Visualizing Girlhood: Visibility and the Power of the Black Girl Gaze to Understand Girls' Identity

• In Event: Visual Research Methods in Education: Recent Qualitative Dissertations Designed to Promote Social Justice

Abstract

Educational advocates have called attention to the ways biases rooted in racism and sexism contribute to the punitive and dehumanizing treatment of Black girls in school which often materialize in school discipline. Researchers need innovative methodologies to effectively interrogate these realities while honoring the dignity of the Black girls who live them.
Utilizing a visual theory, Black Girl Gaze (Taaffe, 2016), this study demonstrated how Black adolescent girls negotiated their identity and relationships with teachers at school. By using dual self-portraits, Black adolescent girls were provided the space to explore the relationship between power, culture, and their identity development.

According to Black Feminist theory, Black women define themselves within oppressive systems that seek to write their narratives for them (Collins, 1991). This study particularly interrogated how adolescent girls’ self-defined within classrooms that enact the power of punitive discipline over them. The study was guided by the following questions: 1) How do Black adolescent girls verbally and visually express their inner selves? 2) How do Black adolescent girls depict their in-school identities in relation to their teacher? 3) How does the drawing-elicitation interview process inform the expression of girls’ identity?

Data was collected using a reflexive drawing exercise and an in-depth interview focusing on their school experiences from early childhood through middle school. Participants shared in the analysis of the drawings by engaging in a series of questions called Visual Thinking Strategies asking (1) What do you see in this image; (2) What do you see that makes you say that; and (3) What more can we find (Yenawine, 2013). Constant comparison was used to analyze the complex texts and identify patterns within the visual texts and interview transcripts. Visual Discourse Analysis helped identify the relationship between visual texts (Albers, 2013).

The visual and interview data suggested two major ways girls are experienced in relation to their teachers; (1) Their inner selves are rendered invisible (i.e. girls believed their teachers did not know their inner selves) or (2) Their identity was fully visible (i.e. girls believed their teachers knew and saw their complete selves). Girls whose inner selves were invisible to their teacher at times experienced hypervisibility where their actions, words, or behaviors were targets of their teacher’s ridicule, while their needs and feelings were dismissed. Invisibility was evidenced by dual self-portraits that were incongruent meaning there were elements in the inner self portrait that were not in the portrait from the teacher’s perspective. Visibility was characterized by portraits that had similar elements in both drawings.

Researchers and participants co-created a safe space during the interview process that was Black Girl Centered thus allowing for open self-reflection, self-definition, and self-expression through visuals. This space was characterized by shared language and experiences. The findings of this study provide information for teachers to understand how to engage Black girls in ways that support their multiple identities. This study has implications for teacher education programs as well as in service teacher preparation.

Author

• Darielle Blevins, San Diego State University