Affirmations, perceptions, and attitudes of licensed African-American architects and educators in the United States: Architecture curricula content and teaching approaches in teaching/learning environments

This is a study of the affirmations and the perceptions and attitudes of licensed African-American architects and educators in the United States on critical challenges in architecture education. These affirmations and perceptions serve as a basis for changes in architecture curricula content, teaching approaches, teaching/learning environments using cognitive apprenticeship approaches (CAAs) that will improve scholarship for minority and female students, especially African-American females in architecture programs. Respondents in this study included 410 licensed African-American architects or African-American educators drawn from a 2003 list of 1,368 African-American architects or faculty members in the United States. From the sample of 192 respondents to the questionnaire, ten participants were selected as a sub-sample, and six were interviewed. One hundred and eighty-two respondents of the original 192 responded to Parts V, VI, and VII of the questionnaire. The data from these questionnaire parts were used only to answer the research question. This study of architecture curriculum and suggested teaching approaches in teaching/learning environments utilized a two-stage research design with multiple data sources including a self-administered questionnaire and an interview guide. A mixed approach---both inductive and deductive---was adopted for a survey method using summated measuring scales and chi-square statistics to analyze the data from the questionnaire. Discourse analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data from the interviews. The results from the study indicate a need for more African-American faculty members to teach more diverse topics than the traditional Euro-centric architecture curricula content. The study also serves as a basis for suggesting changes in architecture curricula content and teaching approaches in teaching/learning environments, particularly for African-American females. The affirmations and the perceptions and attitudes of both licensed African-American architects and educators in this study serve as a basis for additions to traditional architecture curricula content and teaching approaches which will be inclusive of minority students, especially African-American females, in architecture programs across the country.