“To be our best selves”: critical dialogue with girls of color about their experiences in a social justice leadership program

• In Event: Highlighted session: Feminism, leadership, and agency in education programs for girls of color in the United States

Proposal

This critical qualitative study takes a positive discourse analysis (PDA) approach as a means of examining “moments of liberation and agency” (Rogers & Wetzel, 2014, p. 62) in the lives of six high school girls of color participating in the Sadie Nash Leadership Program (SNLP); a New York City based non-profit organization committed to programming focused on social justice, activism, and leadership. In particular, I explore the following questions:

How do girls of color describe and make sense of their shared identity as members of the Sadie Nash Leadership Project (SNLP)?

To what extent does the knowledge building and sharing practices fostered in SNLP attend to the intellectual, emotional, and social well-being of girls of color?

This study draws on the concept of figured worlds to account for the development of shared ways of knowing and being that are fostered in particular environments and communities. Holland et al. (1998) describe a figured world as a site (material/immaterial) that “…take[s] shape within and grant[s] shape to the coproduction of activities, discourses, performances, and artifacts (p. 51). In this work, SNLP operates as a figured world where participants, faculty, and staff, individually and collectively define and redefine the modes of engagement through spoken and embodied discourse. I explore two themes that emerged in my analysis of a focus group dialogue: 1) Taking space and making space as communal practice that honors the lived experiences of girls of color; 2) Knowledge sharing and building as a transformative practice and vehicle for fostering a shared group identity. Taken together, these themes illustrate the ways in which girls of color critically examine and reflection their participation as members of a program centered on leadership, activism, and social change. The study highlights the important role out of school spaces play in fostering community as well as critical and transformative dialogue amongst girls of color in urban communities.

References
Holland D., Lachicotte W. Jr., Skinner D., & Cain C. (1998). Identity and agency in cultural
Worlds. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Rogers, R., & Wetzel, M. M. (2013). Studying agency in literacy teacher education: A layered
approach to positive discourse analysis. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 10(1), 62 92.

Author

• Tashal Brown, Michigan State University