Curiosity as a Privilege Not Afforded to Black Girls: (Re)membering with Black Women Science Teachers

• In Event: Protection After 16 Carriages: Curating Safety in and With Research for and by Black Girls

Abstract

Purpose
This is a study about silenced curiosity for young Black girls in formal science learning spaces and of the stories of Black women science teachers who overcame that silence outside of schools and retained their science teacher careers. The excessive attention of controlling Black students’ behavior and maintaining discipline is tied to chattel slavery (Hines-Datiri & Carter Andrews, 2020; Morris, 2016), with Black people not being viewed as brilliant human beings capable of innovation and science inquiry (Morton et al., 2022, p. 137), despite the fact that Black people have been pioneers of agricultural and mechanical innovations in the United States despite enslavement (Frye, 2018).
This international, qualitative study centers the (re)flections and pedagogical practices of five ‘elder’ Black women science teachers who have surpassed and live within some of the confines of ‘science as white property’ by looking back to when they were young science-curious Black girls themselves. This study provides implications for the curricular shifts and ideologies that honor Black girls in K-8 formal science spaces by merging liberatory teaching frameworks in science teaching and learning.

Theoretical Framework & Methods
Writing poems to your younger self is spirit work. Endarkened feminist epistemology provides a “discourse on spirituality as it intersects with education” and “has the potential of yielding understanding of the epistemological foundations of successful African-American female teachers” (Dillard et al., 2000, pg. 449). By exploring their biographies and poems, this study sought to provide a full-circle narrative about what young Black girls curious about science need and how Black women science teachers use their lived experiences to cultivate spaces of learning and joy by centering those who have persisted in these marginal spaces: elder Black women science teachers.

Findings & Discussion
Through their biographies and poems, we learn that access to science professionals at home or a once-in-a-lifetime scholarship gave them the privilege to be curious about science: ask critical science questions, get lost in the wonder of the stars, break down and rebuild machines, and make sense of nature. While being encouraged to be science-curiosity is a wonderful privilege that the participants in this study were able to have at home, this is not the norm for all Black girls interested in science. Relegating the curiosity of young Black girls to home experiences and informal learning spaces is a systemic failure. An opportunity to make curricular and ideological shifts is found in the budding ‘Historically Relevant Science Pedagogy’ framework (Author, 2022c). Specifically in science, where interest diminishes in elementary school if not actively fostered (Walls, 2012), curricular approaches must give ample space for young Black girls and other minoritized groups to explore their curiosity and communicate their thoughts, questions and ideals without punishment. As shared by (Author, 2019), embracing Black students as brilliant requires science teachers and teacher educators to enact practices that cultivate the brilliance students bring to the table rather than try to deject them from it in and through science inquiry.

Author

• Alexis Riley, New York University