Towards an interest‐convergence in the education of African‐American football student athletes in major college sports

The purpose of this article is to advance Derrick Bell’s (1992b) interest‐convergence principle as an analytical lens for understanding the complex role of race in the educational experiences of African‐American football student athletes. Currently, there is a scarcity of educational research that employs a critical theoretical perspective on race to address the education of African‐American students in general, and student athletes in particular. This article includes American law cases that attend to the educational experiences of student athletes participating in high profile intercollegiate football programs. The inclusion of the legal literature is meant to adhere to the intellectual and methodological origins of critical race theory and to demonstrate how educational differences are institutionalized through coercion and ideology. The article concludes with a discussion of the interest‐convergence principle as a means of investigating and establishing alternative strategies on behalf of the student athlete in order to improve his educational experience and academic outcomes.