“Am I a Problem?”: Exploring the Narratives of Twice-Exceptional Black Women

• In Event: Twice Exceptional Black Girls: Challenges They Face at the Intersection of Race, Gender, and Ability

Abstract

The purpose of her presentation is to discuss the experiences of twice-exceptional Black women. The session will focus on the challenges and strategies of coping they have overcome when navigating their K-12, undergraduate, and doctoral programs.

Using an Endarkened Feminist Epistemology, the panelist explores the experiences of twice exceptional Black women at the intersection of race, gender and ability. Endarkened Feminist Epistemology is a framework that considers reciprocity, relationship and the intersection of culturally constructed socializations of race, gender and other identities for African American women as well as historical and contemporary contexts of oppression and resistance they face (Dillard, 2000).

The aim of this session is to name and extend emerging understandings of the tensions between giftedness and disability for Black women and girls. Through narrative inquiry, will explore interview narratives from gifted-identified, Black women with doctoral degrees, aiming to explore the aforementioned tensions through their lived experiences in P-20 settings and their doctoral programs. This paper uses intersectional, sociocultural and ecological theoretical perspectives and frameworks to both analyze and problematize these themes.

The findings of this study are from narrative interviews and field notes with intentions to explore the experiences of gifted-identified Black women in their doctoral programs. When using narrative inquiry, scholars seek to understand how individuals make meaning of their experiences through the telling of narratives or stories. For this study, we sought to understand elicit narratives from Black women about their experiences navigating educational spaces as gifted. In the analysis of this larger study, we found three narratives of participants who were also diagnosed with having a disability, specifically Attention- Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Upon a closer review of these narratives, observed themes in the ways the women talked about their experiences, particularly in K-12 settings.

Although some work has been done on Black women and girls, attention must be given to the nuanced identities of Black women and girls who are gifted and have other exceptionalities. This study explores how coordinated, intentional, and culturally informed efforts are possible with families, educators, and education systems. Further, it is critical that educational systems, researchers, and teachers nuance the complex, intersectional approaches to research and scholarship, particularly for twice-exceptional Black girls and women. This joint effort can open up multiple possibilities to both inform practice, and advance our understanding as educators and scholars. With more attention on the lack of identification for gifted or disabilities are at current conversations for Black women and girls, and with this, more targeted, equitable interventions and assessments must be used in counseling, pre-service and in-service preparation, and school psychology.

This presentation contributes to the 2025 American Educational Research Association theme by
confronting the deepening racial, ethnic and socioeconomic injustices faced by gifted Black students in public schools in the United States. Although the amount of research related to gifted Black girls has increased (Anderson & Richardson, 2023; Park et al., 2024), more attention must be given to Black women and girls with twice exceptionalities.

Author

• Brittany Nicole Anderson, University of North Carolina - Charlotte