Tyrone Howard, a professor of education in UCLA’s Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, has dedicated his research to improve education and life trajectories for young men of color. His latest project, funded by a $125,000 grant from the California Endowment, will tell the story of young black and Latino men who, despite troubling statistics surrounding their identities, are thriving academically.
Howard, founder and faculty director of the Black Male Institute at UCLA and principal investigator for the CounterNarrative Project, said the study will provide an important contrast to literature about young men of color by working to “debunk the myths about young black and Latino males all being in crisis or a menace to society.”
“It is crucial to provide a counter narrative to the age-old story that has been told about these young men,” Howard said. “The development of this counter narrative will shine a light on a population that is rarely seen or heard — high-achieving, resilient black and Latino young men — and will hope to identify the people, programs, practices and policies that they believe have made a notable impact on their lives.”
