“Do I Really Need My Mother?” A Black Female Adolescent’s Autoethnographic Perspective on Motherhood and Othermothering

• In Event: Excellence in Education Research: Early Career Scholars and Their Work

Abstract

Objectives/Purpose: The aim of this presentation is to demonstrate how autoethnography—a commonly used methodological approach to examining the self—was used to help shape Black female adolescents’ conceptions of self and society. This presentation emerges from a two-year qualitative study in which the researcher met with a group of Black female youth on a weekly basis to read, write, and speak about issues that are of most concern for them including their relationships, school experiences, future goals, and identities. In this presentation, the researcher highlights the autoethnographic work of fifteen-year-old, Chyvae, in order to extend (Collins, 2009) and/ or (Moynihan, 1965) challenge perspectives on Black motherhood and othermothering (Collins, 2009) and their role in the shaping of Black female youth identity.

Theoretical Framework: The presenter will draw on Black feminist (Collins, 2009; hooks, 1993) frameworks and African American female literacies (Richardson, 2003) to examine historical and contemporary conceptions of Black motherhood and othermothering (Collins, 2009) and its relationship to Black female youth’s understandings of self and society. Additionally, the presenter will draw upon studies in Black female youth identity work (Shorter-Gooden and Washington, 1996) in order to offer broader notions of strength, survival, and self-definition within the context of Black girlhood.

Methods: This presentation includes data the researcher collected from Year 2 (2011-2012) to further explore the participants’ use of autoethnographic methodologies and the impact such methodologies had on their literate (or sense of self and in relation to the larger society) and social (or how they understood and interacted with others) lives. Because the researcher witnessed the participants’ desire to orally and visually process their ideas, the researcher chose to engage them in autoethnography through various means including: read-arounds, collages, painting, drama, internet forums, social media, and invitations to facilitate. Based on these discussions/activities, this presentation will further examine how Chyvae’s use of these methods provide further understandings of young Black female identity, coping, survival.

Data: Qualitative data sources consisted of: note-taking in a research journal, video-taped recordings of meetings, video-taped interviews with participants, writings by the participants (i.e., their autoethnographic work), and other literacy artifacts that were utilized or produced (e.g., readings or collaborative work) within our weekly meetings.

Results: Preliminary analyses suggest that Chyvae’s exploration of motherhood and othermothering led to a counterhegemonic reading of Black matriarchy and the strong Black woman (sometimes read as strongblackwoman) and to broader definitions of Black (other) mothering amongst adult women, adolescent females, and men. Additionally, Chyvae’s analysis points to the vulnerability and resiliency amongst Black female youth in their attempts to seek out healthy relationships with Black women, girls, men, and boys.

Author

• Erica Nicole Womack, The Ohio State University