A Place for Us: An Ethnodrama of Black Girls' Life Notes on Urban Schooling

• In Event: Hush Harbors: The Pedagogical Possibilities of Youth Third Spaces for Classrooms and Schools

Abstract

The unique obstacles Blackwomen face are seldom examined independently of Black people (read: Black men) or women (read: white women), thus, there exists a stark history of negligence towards this particular group, and Blackgirls are not exempt from this double jeopardy (King, 1988). It is not uncommon for Blackgirls to face additional challenges in their schooling experiences based on their race and gender (Collins, 2000; hooks, 1989; Lindsay-Dennis, 2015). When it comes to initiatives around school “safety,” they have often been over-surveilled and/or invisibilized (Crenshaw, Ocen, & Nanda, 2015), and are more likely than any other race or gender to be suspended more than once (Civil Rights Data Collection, 2016). These disproportionate discipline rates are not due to more frequent or more serious misbehavior (Civil Rights Data Collection, 2016), hence the clear indication that ideologies, perceptions, and policies criminalize Blackgirls in schools (Esposito & Edwards, 2018). When Blackgirls are pushed out of traditional schools, they often get pushed into alternative schools, considered “dumping grounds for ‘wasted lives’” (Mills, Renshaw & Zipin, 2013), where the focus is predominantly on Black and Brown boys. Consequently, Blackgirls are even further invisibilized after being pushed out.

Literature on urban education has only recently begun to include scholarship specific to Blackgirls, much of which focuses on the circumstances that led to exclusionary discipline practices, portraying their experiences as a single story. Research on alternative schools hardly ever speaks to the experiences of Blackgirls. Holistic pictures of Blackgirls and their lives are rarely painted, and their stories are infrequently told through their own eyes. In order for schools and classrooms to be effective for all students, however, the students themselves must be placed at the center of all school policies, decisions and practices (Blair, 2002), and consequently, scholarship. Accordingly, grounded in Endarkened Feminist Epistemology (Dillard, 2000), through the creation of a third space within an alternative high school in New Jersey, this participatory ethnodramatic study highlights authentic and uninhibited Blackgirl voices and perspectives to disrupt single stories about their experiences in urban schools by exploring the following research questions:

1. How do Blackgirls express their experiences navigating urban schools [as racialized and gendered beings] through the creation of life notes?
2. What do Blackgirls want educators to know about their experiences in school?
3. How does the creation of life notes and ethnodrama support Blackgirls in the self-reflection and analysis of their school experiences?

In unpacking these questions, I conducted focus group interviews, individual informal interviews, and co-analyzed participants’ life notes: letters, stories, journal entries, reflections, poetry, music, and other artful forms (Dillard, 2000) over the course of one marking period—nine weeks. As a means of synthesizing the participants’ life notes and interviews, together, we co-constructed an ethnodrama—a written playscript using significant qualitative data and dramatizing it into text that can be performed (Hare, 2008; Saldana, 2005)—for educators to witness a richer picture of Blackgirls’ experiences and create real change that will transform schools and classrooms into healthier, more effective places for them and all students.

Author

• Cathryn A. Devereaux, Teachers College, Columbia University