circumstances in teaching grit;
3. The role of spirituality in teaching grit (Yates et al., 2015).
Although the research is relatively detailed that grittier students, students with higher grit scores perform better in our schools (GPAs), there are those who deny grit as a viable strategy for increasing student achievement in our schools. For instance, Brooks (2016) in an op-ed in The New York Times, argued that using grit to better students’ GPAs was a waste of time because GPAs were “one of the more destructive elements in American education”, (p. A23). He posited that GPAs “rewards those who can answer other people’s questions and stifles creativity” (p. A23).
In a case study, Golden, an assistant professor at Chapman University, tells the story of a twenty-year-old African American male named Elijah who did not complete his studies for his High School Equivalency diploma (Golden, 2017). He argued that when a student fails, we say the student didn’t have grit, or we argue that poverty damaged him, or the teachers didn’t provide the correct instruction. Golden (2017, p. 343) argued that we must look at social inequities present in our educational systems and our broader society. Grit alone, without the understanding of injustice, race and class bias, discrimination, and inequities in our schools, only served to mask what really is needed in our schools.
One writer for the New Yorker, David Denby, argued that reformers in the country must admit that we don’t know how to educate poor children (Denby, 2016). Duckworth, according to Denby, only casually acknowledged the relation of student success to family income. He further asserted, “family background, opportunity, culture, landing at the right place at the right time” often trumps grit and is the difference in the success of people (Denby, 2016).
Perry (2016) argued in the Hechinger Report that ‘Black and Brown boys don’t need to learn “grit,” they need schools to stop being racist’. He saw grit as a call for students to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. His central contention was students are not successful because of structural and societal inequality and discriminatory public policy. He ends his argument by stating that “students need highly trained teachers, nurturing climates, scholarships, and hard human capital to make a real difference” (Perry (2016).
Fundamentally, I agree with Brooks (2016), Golden (2017), Denby 2016), and Perry (2016) that other issues must be addressed for our students to be successful. However, until racism, race and class bias, discrimination, and grades are abolished, what should our students do? Since these issues are not new and many of our ancestors have navigated these same waters, and as I have tried to rectify my own beliefs about grit and the education of students of color, I think we should consult history and how we have managed to maneuver these racialized waters before. From the Mayflower to the Age of Trumpism, we as a people have been successful in large part because we have believed in ourselves and worked around and through structural racism. As in Yates, et al. (2015), the extent to which one has been successful is because our families, nuclear and extended, taught us to be “Gritty.”
Consider the following:
1. I can do all things through Christ, who gives me the strength.
2. Boy, if you get an education, no one can take that from you.
3. You can’t do what the white folks do. You must be better!
4. Go out there and “act like you got some sense.”
5. You must work smarter, not harder.
6. Remember, you are a representative of me.
7. We owe it to our ancestors to be successful.
8. People died so you could have the right to go to school.
9. You are from kings and queens; you are royalty.
These are just some of the statements that I remember were pounded into my head from early childhood through adulthood by my parents, my grandparents, teachers, and the extended family. These lessons were internalized and became the essence of our beings. I’m pretty sure this was a universal truth in the African American community. In a way, our forefathers were teaching us grit. Part of why I am successful is these lessons and my willingness to incorporate these teachings into my daily life. It would be a shame to rob this current generation, who need these teachings, just as much, if not more than any generation before, by denying the essence, significance, and power of grit. It would be paramount to professional malpractice!
REFERENCES
Brooks, D. (May 10, 2016). Putting grit in its place. The New York Times, p. A23.
Creswell, J.W. (2003). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Denny, D. (June 21, 2016). The limits of Grit, The New Yorker.
Duckworth, A. (2016). Grit: The power of passion, and perseverance. NY: Scribner.
Duckworth, A.L., Peterson, C., Matthews, M.D., and Kelly, D.R. (2007) Grit: Perseverance and passion or long-term goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(6), 1087-1101.
Duckworth, A.L. & Quinn, P.D. (2009). Development and validation of the Short Grit Scale (Scale-S). Journal of Personality Assessment, 91(2), 166-174.
DOI:10.1080/00223890802634290
Fitzgerald, C.J. & Laurian-Fitzgerald, S. (2016). Helping students enhance their grit and growth mindsets. Journal Plus Education/Educatia Plus, 14, 52-67.
Golden, N.A. (Mar 2017). There’s still that window that’s open: The problem with Grit, Urban Education, 52(3), 343-369. Doi:10.1177/0042085915613557
Lincoln, Y.S. & Guba, E.G (1985). Naturalistic Inquiry. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
Perkins-Gough, D. (2013). The significance of grit: A conversation with Angela Lee Duckworth. Educational Leadership, 71(1), 14-20.
Perry, A. (May 2, 2016). Black and Brown boys don’t need to learn “grit”, they need schools to stop being racist. Hechinger Report, May, 2, 2016.
Shechtman, N., DeBarger, A.H., Dornsife, C., Rosier, S., & Yarnall, L. (2013). Promoting grit, tenacity, and perseverance: Critical factors for success in the 21st century. Washington, D.C., U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Technology, Center for Technology in Learning, SRI International). http://www.ed.gov/edblogs/technology/files,2.
Strayhorn, T.L. (2014). What role does grit play in the academic success of Black male collegians at predominantly White institutions? Journal of African American Studies, 18, 1-10. Doi:10.1007/s12111-012-9243-0.
Tough, P. (2012). How children succeed: Grit, curiosity, and the hidden power of character. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Yates, L. III, Moore, J., Vairez, M.R., Jr., Barber-Freeman, P.T., Ross, W., Parker, W.H., & Bautista, R. (2015). The grit of African American male pre-service teachers. Journal of the Texas Alliance of Black School Educators, 1(2), 11-38.