VTS and the Black Girl Gaze

• In Event: Visual Thinking Strategies: An Expansive Method for Qualitative Inquiry

Abstract

In this paper presentation, I describe how I combined an expressive art exercise with Visual
Thinking Strategies (VTS)—a method of asking reflective questions about images—to develop a methodology that centers the Black Girl Gaze as a tool for healing, self-reflection, and participant-led analysis. Rather than simply asking Black girls to share their stories for me to interpret, this approach invited them to take the lead in making meaning of their own experiences. Through dual self-portrait drawings and VTS, we reflected together on how they see themselves and how they believe their teachers see them. As Ruth Nicole Brown writes, “creating space to practice visionary Black girlhood makes the creative potential possible” (2009). Guided by this idea, I sought to build a space for Black girls to practice self-definition—not just through storytelling, but through the act of interpretation itself. The Black Girl Gaze, which Taaffe (2016) defines as “the documentation about the process of creating Black girl-authored counter-narratives,” is central to this work. Visual Thinking Strategies were applied both as a collaborative tool for data analysis and as a standalone method to explore meaning in participant-created self-portraits. Pairing visual methodologies grounded in Black Girl-centered theories with VTS offers a distinct approach, one that positions participants as both subject and researcher, directly engaged in constructing knowledge.

Grounded in Black Girlhood theories (Brown, 2016), Black Feminist Thought (Collins, 1991), and the Black Girl Gaze (Taaffe, 2016), this project shows how drawing combined with participant analysis reveals how Black adolescent girls navigate identity and relationships with teachers. Taaffe (2016) highlights the importance of a fluid learning process between Black girl artists and Black women facilitators. In this study, that process unfolded through VTS prompts guiding participants’ analysis of their own drawings. I invited girls aged 11–14 to draw dual self-portraits—one of their inner selves and one representing how they believed their teachers viewed them. These images served as the basis for drawing-elicited interviews. The girls, positioned as participant-researchers, selected which portrait to discuss first and responded to VTS questions to guide their reflection.

VTS provided a framework for deep discussion, using questions such as: What is going on in this picture? What do you see that makes you say that? What more can you find? Their interpretations came before mine and became the foundation for identifying larger themes. Rather than being observed, they were invited into the research process as analytical collaborators. The methodological focus of this study is twofold: first, to offer Black girls a platform to “talk back” to the pervasive, stereotypical narratives that shape their educational experiences; and second, to foster collective healing through creative expression and reflection. Echoing Dominique Hill’s work (2014), I see these Black girl centered spaces as vital sites for healing and affirmation in a society where such affirming environments are often absent. By integrating VTS into both the generation and analysis of data, this work challenges traditional knowledge hierarchies and broadens the role of VTS as a transformative tool within qualitative research.

Author

• Darielle Blevins, Arizona State University