The Power of Anticipatory Images in Student Achievement

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • James M. Davy

   Pages 1-19

3. Positive Self-Concept Images Within a Mutually Reinforcing Framework of Images

   • James M. Davy

   Pages 21-32

4. Anticipatory Career Images

   • James M. Davy

   Pages 33-53

5. Images of a Better, Financially Secure Life

   • James M. Davy

   Pages 55-70

6. The Image of Education and College as the Pathway to a Better Life

   • James M. Davy

   Pages 71-91

7. Bringing Anticipatory Images to Reality

   • James M. Davy

   Pages 93-132

8. The Anticipatory Competent Student

   • James M. Davy

   Pages 133-156

9. Back Matter

   Pages 157-190

   PDF

This book features ten high academically achieving, low-income, inner city students from Newark, New Jersey, who graduated from public high schools at or near the top of their class and continued to excel in college. Using a qualitative research design, the author interviewed the ten students and the person who most influenced their educational progress about what motivated them to achieve at such high levels. Three mutually reinforcing anticipatory images emerged as a common element of their stories. In their own voices, the students describe the anticipatory images they framed, how they developed them, and how they used them to their advantage. Davy advances a theoretical model of the Anticipatory Competent student who continually progresses in the directions of the images projected ahead.

• Anticipatory Principle
• Theory of Prospection
• Achievement
• Low Income
• Urban School
• guidance counselor
• Resiliency Educational Framework
• positive self-concept

“In a world that feels adrift in headlines that weigh down our sense of possibility, Davy’s work is like a beacon of light illuminating what is possible when individuals dare to imagine better tomorrows. This book is not only for educators, but anyone who needs reminded of the fateful power our images of the future hold. Davy’s theory is timely and has tremendous implications for how we approach curriculum development at all levels.”
—Lindsey N. Godwin, Robert P. Stiller Endowed Chair and Professor of Management and Academic Director of the David L. Cooperrider Center for Appreciative Inquiry, Champlain College, USA

“Agency is the principle thing in education and there are few more important spaces for harnessing agentic power than higher education. Davy’s research, theoretically grounded, scientifically designed, and methodologically activated illuminates the perspectives of ten students (and a selected set of allies) whose educational journeys reflect the principles of anticipatory competence. The book contributes to the evidentiary base for researchers who seek to fill the dearth of meaningful inquiries on educational resilience.”
—Timothy K. Eatman, Dean of the Honors Living Learning Community and Associate Professor of Urban Education at Rutgers University—Newark, USA


“Davy’s careful study of ten high-achieving inner-city students highlights the powerful role of anticipatory images in creating positive pathways towards success. It illustrates how one group of young men and women generate compelling visions of the future and use them to navigate a successful college-bound path through poverty, neighborhood violence, and loss. Most importantly, it teaches us how to help support young people’s dreams in practical ways that enable their success.”
—Sabrina Marie Chase, Director of the Joint Urban Systems Program in Urban Health at Rutgers University—Newark, USA, and author of Surviving HIV/AIDS in the Inner City: How Resourceful Latinas Beat the Odds


“In this book, Davy makes an extraordinary contribution to our collective understanding of how to support the development and empowerment of young people with limited resources and unlimited potential. While many factors play a role in a student's life outcomes, his conclusions get to the core: the need for a clear, inspiring vision of the future and people to support the pursuit of that vision. This is the heart of our work at The Future Project."
—Kanya Balakrishna, Co-Founder and CEO of The Future Project, USA

• Rutgers University–Newark, Newark, USA

  James M. Davy

James M. Davy is Distinguished Practitioner in Residence Teaching in the School of Public Affairs and Administration and Director of the Center for Applied Appreciative Inquiry (CAAI) at Rutgers University, USA.