Black Girl Place-Making in STEM: Using Artistic Expression as a Form of Gendered-Racial Pride

• In Event: I See You: How Black Womxn See and Speak to the Curricula Brilliance of Black Girls in STEM

Abstract

Purposes
Being a Black-girl is a complex experience because it is not that the identity is just “Black” or “girl,” they are a “Black-girl” (Ireland et al., 2018). Investigating gendered-racial identity allows us to acknowledge multiple identities and their influence on development (Collins, 2018; Jones & Day, 2017). Using intersectionality, this study examines how Black-girls) in an informal summer engineering camp create a place for themselves and express their gendered-racial identity. Through analysis of self-expressive art and other data sources (i.e., poems, drawings, daily diaries, interviews) (Ashford et al., 2017), results revealed overlapping identities, as well as how messages regarding gendered-racial identity, engineering identity, & STEM self-efficacy contributed to beliefs about their potential for success and their pursuit of STEM education. Additionally, girls utilized self-empowerment messaging in response to their competency being challenged. 

Perspectives
Findings suggest Black-girls associate with numerous forms of gendered-racial pride to navigate the STEM environment: Girl Power, the idea girls have the ability to succeed in engineering, Black-Girl Magic, celebrating the perseverance of Black-girls through adversity, and/or Colorblind Reality, the belief all people are/should be treated equally regardless of their background. 

Girl Power
​​    Using art as a form of power and creativity, Imani developed a poem, “I Am A Strong Girl”, as a way to produce intellectual activism, or reclaim who holds knowledge and what knowledge looks like since she was often disregarded because of her dyslexia. After being silenced and devalued, Imani reclaimed her right to be valued in the space as a Black-girl by centering her voice and art in a field where creativity is valued. 

Black-Girl Magic 
Jenesis centered herself in her art with a rainbow over her head and said this about the symbolism: “The rainbow is me as a Black-girl in engineering. I felt that I had something special in me which was Black-Girl Magic…it really empowered me a lot”. The drawing was a way to celebrate her inherent love for all things engineering and technology while promoting Blackness and being a girl. 

Colorblind Reality 
Summer’s picture was a depiction of how she navigated her Bi-racial identity. Similar to abstract art, her identity and world was not a definitive reality based on what she looked like. It was based on the internalized characteristics of her personality, not her race, as it was something she was currently trying to understand and navigate.

Discussion
Ireland et al. (2018) calls for research to “conceptualize the evolving nature of identity, address the multidimensional psychological nature of racial identity, and attend to other key psychological constructs of intersectional experiences” (p. 229). The girls challenged the feeling that they needed to assimilate to the dominant culture and gained freedom and acceptance by celebrating themselves. The disregard for gendered-racial identity minimizes the joint effects of sexism and racism and encourages a hegemonic society that ignores how this prevents us from attaining equal access. The study expands on Black-girl identity development in STEM by giving voice to cultivating self-appreciation & the unique oppression Black-girls face in informal STEM settings.

Authors

• Whitney N. McCoy, Duke University

• Marketa Burnett, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill