Black Girls' School-Based Navigational Tools

• In Event: Critical Approaches to Place-Based Inquiries in Black Education

Abstract

Often, educational research understands Black girls’ school experiences in relation to the violence they face with regards to being positioned as anti-intellectual and being more harshly disciplined than their peers (Franklin-Phipps, 2017; E. W. Morris, 2007). While this research has highlighted part of the educational landscape for Black girls, future research needs to build on prior work to better understand Black girls’ approaches to navigating their educational terrain. Thus, this paper reviews the literature on Black girls’ K-12 school experiences using Butler's (2018) Black Girl Cartography, which asks researchers to map where and how Black girls show up in education research, to understand how Black girls navigate schools. In addition to Black Girl Cartography, this paper draws upon Black Geographies (McKittrick, 2006) and Black Aliveness (Quashie, 2020) to reconceptualize the way we understand Black girls and Black girlhood through educational research.

Using literature that centers Black girls’ schooling experiences, this systematic literature review answers the question: How do Black girls navigate and negotiate inequities in schools? The preliminary findings have produced four navigational tools: (1) Black girls proving their worth; (2) Black girls carving out alternative spaces within schools; (3) Black girls confronting suffering; and (4) Black girls leaving schools. This literature review sheds light on what demands they are making of the school, limits of their navigational tools, and future directions for education research.

The current literature on Black girls’ school experiences documents the different types of violence they face within schools (M. Q. Morris, 2016; Smith-Purviance, 2021). However, in applying a Black geographic approach to Black girls’ school experiences we can see how Black girls imagine safety, freedom, and community for themselves. Understanding Black girls’ navigational tools within schools is particularly important for education researchers, practitioners, and policy makers as they all continue to explore school organizational structures that best support marginalized students. Simultaneously, centering Black girls’ navigational tools illuminates the social worlds that Black girls create which can better inform education policy and practices.

Author

• Khrysta Evans, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  Presenting Author