Examining the Role of Teachers in Shaping the Learning and Development of Black Girls

• In Event: All We Have, All We Need: Black Girls as Educational Stakeholders Disrupting Hyper-Punishment in Schools

Abstract

Overview. Schools are a central context for both learning and socio-emotional development (Roeser, Eccles & Sameroff, 1998). Experiences of racism and prejudice influence Black students’ perceptions of school climate, with African American student’s sense of institutional trust declining throughout adolescence (Yip, 2018). For Black youth, teacher relationships are particularly meaningful in supporting or hindering their learning and development in schools. For Black girls in particular, the school system can be a contentious space that requires them to navigate unique social challenges. This study centers the voices of Black girls to explore how ongoing practices, assumptions, and processes across multiple levels of schooling, specifically within the school environment as well as within interactions and relationships with teachers and administrators, perpetuate racial inequalities or promote racial equity.

Theoretical Framework. Toni Morrison writes in Beloved (1992) that “definitions belong to the definers, not the defined.” Effective teacher-student relationships for Black girls have been defined without the voices of Black girls. In response to the exclusion of Black girls, this paper utilizes a mosaic of Black Feminism and Critical Race Feminism to explore the struggles and triumphs of Black girls in educational spaces.

Methods. Participants in this study were Black girls in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade (n=21), who were recruited from a summer program for Black girls located in a mid-sized, Southern city. Individual and focus group interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using an inductive analysis process via mapping and writing around data (Bhattacharya, 2017).

Preliminary Findings. In addition to normative, developmentally-appropriate experiences of Black girls in middle schools (e.g. academic related pressures to succeed, “drama” among peers, and bias- based bullying), I find that Black girls perceived that teachers, administrators and peers held stereotypes about who they are and their capacity to succeed. Girls described specific ways they were “othered” based on pervasive racial stereotypes about their academic abilities, femininity, and perceived sexual knowledge and activity. Black girls also perceived how successful teachers rejected deficit thinking. My analyses identified two categories of feedback from teachers: positive and negative. Negative feedback included ignoring, providing negative verbal feedback and disciplining and positive feedback included acknowledging and providing academic support, providing positive verbal feedback, and buffering students from toxic situations with a high likelihood of future discipline.

Significance. By providing Black girls with the opportunity to define and describe practices, assumptions and processes that support or hinder their learning and development, the current study highlights the role teacher expectations and beliefs and positive or negative feedback can play in shaping the educational experiences and outcomes of Black girls. The Black girls in this study shine as they describe their love of and dedication to learning, even though they routinely confront and must cope with bias and discrimination in school. They described both adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies and through their reflections, demonstrate resilience.

Author

• Lauren Mims, Ball State University