The Perspectives and Experiences of Black Female Teens Exploring the Importance of Becoming Teachers

• In Event: 72.048 - Roundtable Session 33
  In Roundtable Session: 72.048-16 - Perspectives on Teacher Education: Insights From Research

Abstract

This research study examines the learning experiences of 11th and 12th grade Black girls participating in a precollegiate pipeline program committed to increasing the number of Teachers of Color entering the profession by viewing a teaching career as an act of social justice committed to educational equity. Critical race and Black feminist theories are utilized to analyze interviews from Black girls (N=32) over a five-year period. Composite characters are developed to spotlight key findings that allow us to: (a) highlight and critique the challenges and possibilities for positively pushing Black girls’ intellectual identities as students and future teachers, and (b) identify spaces and structures in schools that can resist and combat the marginalization of Black girls’ agency and genius.

Authors

• Conra D. Gist, University of Arkansas

• Terrenda Corisa White, University of Colorado-Boulder

• Margarita Bianco, University of Colorado - Denver