Received: 9 June 2017 

|
  Revised: 21 May 2018 
|  Accepted: 23 July 2018

DOI: 10.1111/ssm.12305

R E S E A RC H PA P E R ‐ S C I E N C E E D U C AT I O N

An Activity Theory analysis of African American students’

experiences in advanced placement science courses

Rui Kang1  |  Felicia Skinner2  |  Charles Hyatt3

1
Department of Teacher Education, Georgia
College and State University, Milledgeville,
Abstract
Georgia African American students have been systematically discouraged from taking ad-
2
Department of Science, Jones County High vanced courses in science and math. In addition, low Advanced Placement (AP)
School, Gray, Georgia exam passing rates among African American students raise further concerns regard-
3
Department of English, Lambert High
ing whether accessibility alone adequately addresses the issue of equity. However,
School, Suwanee, Georgia
little research has been conducted to understand African American students’ learning
Correspondence experiences in AP science courses. The purpose of this research is twofold: (a) to
Rui Kang, Department of Teacher
Education, Georgia College and State
gain deeper understandings of the behaviors and attitudes that African American
University, Milledgeville, GA 31061‐3375. students employ in their AP science courses, especially how they align their personal
Email: rui.kang@gcsu.edu motives and goals with meaningful practices within the AP learning context, and (b)
to offer an opportunity for science educators to re‐conceptualize AP science learning
environment from an Cultural‐Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) perspective. The
participants were four African American students enrolled in two AP courses: biol-
ogy and environmental science. The primary data source was from semistructured
interviews. Three major themes were identified: (a) exchange value dominating in-
trinsic value, (b) community support overcoming an oppositional cultural, and (c)
metacognitive strategies disconnecting from conceptual understanding.

KEYWORDS
advanced placement, culture, equity, foundations, science/science education, social/society, students and
learning, theory

College Board’s (CB) Advanced Placement (AP) program
provides high school students with a rigorous, standardized
curriculum to earn college credit and advanced standing
through earning a score of three or better on a 1–5 scale on
a national exam (Sadler & Tai, 2007). When the six elite
institutions (i.e., Andover, Exeter, Lawrenceville, Harvard,
Princeton, and Yale) initiated the AP program, it was in-
tended for a selected few college freshmen who felt bored
in typical college‐level introductory courses. However, this
historical mission has recently been shifted to prepare each
and every student for postsecondary study. In their 10th
Annual Report to the Nation, CB boasts that “AP has nearly
doubled the number of students who have been given access
to the opportunity of AP,” (2014, p. 6), from 514,163 in 2003
to 1,003,430 in 2013. In particular, CB emphasizes that the
number of low‐income graduates has quadrupled during
these 10 years.
African American students, especially from low incomes,
are underrepresented in AP programs (Bryan, Glynn, &
Kittleson, 2011; Klopfenstein, 2004). In particular, these
students have been systematically discouraged from taking
advanced courses in science and math due to early tracking,
parents’ lack of information, limited access to rigorous curric-
ulum, inferior resources, and low expectations from teachers
and school counselors (Klopfenstein, 2004). Low AP exam
passing rates among African American students raise further
concerns regarding whether accessibility alone adequately
addresses the issue of equity (Sadler & Tai, 2007). Among

© 2018 School Science and Mathematics Association     1

School Science and Mathematics. 2018;1–12. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/ssm |
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2       KANG et al.
all the students enrolled in U.S. public schools who took the
AP exams in 2003, the passing rate (of 3, 4, or 5) for African
American students was 30.5%, compared to 64.3% for white
students and 63.8% for Asian/Asian American/Pacific
Islanders. In 2013, the passing rate for African American stu-
dents dropped to 28.4%, as compared to 63.6% for white stu-
dents and 67.6% for Asian/Asian American/Pacific Islander
graduates (CB, 2014). What was not reported in the CB report
was the percentage of the African American students who
took an AP course but chose to opt out of the corresponding
national AP exam. All in all, the issue of underrepresentation
has been widely recognized in the literature (Klopfenstein,
2004). There is evidence that enrollment of African American
students in AP courses has increased in recent years. In com-
parison to under participation, the concern of underachieve-
ment of African American students in AP courses has not
been as adequately addressed (Bryan et al., 2011).
The existing research on AP tends to focus on AP pol-
icy, rather than providing detailed insights into the way the
AP learning environments impact students’ learning. This
may be partly due to an overreliance on quantitative meth-
ods and comparing group means (e.g., Bryan et al., 2011;
Flowers, 2008; Herr, 1992), where teachers’ and students’
voices are rarely heard. In addition, too little research has
been conducted to understand African American students’
learning experiences in AP science courses. Given the im-
portance AP credits play in college admissions, the rapid
growth of AP programs, and rising concerns for AP eq-
uity and access, our study sought to answer the following
questions: (a) What values do African American students
find in AP science? (b) What cognitive tools and socio-
cultural resources do African American students employ
during their participation in AP science? We hope that by
addressing these research questions, our research will pro-
vide specific ideas to improve the rigor, overall quality, and
equitable participation opportunities of AP science courses
for African American students.
1  |  AC TIV IT Y T HE ORY
Activity Theory (AT), developed from Vygotsky’s (1978) so-
ciocultural theories of learning, posits that human activities
are mediated by auxiliary stimulus that takes the form of a
sign or tool. In the classic triangular model, a Subject is an in-
dividual engaged in the mediated action with a goal‐directed
activity or a task Object with a Sign serving as an intermediate
link. The first‐generation of CHAT was centered on media-
tion, a cognitive process through which human beings employ
culturally produced systems of signs and tools to control or
regulate their own behavior, breaking the direct link between
stimulus and response. This model overcomes the Cartesian
divide between the individual and the social structure by
inserting a complex mediational tool or instrument (e.g., text-
books, languages, computers, and models) to give the indi-
vidual agency through using and producing artifacts.
A limitation of this model is its focus on the individual.
Leont’ev’s (1978) famous example of primeval collective
hunt made a clear distinction between collective activity
and individual action, but he never graphically expanded
Vyogtsky’s triangular model. Engeström’s (1999) augmented
model became the second‐generation CHAT by adding a new
layer of collective mediation through Community, those with
whom the subject shares the same general object (or objec-
tive); The Division of Labor, or the classification of tasks
among the members of the community; and Rules, the reg-
ulations, norms, and conventions within an activity system
that govern the individual and group actions. Engeström later
continued to expand the second‐generation CHAT to include
at least two interacting activity systems or a series of evolving
activity systems in progression, which is usually referred to
as the third‐generation CHAT. A pictorial representation of
the second‐generation CHAT in the context of this study is
shown in Figure 1, which includes the following components:
1. Subject: African American students enrolled in high
school AP science courses and their collective partici-
pation in AP science
2. Object: Expected outcomes or goals of participating in AP
3. Instruments/Mediated Artifacts: Study tools, resources, or
strategies employed by AP African American students
during science learning activities
4. Rules: AP classroom norms, expectations, and routines
determined by the AP teacher or collectively determined
by the AP teacher and students enrolled in these courses
5. Community: Consists of African American AP students’
classmates, the AP teacher, administrators, counselors,
parents, and siblings, as well as the collective culture em-
bodied by the AP activity system
Instruments/Mediating Artifacts
(e.g., study tools, resources or
strategies such as computers,
textbooks, study guides, Internet)
Subject
Object
(African American (Excepted outcome of
participating in AP)
participants)
Rules Community Division of Labor
(e.g., classroom norms, rules, and
expectations, and routines)
(e.g., classmates,
other peers in school,
(e.g., roles and
functions of those in
the teacher,
administrators,
the Community)
counselors, parents,
and siblings)
F I G U R E 1   Second‐generation CHAT in the context of this study
KANG et al.
6. Division of Labor: Roles and functions of those involved
in the Community above.
The AT perspective is relevant in emphasizing multi‐
voices in activity systems (Avis, 2009) because it cannot
be assumed that the same mediational tools or environment
exert the same influence on each individual in the system.
Educators must take into account different viewpoints and
approaches of various participants, especially members of
underrepresented minority groups within an activity system,
even though these different voices may reflect inner conflicts
or disturbances. Internal contradictions can also serve as the
driving force for change and transformation, and are thus con-
sidered as necessary for expansive learning in activity sys-
tems by “the dialectical resolution of contradictions” (Avis,
2009, p. 159). When qualitative transformations occur, indi-
viduals in the system may start to deviate themselves from
established norms or rules and engage in something called
“collaborative envisioning (Engeström, 1987, p. 174 cited in
Avis, 2009, p. 159). In the context of this study, students’
desire for becoming active learners who take control of their
own learning may be at odds with the teacher’s traditional
methods of instruction, which becomes a source of conflict,
as well as a possible impetus for innovative pedagogies.
Third, AT represents a coherent contextual framework
that allows analysis to occur at both individual and sociocul-
tural levels of learning (Kozulin, 2003). AT also overcomes
problematic dualisms in education to take an active, holistic
approach to examine such issues as the individual versus col-
lective, subject versus object, theory versus praxis, and home
versus school, without reducing any of the polar categories
into one single descriptor. In this study, we focus on the ten-
sions or contradictions emerged around students’ experiences
(a) within the individual level, (b) within the social level, and
(c) between the individual level and the social level. We focus
on contradictions because, as explained earlier, in an activity
system, contradictions are the driving forces for changes and
transformations.
2  |   C U LTU R A L CA P ITA L A N D
S O C IA L CA P ITA L
Two relevant concepts that are often found in the sociocultural
discussions of school learning are cultural capital and social
capital. Bourdieu’s (1986) conceptualization of cultural capi-
tal includes three forms: Embodied, as displayed by desirable
and enduring dispositions of the mind and body; Objectified,
in the form of such cultural goods as writings, paintings,
instruments, and cultural awareness; and Institutionalized,
referring to the form of educational qualifications and cre-
dentials. Bourdieu (1986) and Coleman (1988) both theo-
rize social capital as networks of relationships that enable
  
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individuals within them to obtain personal goals. Coleman’s
social capital, in particular, is dependent on a sense of obliga-
tion, information channels, as well as social norms.
Both Bourdieu (1986) and Coleman (1988) link their
concepts of various forms of capital to educational achieve-
ments. Bourdieu emphasizes that social and cultural capitals
are unevenly distributed between social classes, thus contrib-
ute to the reproduction of the existing social order, including
perpetuation of inequalities in education. In explaining the
participation differential between white students and racial
and ethnic minority students in AP, research has shown that
lack of cultural and social capitals poses as one of the key
structural barriers to academic success for black students
from low‐income families (Klopfenstein, 2004). Coleman,
on the other hand, argues that social capital is actually more
evenly distributed than financial capital or human capital. A
child who lacks human or financial resources may be com-
pensated by having a richer social capital. Coleman’s theory
is particularly useful in explaining why and how individu-
als of the same socioeconomic status display different edu-
cational achievements. Those with richer social capital tend
to demonstrate higher achievements than those with poorer
social capital. Studies of high‐achieving African American
students from low‐income background have confirmed this
positive relationship between social capital and academic
achievement (e.g., Gasman & Palmer, 2008; Yan, 1999).
3  |   ACADEM IC AND RACIAL
IDENTITIES
The current discourse of race, achievement, and school be-
havior acknowledges that race and racism have real conse-
quences for the life experiences and opportunities for African
Americans in the United States (Carter, 2008; Sellers, Smith,
Shelton, Rowley, & Chavous, 1998). Sellers et al. argue that
African American racial identity is unique and complex, and
it encompasses four dimensions: (a) the relevance of race
as part of one’s self‐conception (salience), (b) the extent to
which one normatively defines himself or herself with regard
to race (centrality), (c) positive and negative feelings toward
being black (regard), and (d) beliefs, opinions, and attitudes
regarding how members of the race should act (ideology).
The studies of Carter (2008) and O’Connor (1997) are
particularly relevant to this study since they are primarily
concerned with the ideology dimension of identity, and more
specifically, the interactions between academic ideology
and race identity. Both researchers focus on high‐achieving
African American students. Carter’s study is especially rele-
vant because the high‐achieving African American students
in her study thrive in predominantly white school contexts
like AP science. In Carter’s review of literature, she identifies
that high‐achieving black students demonstrate very different
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4       KANG et al.
adaptive behaviors and attitudes, guided by very different
achievement ideologies. Some students adopt the so‐called
mainstream achievement ideology, which attributes educa-
tional achievements to hard work and individual effort only.
Students who adopt this ideology often deny the existence
of racism and other structural barriers that limit the chances
of people like themselves. Some students, however, consider
academic success as a white trait. Such belief leads to mal-
adaptive behavior or avoidance behavior in school because
academic success, for these students, is at the expense of their
black social identity and group solidarity. It is also possible
for high‐achieving students to willingly adopt the cultural
codes required of school success, while rejecting their own
cultural heritage or downplay their own racial or ethnic iden-
tity at the same time (Carter, 2008).
The most noteworthy is a unique group of students who
have developed what Carter (2008) calls a “critical race
achievement ideology” (p. 478). These students are found
in both Carter’s and O’Connor’s (1997) studies. According
to Carter, these groups of students achieve as a proud black
person. They believe that being academically successful is
a “raceless” trait that can be pursued by people of any race
and any ethnicity. They are high achieving but at the same
time proud of their own racial or ethnic heritage and mem-
bership. More importantly, this group of students is often
keenly aware of the racial discrimination and structural bar-
riers (e.g., racism, sexism, and classism) in society. Both
Carter and O’Connor refute John Ogbu and associates’ cul-
tural–ecological framework, which posits that recognition
of structural barriers tend to put black students at risk for
failure because such recognition cultivates a pessimistic out-
look and incredulity toward the education system. However,
both Carter and O’Connor’s studies show that high‐achieving
African American students who have developed a resilient
academic and racial identity are able to maintain a high mo-
tivation for academic achievement and high ambition for up-
ward mobility.
4  |   M E T H OD
Our study adopts a constructionist interview design (Roulston,
2010) in which the interviewer and interviewee co‐construct
data as situated accounts of interviewees’ lived experiences.
Data were collected through semistructured interviews and
elicited in a conversational manner, and researchers analyzed
how the participants made sense of the research topic and
constructed narratives.
The participants of this study were recruited from two
high schools (hereinafter referred to as School A and School
B) in a southeastern state of the United States. We contacted
the two high schools through one teacher at each school who
had worked with the first author in the past. Our study was
approved by the Institutional Review Board, with appropriate
parent consent and site approval obtained. School A is located
in an affluent, suburban, upper middle‐class neighborhood.
The enrollment of African American students at School A
is about 2%. School B is a rural high school. About 30% of
its student population is African American. Unlike suburban
high schools, America’s rural schools generally speaking
face challenges surrounding (a) recruitment and retention of
highly qualified teachers, (b) resource shortages, and (c) eco-
nomic hardship (Goodpaster, Adedokun, & Weaver, 2012).
This pattern of disadvantage of rural schools was consistently
observed at School B, which had a significantly higher per-
centage of students on free or reduced lunch, a lower gradu-
ation rate, and a significantly lower participation rate in AP
courses as compared with School A.
In both schools, all the African American students from
AP science courses were invited to participate. For School A,
we found only two girls enrolled in an environmental science
course, but these two girls were the only African American
students among the entire 12th grade at the time of this study.
Although School B had a significantly higher number of African
American students, we were only able to find three African
American students (two girls, one boy) enrolled in any AP sci-
ence course in the first semester, and two more in the second se-
mester (two boys). These data indicated that African American
students were underrepresented in School B’s AP science.
We collected data over 1 year at School B and then for a
year at School A from in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews.
Additional teacher questionnaires and observational notes
were used to triangulate and substantiate the validity of the
results. Although all seven African American students were
interviewed initially (about 1 hour), only four were able to par-
ticipate in the follow‐up interview (about 1 hour). Since our
focus was to examine the behaviors and attitudes that African
American students employ during the entire period of a 1‐
year AP science course, only the four participants (Alicia and
Amber from School A; Ashley and Jeremy from School B; all
pseudonyms) with complete data were retained in this report. In
Appendix A, we include a list of the questions used to guide the
semi‐structured interviews. In Appendix B, we include a ques-
tionnaire for AP teachers. In Table 1 we provide a summary of
the background information about our four participants.
The first author conducted all the interviews. Each inter-
view transcript was coded by two of the three authors. The
first author coded all the transcripts. The first stage of coding
was guided by a deductive, theory‐driven method. According
to Maxwell (2005), theory‐driven coding uses categories
that may be derived from prior theory, or sometimes con-
sidered “etic” categories from the researcher’s concept. In
our study in particular, we followed Patton’s (2002) recom-
mendation of examining data using theory‐driven sensitizing
concepts and applied the six components of AT: Subject,
Object, Community, Rules/Norms, Division of Labor, and
KANG et al.   
   5
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T A B L E 1   Summary of the four African American participants of the study based on self‐report

# of AP courses during the year

Name School of study AP science ever taken Career goals
Alicia A, Suburban 5 1, Environmental Science International
Relations, Politics
Amber A, Suburban 2 1, Environmental Science Forensic Psychologist
Jeremy B, Rural 1 1, Biology School Principal,
Lawyer
Ashley B, Rural 2 1, Biology Speech Therapist

Mediational Tools as our sensitizing concepts in our anal-
ysis. We then related our initial coding from CHAT to the
various sociocultural constructs we examined earlier includ-
ing social capital, cultural capital, and academic and racial
identities. Inter‐coder reliability was over 80% for each of the
four transcripts. Disparities in coding were resolved through
peer debriefing. In the second stage, the three of us followed
the thematic analysis techniques outlined by Braun and
Clarke (2006). Our analysis resulted in three major themes:
(a) exchange value dominating intrinsic value, (b) commu-
nity support overcoming an oppositional culture, and (c)
metacognitive strategies disconnecting from conceptual un-
derstanding. We paired each of these themes with evidence
and direct quotes from the interview transcripts so that our
readers can gain insights into how the four African American
students navigated through their AP science courses.
5  |   R E S U LTS
5.1  |  Exchange value dominating intrinsic
value
All four participants informed us that their primary motive
for taking AP science courses was to increase their chances
for admission to and success in college. For example, Alicia
explained in regard to AP environmental science: “It makes
me more prepared for college. We do more labs and more
practicals. You have to read more, you have to comprehend
and analyze more.” Jeremy’s response focused on the amount
of work required in his AP biology course:
The amount of homework and study have pre-
pared me, instead of being in a regular high
school class, you have a normal amount of
homework. AP class put you above and beyond
that. And in‐class homework and the tests put
you above and beyond. I am ready for that next
step for college, which is going to be much
smaller than for my peers.
Three of the four participants explained how the AP course
might contribute to their future careers. Alicia wanted to be
specialized in international relations and political science. She
chose to take AP environmental science because the course
“has a political stance to it.” Amber was interested in becom-
ing a forensic psychologist and explained that an AP science
course would expose her “to high‐level thinking in the science
field” and help her improve research and writing skills. Ashley
struggled to make connections between her AP course and her
future career goal of becoming a speech therapist: “I guess the
knowledge contributed to what I want to do in life. I feel like
the more I know, the better I would be at whatever it is I choose
to be.” She also mentioned how studying body systems might
help her understand what affected a person’s speech. Jeremy’s
aspirations were to become a school administrator and then
maybe a lawyer, so he did not make clear connections between
taking AP science and his career goals. Overall, the connec-
tions students made between taking AP science and future ca-
reers were more ambiguous than the connections they made
between taking AP science and going to college.
In addition, AP had the symbolic value of good academic
status. All four students described their AP peers as “happy,”
“excited,” and “determined,” and this was the group identity
formed in the AP environment. Moreover, these students also
reported gaining cultural capital for taking AP such as good
behavior, asking questions, requesting assistance, and ex-
pressing and communicating ideas more effectively. The re-
sponses from these four African American students indicate
that they placed the potential exchange value of AP science,
essentially as a commodity, over the intrinsic value of science
learning. Although the students acknowledged the transform-
ing role science learning can have, for example, in improving
the environment and curing diseases, they ultimately saw the
exchange value or utility, that is, today’s hard work as deter-
mining their future value in the labor market.
5.2  |  Supportive community overcoming an
oppositional culture
We found that AP science provided a channel for students
to gain social and cultural capitals in school. For example,
all four participants cited meeting new people as one of the
reasons for them to consider taking AP courses, an important
reason, especially in School B, as Ashley shared:
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6       KANG et al.
I guess I am used to being in the same sort of bun-
dle because I guess … it’s almost like the same
people that you’ve always been with since kin-
dergarten. Well, I don’t think anybody that I’ve
been in all of these classes with all these years
they are gonna try to take AP bio. “I already took
biology in 9th grade.” “Why would I do that?”
[Mimic her friends talking] So I guess it put me
in a course with a different group of people.
The research participants identified asking questions and seek-
ing assistance from teachers and peers as essential cultural cap-
ital. Quite interestingly, all four students also pointed out that
asking questions was one of the skills that their less capable
African American friends often struggled with, and they often
felt disappointed at their peers. Amber and Alicia (School A)
are from higher socioeconomic background than Ashley and
Jeremy (School B), and their disappointment was mostly to-
ward students outside their own school. According to Alicia,
When you have Hispanic and black people,
single‐parent households, parents without the
same experiences, they aren’t thinking in their
head, “Oh I really need my child to take five
AP classes.” … unfortunately still the black or
Hispanic student may not get the push they need
when they’re the ones that really need it. I think
that’s just what it comes down to.
Ashely was critical of some of her regular African American
friends, especially their “lack of drive” for success. Ashley be-
lieved that the reason there were not more African American
students enrolled in AP science courses at her school, was
because some of their peers were discouraged by their misin-
formed parents. “Yes, but it’s just, it’s kind of disappointing
coz you are like these are the people I am growing up with.
Why, why can’t they join my class or why aren’t they in my
class? So it was just, it was something that I’ve always won-
dered.” She further explained:
Definitely have misconceptions about it [AP]
because … you’re thinking wow I am not about
to take that class so I can fail for the year. But
I don’t want to fail a class. I’ve never failed a
class. … Yes, it is gonna to be hard at times.
But you are going to build great relationships
with people. There’s always going to be some-
body that is willing to help you. … because you
gonna be in a group of students like nobody is
gonna take an AP course that doesn’t want to be
in there, like it’s not going to be like a normal
class where just oh, “I don’t even want to come
to school. So why am I even here?” [Mimicking
certain students talking]
Both Jeremy and Ashley identified an oppositional culture
from their African American peers. Jeremy constantly re-
minded himself of “hanging around with the right crowd.”
Ashley shared that some of her African American girl-
friends tried to discourage her from taking AP courses.
Alicia recalled discouragement from certain counselors at
the elementary and middle schools (not the high school she
was enrolled in at the time of this study) she attended, when
her parents tried to get her placed in the advanced track
of courses. However, all of them disassociated themselves
from the oppositional culture because of encouragement
from their parents, siblings, as well as school teachers and
administrators. Ashley shared that her mother always told
her to “Push yourself! Don’t try to conform to what others
want you to do.” For Ashley, her mother had always been
her “main motivator.”
Despite being a clear minority in their respective AP sci-
ence classes, none of the four participants reported feeling
isolated. All four students embraced diverse friendships, with
each reporting having made at least one close friend that was
from a different race, and sometimes, even from a different
country, who became valuable academic resources (social
capital). However, all four participants also admitted that ei-
ther their living environment (Alicia and Amber, School A)
alienated them from their African American peers, or they
had to set themselves apart from their peers at their school in
order to excel academically (Ashley and Jeremy, School B).
5.3  |  Metacognitive strategies disconnecting
from conceptual understanding
Metacognition refers to one’s knowledge concerning one’s
own cognitive processes or products (Engeström, 2014).
Metacognitive skills include but are not limited to monitor-
ing one’s progress, reality testing, managing tasks, predicting
the consequence of an action, and planning. It is often seen
as one’s insights into oneself as a learner, including preferred
learning or cognitive styles, available strategies, and under-
standing the demands of the task. All four participants re-
ported that their AP courses improved their study skills or
study habits. For example, Ashley shared:
It changed my study habits….I actually had
to really buckle down and study the terms and
learn everything from every unit….So I was
making flash cards. I made flash cards [before],
but I don’t think I have made as many flash
cards that I’ve made in this class. I used a lot of
mnemonic devices.
KANG et al.
Similarly, Amber described one of her study strategies as: “With
this class, I’ve used note cards or flashcards, which I don’t re-
ally use for any class. Now that I think about it. I only use it for
this class because it just helps me understand it more.” Amber
also reported using self‐designed mini‐tests: “I sometimes even
create my own questions based off of my notes to already have
my gears moving in my brain of how to answer those questions,
how the concept may be proposed to me in a question format.”
Jeremy emphasized how the AP biology course helped improve
his time management and monitoring skills:
I just sit, I buckle down, and I’ll study for
maybe 45 minutes to an hour, take a break,
and come back to study more. So I make sure
I take frequent breaks because I know if I sit
there and study the entire time, I am not gonna
to remember.
All four participants were also cognizant of their preferred learn-
ing styles and format. For example, Ashley described herself as
a visual and auditory learner: “I am visual, but I’m sort of au-
ditory at the same time. I do have to hear things and hear them
repeated sometime to actually understand what it is.” Alicia em-
phasized her preference for learning through discussions:
If they’re more discussion‐based. If there was
more current events involved, I feel like I would
like it more…. I really think that discussion
would really make a difference, because when
going through PowerPoint it’s really hard to
apply it unless you’re interested because it’s just
up on the board and you don’t really get to talk
about it.
All four participants also had many shared preferences such as
group work, hands‐on labs, and student presentations. Based on
the above evidence, there was no doubt that all four participants
possessed strong metacognitive skills but did not necessarily
achieve self‐directedness and self‐consciousness in the process
of learning. Engeström (2014) argues that sometimes such stu-
dents are best described as “flexible individuals” who know
how to tailor their efforts to the demands of the authority. For
example, since copying definitions and summarizing chapters
were considered “worthwhile tasks” in these two AP courses,
all four participants decided to fulfill these tasks in order to
achieve a good grade despite secretly feeling that these tasks
were not productive or efficient and should be replaced with
probably higher‐order cognitive tasks.
In addition, the students described their AP science
courses as “challenging,” “more in‐depth,” and requiring con-
ceptual levels of understanding. Ironically, all four students
chose to enact rather superficial learning strategies to beat
the system such as flashcards, mnemonic devices, excessive
  
   7
|
highlighting of texts, and heavy reliance on memorization.
Although Amber and Alicia were initially enthusiastic about
open‐ended labs since they claimed to dislike writing formu-
laic reports and they wanted to develop writing and research
skills, their enthusiasm faded as they found that writing lab
reports was challenging. Amber even contradicted herself
and stated at the end of the course that she actually preferred
some more familiar step‐by‐step type of science labs. These
results suggested that even high‐achieving students may re-
quire intensive cognitive scaffolding in science learning, es-
pecially true when students have limited learning strategies.
The disconnection between metacognitive strategies and
development of deep conceptual understanding impeded the
realization of goals. Three of the four students opted out of
the national AP exam due to a combination of reasons in-
cluding low confidence, feeling not prepared, and anxiety
and stress caused by prior AP exams. For example, Ashley
recalled her taking the AP statistics exam and shared,
It’s been a different, I guess, feeling, on some
exams. You go in confident because you like, “I
like all of these,” and it is completely different
from what you expected… I think if the entire
exam was multiple choice, then I would have
done exceptionally well. But all in all, free‐re-
sponse questions always just gets me every time!
Similarly, Jeremy also shared his lack of confidence: “I was not
feeling the AP test. I had bad luck for AP tests except for the
first one.” He also cited economic reasons for his decision to
opt out of the AP biology test: “my mom said I could take it,
but I don’t feel like wasting 89 dollars. I wasn’t as confident in
these tests I thought I was for the other ones, so I didn’t take
it this year.” By “other ones” Jeremy was referring to the tests
designed and given by the teachers at his school.
It should be noted that all four participants were quite
satisfied with the instructional delivery of their AP teachers,
sharing appreciation for their teachers’ dedication to the AP
courses and good teacher/student rapport. According to the
students, their AP teachers employed a variety of strategies
such as labs, group work, and lectures. This was corroborated
by their teachers’ response to our questionnaire. Ironically,
the AP teachers tended to be more critical about their own in-
struction than did their students. A common sentiment from
both instructors was the wide range of topics that they were
required to cover for their AP courses, which forced them to
cut back on such activities. For example,
I feel that the course has such a huge scope of
information to pull from, it’s often difficult to
focus enough time on any one item of content.
A more focused directive would be nice. Also,
the class tends to lend itself to inquiry driven
 |
8       KANG et al.
learning, which we incorporate into the class-
room. I feel that having the framework and ac-
cess to lab/technology would be imperative to
growing a student focused class. (AP Science
Teacher, School A)
The four students here did not achieve Engeström’s (2014)
“true meta‐cognitive awareness” because they were not “see-
ing through the inherent contradictoriness of the learning tasks”
(p. 103) and knowing the competing alternatives in order to
determine the direction of future efforts. When asked if they
were given a chance to retake the course differently, none of
the four students in our study articulated coherent alternatives
other than trying harder and keeping their teachers’ PowerPoint
presentations and notes, despite their disenchantment toward
these activities and materials, because they felt that these were
necessary for the exams, regardless of whether truly meaningful
learning is achieved.
6  |   D IS C U SS ION
Since AT emphasizes inner contradictions as a driving force
for expansive learning and transformation, the three types of
contradictions identified by Engeström (2014) are particu-
larly relevant to this study. For example, the inner conflict
between exchange value and use value may be demonstrated
at the Object corner of the activity system. In particular, pass-
ing the AP exam or earning good grades to boost GPA is
more aligned with the exchange value of AP science, whereas
learning useful science that has real‐life applications is more
aligned with the use value of AP science. The motives for the
four participants to enroll in their AP science courses were
predominantly driven by the exchange value of AP. Although
they were aware of the intrinsic use values of science, the
connections between the use value and the students’ career
aspirations were tenuous at best. One promising strategy is to
tie scientific principles and innovations with their social sig-
nificance in order to promote the intrinsic value of science.
In this study, the four African American youth were highly
driven individuals who had high academic and career aspi-
rations. The aspirations that the four students were readily
identified with might be used as a driving force to make such
socio‐scientific connections (Pryor, Pryor, & Kang, 2016;
Basu & Barton, 2007; Rose & Barton, 2012).
The second type of contradictions is those between the
corners or the components of an activity system. In this study,
although the four students adopted an exchange value orienta-
tion of AP science, the metacognitive strategies they applied
to the AP courses did not have the desired effects. In other
words, the rigid Mediational Tools (the Instruments corner
of the activity system) that the students used often lagged
behind the demands of the AP exams (the Object corner of
the activity system). Some possible explanations for the four
African American students to employ rigid and inadequate
tools are perhaps (a) their teachers have never instructed (at
least not explicitly) them in the use of more sophisticated
tools, (b) the teachers’ lecture‐driven style and assessment
methods have implicitly communicated that memorizing the
materials is equivalent to learning, and (c) the larger system
of schooling, centered on high‐stakes testing, has emphasized
memorization over deep understanding to all students includ-
ing high‐achieving students enrolled in AP.
The third type of contradictions occurs when a represen-
tative of culture introduces an object and motivate of a cul-
turally more advanced form into the dominant form of the
central activity (Engeström, 2014). In this case, Engeström’s
critique of school going is especially relevant. According
to him, schools often treat texts or data projects as objects
not as instruments, and therefore, create what he calls a
“chronic instrumental poverty” or “a closed world” (p. 82).
In Engeström’s observation, dominant primary instruments
in schools were still pencils and pens, erasers, notebooks, and
we should add computers. The students we interviewed in
this study had limited tools at their disposal, but AP classes
ideally need to be a fertile ground for pedagogical innova-
tions and for in‐depth, higher order thinking that challenges
students’ intellect. Watkins and Mazur’s (2013) study of Peer
Instruction (PI) showed how students can actively engage in
thinking, responding, and interacting in STEM classes. Their
research demonstrates that PI, combined with research‐based
textbooks and conceptual problems, is significantly more ef-
fective in preventing college students from dropping STEM
courses than traditional lecture‐based instruction. Similar
approaches can be used in AP high school science courses,
especially given that the African American AP students in
our study all valued classroom discussions and group work.
Traditional academic environments do not seem to have
the same level of potential as the AP environment in terms of
(a) fostering community building, (b) forging social bonds,
and (c) helping students develop social and cultural capitals.
The AP environment in this study gave the high‐achieving
minority students a sense of belonging that helped them de-
velop positive identities as science learners.
The results pertaining to the development of healthy ra-
cial identity are muddier. All four participants demonstrated
resilient, adaptive behaviors that facilitated their academic
success in their respective schools and classes. However,
during the interviews, only Alicia was explicit about racial
inequities that existed in the society. Alicia assumed what
Carter (2008) called a “critical race achievement ideology,”
in other words, achieving as a proud African American by
holding a strong racial self‐concept (p. 478). Jeremy and
Ashley, although were consciously aware of racial stereo-
types and structural barriers (e.g., racism), demonstrated a
deficit mentality toward their African American peers and
KANG et al.
their peers’ parents. Both could have been influenced by
what Carter calls “the myth of meritocracy” or “mainstream
achievement ideology,” which is represented by the belief
that “if I work really hard and always put forth maximal effort
in school, I can achieve my current and future goals” (p. 467).
Amber was the only one who was reluctant to share any opin-
ions about race. Her behaviors during the interviews may be
a reflection of deracialization of achievement (Carter, 2008).
All in all, the results of this study show that the development
of healthy racial identity for African American students in a
predominantly white environment like AP science classes is a
complex and nuanced process and warrants further research.
The results of this study also suggest that AP educators
should make more efforts to recruit students who are truly
interested in pursuing a science career rather than simply
using AP to boost their GPAs. Administrators and teachers
may ask students who have successfully completed an AP
course to provide testimonies about their AP experiences. In
this way, certain misconceptions or “myths” about AP may
be debunked. It may also be useful for parents to be debriefed
on the AP courses and associated career options.
Furthermore, we are cognizant of the need for reflexivity
in our research process (D’Silva et al., 2016). We are three
middle‐class educators. Two of us (the second author and the
third author) are white high school teachers. One of us (the
first author) is an Asian college professor and educational
researcher. We were joined together because of our com-
mitment to promoting social justice and educational equal-
ity. And with this strong sense of ethnic responsibility, we
approached our research from a critical lens. And we made
efforts (e.g., member checking) to ensure that the voices of
the African American students in our study were adequately
represented. However, we are considered in some ways as
cultural outsiders to our participants, which make it difficult
to draw on many past life experiences to relate to our par-
ticipants (D’Silva et al., 2016). Future research on African
American students’ experiences in AP courses may benefit
from a cultural insider perspective enacted through research-
ers who share the students’ cultural background or through a
multicultural, multiracial research team.
Another limitation of this research is that the small
scope of our research makes it difficult to generalize our
findings to other AP contexts. This limitation leads to the
call for possible future research that compares the AP ex-
periences among African American students in rural, sub-
urban, and urban or inner‐city settings. Another possibility
is to compare and contrast the AP experiences of African
American students with students from other racial and eth-
nic backgrounds.
Despite these limitations, our research shows that
Activity Theory (AT) is a viable and informative frame-
work for understanding African American students’ experi-
ences with AP. In this study, the four participants were from
  
   9
|
very different demographic background and were enrolled
in two very different high schools. However, their responses
to our questions were highly similar, which allowed us to
generate three coherent and unified themes across all four
participants. Future research may extend this study by ap-
plying the third‐generation CHAT to (a) compare activity
systems of different actors, for example, AP teachers versus
AP students and (b) examine the interactions of two or more
activity systems. Future research may also study AP experi-
ence by exploring how one activity system may be evolved
into a series of progressive systems over a longer time span.
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An Activity Theory analysis of African American
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1–12. https://doi.org/10.1111/ssm.12305

Appendix A: An Activity Theory Analysis of African American Students’ Participation in AP Science Interview
Guide Designed Based on the Six Components of Activity Theory (AT1-AT6)
AT/CHAT Elements Interview Questions
AT1: Object/Objectives: 1. Why did you decide to enroll in this AP science course? Is this the only AP course you are currently
enrolled in? What other AP courses are you taking? In general, what makes you decide to take an
AP science course?
2. What do you expect to get out of this AP science course? In particular, what grade do you expect to
get? Do you plan to take the College Board’s AP exam? If so, what score do you expect to achieve
on this AP exam? If not, why not?
AT2: Subject/Self: 1. What or who encouraged you to enroll in this course? Why do you think they encouraged you to
enroll in this course?
2. What or who might have tried to discourage you from enrolling in this course? Do you have an idea
about what might be the reason for the discouragement?
3. What do you hope to accomplish during your lifetime? Who or what has helped you form the goals
that you wish to accomplish in your lifetime?
4. What short‐term and long‐term academic goals do you have for yourself? Who or what has helped
you form these academic goals?
5. What career goals do you have for yourself? Who or what has helped you form these career goals?
6. How do you think taking this AP science course will help you achieve your academic goals? Your
career goals? Life goals?
AT3: Mediational Tools/Resources: 1. Do you think you are a good student? Why or why not?
2. Do you typically complete your homework? Why or why not? How much (about what percent) do
you complete?
3. What resources or support do you get within the classes? Outside the classes? Do you feel these
resources or support are helpful? Why or why not?
4. Are there any resources or support you wish you could have got but for some reason you did not
get?
5. Do you expect to get the same type of help or resources in this AP science course as those you got
from other courses? Why?
6. What do you typically do to achieve good performance in an academically challenging course? Why
do you choose these strategies/why do you think these strategies are helpful?
(Continues)
KANG et al.
Appendix (Continued)
AT/CHAT Elements
AT4: Classroom Norms and Rules:
AT5: Communities:
AT6: Roles and Responsibilities:
  
|
   11
Interview Questions
1. Describe a course you have taken that you really enjoyed and tell me why you enjoyed it so much.
2. Describe a teacher you really enjoyed and tell me why.
3. Describe a course you have taken you really did not enjoy and why.
4. Describe a teacher you did not enjoy so much and tell me why.
5. Tell me why science interests you or does not interest you. What makes science interesting for you?
Which subject(s) of science interest(s) you the most? Why?
6. If you had the choice, describe your ideal learning experience in a science course. What do you do
in the class? Outside of class? Why?
7. What strategies that a teacher uses in a science classroom do you find the most motivating to you?
Why? What activities or assignments in a science classroom do you find motivating? Give
examples.
8. Besides strategies, activities, or assignments, what else does a teacher do in or outside a science
classroom that motivates you?
9. What is your relationship with your AP science teacher? Do you enjoy him/her in general?
10. Describe your typical experience in this course. What do you do typically in the class?
11. Describe the type of homework assignments you have for this class. Do you think homework is
helpful so far?
12. Do you get to interact with your teacher a lot during class? Outside of class? Are you satisfied with
this situation?
13.Do you get to interact with other students a lot during class? Outside of class? Are you satisfied
with this situation?
14. Do you think your teacher sets clear expectations for you? Why or why not?
15. Do you think your teacher treats you fairly or not? How about the way you teacher treats other
students in the class?
16. Overall, do you like the environment of this AP course? Why? If you were the teacher what would
you do the same? Differently? Why?
1. Have you made any friends in this class so far? Why or why not?
2. Do your friends share your gender? Your ethnic background?
3. Describe your relationship with your friends in this AP course. For example, do you get any help
from them or offer them any help? What kind of help?
4. How do you think your peers view you? Do you think your peers consider you a good student? A
good person? Why?
5. Overall, are you satisfied with your relationship with your peers and friends in this class? Why or
why not?
6. Do you think the race/ethnicity of your teacher matters in this AP course? Why or why not? How
about gender?
7. Do you wish to see more African American classmates in your AP science classes? Why or why
not?
8. Do you wish you have more support from peers of your own race in your AP science classes? Why
or why not?
9. Describe your relationship with your parents and other adults at home. Do you get help from them
for your school work? What kind of help?
10. Do you get any advice from them? What kind of advice?
11. Have you got any help from other adults or siblings so far for the work of this AP course? Why so?
Is this typical?
12. Have you got any advice from other adults or siblings so far for the work of this AP course? Why
so? Is this typical?
1. How much responsibility do you take for your own learning? Why so?
2. How much or in what way do you think your teachers are responsible for your learning?
3. What roles do you think your parents or other adults play in your learning/schooling?
4. What other factors do you think might have contributed to your achievement?
5. If you had the chance to retake the course, what would you have done differently?
6. Did your AP teacher make any adjustments during the course? If so, what adjustments did (s)he
make? If you had the chance to retake the course, what would you wish him/her to do differently?
7. What do you think can be done to encourage more African American students to participate in AP
science courses? Can you think of any strategies your school or your community can use? Why do
you think these strategies will work?
 |
12       KANG et al.
Appendix B: Teacher Questionnaire
1. Describe the sitting arrangement of your AP science
class. This may include where the teacher is situated
and how students’ seats are arranged and related to
each other.
2. What kind of technology is available in your AP science
class? How often do you use each type of technology? For
what purpose?
3. What is the most frequent mode of delivery? The second
most, and so on? What mode of delivery is not used as
often, but you wish you could have used it more? Why
certain modes of delivery are used more often, whereas
the others are used less often?
4. Describe a typical day of instruction of your AP science
class.
5. How often do you use labs? For what purposes? What is
the typical format of the labs?
6. How often do you use small group work or collaborative
projects? Why?
7. What kind of homework do you assign for this course?
How long does it take for a typical student in your class to
complete the homework? How often do you assign
homework?
8. Would you describe the interactions in your AP science
classes as primarily between you and your students or
among the students? Who typically initiates these interac-
tions? Would you describe the interactions in your AP
classes as a lot, some, or minimal?
9. What kind of academic support do you provide for your
students in and out of class?
10. How did a student get enrolled or selected into this AP
science class? Are there any minimal requirements? How
is the final decision on a student made typically?
11. What is the typical demographic makeup of this particu-
lar AP science class? What is the typical passing rate and
grade distribution?
12. How many students eventually choose to take the College
Board’s AP exam? What is the average performance on
the AP exam and what the passing rate is (>=3)? Are
there any obvious patterns between the exam performance
and students’ demographic characteristics?
13. If you could, what changes would you made to the way
the course is taught? Why?
14. Anything else you would like to share about this course
that has not been asked?