CONFLICTING IMAGES - BEING BLACK AND A MODEL HIGH-SCHOOL STUDENT

School participants in two desegregated urban high schools, Lincoln an d Norwood East, shared virtually the same image of the good or ''model '' student. But student peer cultures differed significantly between t he sites with regards to the acceptability of this and other images fo r African Americans. Within these contrasting school contexts, six hig h-achieving black juniors formed and then performed identities as mode l students, as black persons, and as other selves. They responded in u nique ways to what they perceived to be conflicting images of who they ought to be.