Intersectional Narratives of Race, Gender, and Class Among Black Students of New York City Independent Schools

• In Event: BIPOC Voices in Education: Querying Counternarratives and Cross-Cultural Resistance

Abstract

In order to support the imminent need to provide effective pedagogical supports that address anti-Blackness and broad issues of school climate, I sought to better understand the specific, hyperlocal experiences of Black students in independent schools. In this relational narrative case study, I conducted in-depth interviews with Black students and graduates and analyzed fiction and non-fiction public narratives. Translanguaging, critical race theory, and intersectionality guided all aspects of the study design, which found that participants experienced dehumanizing ideologies of language, race, class, and gender that were buffered by positive relationships with faculty and multicultural curricula. This study contributes to emerging research on the socialization of youth in elite prep schools and the experiences of racialized students in these spaces.

Author

• Kahdeidra Monét Martin, Stanford University