Cultivating the Genius Within: A Conceptual Framework for Black Feminist Text Selection

• In Event: Disrupting Dominant Narratives: (Re)Thinking Text Selection for Liberated Futures

Abstract

While Black women have long been thought leaders in educational practices the serve Black students (Collier-Thomas, 1982; Givens, 2021; Muhammad, 2020), little research has been done into their pedagogical practices when selecting texts for their classrooms. The prevalence of white, heteronormative texts have and continue to do violence and sustain systems that isolate, demoralize and exclude Black students (Author, 2018; Dumas, 2014; Greene, 2016; Jones, 2020; Warren & Coles, 2020). Seeking to undermine those systems, we turn to Black women educators, who, along with seeking to increase their students’ knowledge, also seek to uplift and encourage them. This paper draws on the experiences of Author 3, an educator with twenty years of experience in English Education to present a framework for Black Feminist Text Selection.
To build our conceptual framework for BFTS and to center the voices and knowledges of Black women educators, we draw on Black and Endarkened Feminist theories around knowledge and pedagogy (Dillard, 2021a; hooks, 1994; Muhammad, 2020; Sealey-Ruiz, 2020). We believe BFTS requires not only a deep knowledge of who students are, but also a deep sense of self that is fostered through critical reflection (Sealey-Ruiz, 2020), (re)membering, and connection to Spirit (Dillard, 2021). In arguing for the necessity of a BFTS framework, especially for Black and Brown students, we take up Muhammad’s (2020) definition of criticality as the capacity and ability to read, write, think and speak in ways that illuminate power and equity, which creates opportunities for students to understand and dismantle oppression.
As a part of a larger, multi-year design-based implementation research (DBIR) study (Penuel et al., 2011) the project team explores how experienced ELA teachers in two cities facilitate meaningful conversations about literature using digital tools, we draw data from two interviews and a lecture with Author 3 as a part of that study. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed by the entire research team using ATLAS.ti and a shared coding structure (Creswell & Poth, 2018; Saldaña, 2016). After coming together in dialog, we revisited the lecture and interview transcripts coding using (re)membering, space-making, structural opposition, enactment/embodiment, praxis and everyday knowledge to answer the following: What choices does one experienced Black woman Philadelphia-based teacher make around text selection as it relates to her own and her students’ identities and contexts?
The findings presented in this paper reveal that Black Feminist Text Selection, as practiced by Author 3, features critical self-reflection that involved remembering and reflecting on past practices, text selection choices are rooted in the belief that students matter, and that text selection choices are a part of larger homeplace (hooks 2006) building that allows students to bring their whole selves into the classroom. In practice, those text selection choices teach criticality to support the dismantling systems of power and hegemony often perpetuated in school spaces, and for the emotional wellbeing and self-esteem of her students.

Authors

• Autumn A. Griffin, Georgia State University
  Presenting Author

• Latrice Ferguson, University of Pennsylvania
  Presenting Author

• Angela Crawford, School District of Philadelphia
  Presenting Author