Mathematics Self-Efficacy and African American Male Students: An Examination of Models of Success

The purpose of this study was to investigate the personal stories of African American men who excelled in mathematics to understand the impact of their self-efficacy beliefs on their motivation and subsequent academic achievement in mathematics at the postsecondary level. General analyses of autobiographies and interviews revealed that enactive attainment and vicarious experience were influential sources for these African American men.s self-efficacy beliefs and were supported by family, friends, and peers. However, vicarious experience appeared to be more influential than enactive attainment for these participants. This finding may contradict Bandura.s (1986; 1997) claim that enactive attainment has the most significant impact on self-efficacy; in contrast, it supports other claims, such as peers play a major role in the development of attitudes toward academics for African American men (Hrabowski & Maton, 1995; Hrabowski, Maton, & Greif, 1998; Kunjufu, 1986; Taylor, 1989).