Multicultural Environmental Education and Wilderness Therapy: A Framework for Black Girl Magic

• In Event: Black Womanist Epistemology and Experience at the Nexus of Truth-Telling in Consequential Scholarship

Abstract

Black women in the U.S. have an unmatched herstory of pain, trauma, discrimination, and marginalization that warrants special attention. For example, Black women were systematically raped during chattel slavery, Black men attempted to sideline the needs of Black women to prioritize their own advancement, and white women deliberately excluded Black women from the women’s suffrage movement (hooks, 2014). Moreover, a recent study found that Black girls aged 5-14 are seen as less innocent and more adult-like than white girls in the same age group (Epstein, Blake, & Gonzalez, 2017). The study also found that there is a perception that Black girls need less nurturing, care, support, and comfort and are more independent and more knowledgeable of sex and other adult topics (Epstein, Blake, & Gonzalez, 2017). Thus, it is not surprising that in schools Black girls are harshly disciplined and their experiences of sexual harassment are largely belittled or ignored (Harris & Kruger, 2020; Stith Gambles, 2020). Despite their challenges, when nurtured, Black girls exude what’s known in popular culture as Black Girl Magic, i.e. the ability to triumph over oppression and excel in all that they do. Wilderness therapy is one tool that could be used to provide the healing and nurturing needed to foster Black Girl Magic.
Wilderness therapy, a treatment typically used with adolescents who’ve exhibited behavioral problems, combines outdoor adventure with education and mental health interventions. While wilderness therapy can benefit students from any identity, the potential for Black girls deserves further attention. At present, wilderness therapy regimens are most often offered to white children from affluent families with the means to afford this expensive treatment. Even when wilderness therapy is made available through government subsidy, they often have little capacity which results in space being offered to an exclusive few. The purpose of this paper is to propose a theoretical framework of centering Black girlhood in wilderness therapy programs to provide the healing and nurturing that Black girls have been denied. By leveraging wilderness therapy, in conjunction with Multicultural Environmental Education (MEE), Black girls will be affirmed, prioritized, and given space to rehabilitate while being held in for learning (rather than pushed out as in traditional school settings). As Black girls are continually criminalized and pushed out of schools (Morris, 2015), and mass shootings in schools and in Black communities continue to occur (Ogasa, 2022), wilderness therapy has been acknowledged as a valuable tool for recovery with Black girls (Williams, 2018). However, the benefit of these programs could be furthered by utilizing MEE to deliver the educational components of these therapeutic programs with Black girls (Runninggrass, 1994, 1996). By merging wilderness therapy and MEE, Black girls can unlock their highest potential and be educated in a setting that minimizes their risk of criminalization and adultification. This paper is significant in that it adds to an underwhelming set of discourse on MEE and presents a concrete example of how to implement MEE using well-established wilderness therapy concepts that have not previously been considered in relation to MEE.

Author

• Tatiana Cherelle Height, Alcorn State University
  Presenting Author