A Community of Queens, a Pedagogy of Hope: Black Feminism as a Site of Resistance for High School Girls

• In Event: Roundtable Session 2
  In Roundtable Session: Community-Relevant and -Responsive Pedagogies

Abstract

Efforts towards urban school reform regularly overlook the complex socio-cultural contexts in which Black female students are situated and the ways in which their subordination is regularly perpetuated in schools. Drawing from a Black feminist framework, this study involves analyzing Black feminist pedagogical practices employed for two years during the author’s recent research as an English teacher at a public South Los Angeles high school. Specifically, a qualitative methodology is utilized to explore the immediate and long-term impact of a Black feminist curriculum on African-American female students’ orientation towards school and the development of their racial/ethnic and gender identities. Implications for classroom pedagogy, curricula, and teacher education are explored.

Author

• Monique Lane, Teachers College, Columbia University