The Development of Black Girl Critical Literacies in Independent Schools: Awareness, Agency, and Emotion

• In Event: 66.058 - Roundtable Session 28
  In Roundtable Session: 66.058-18 - Black Girls Matter: Critical Literacies and Active Engagement in Schools

Abstract

This paper presents a phenomenological study that explores the developmental process and components of an emerging phenomenon that I am conceptualizing called “Black girl critical literacies.” I define Black girl critical literacies as the set of competencies which Black girls use to recognize, process, and respond to messages that they receive connected to their status as Black females in U.S. society while simultaneously crafting their own sense of their Black girl identities. Using black girlhood (Brown, 2013) and racial literacy (Stevenson, 2014) as frames, this paper tracks the identity construction of adolescent Black girls in independent schools through the implementation of a weekly girls’ group curriculum.

Author

• Charlotte E Jacobs, University of Pennsylvania