Girls of color as agents of change in the San Francisco Bay Area

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

Proposal

This action research project puts attention on how young women can develop leadership, agency and empowerment amidst some of the social forces that impede their development. This study adapts an award-winning curriculum that originated in New York City 15 years ago to a group of low-income young women from public schools in Oakland, Berkeley and Richmond, and studies the impact on the participants to shed light on how after-school spaces might lend to empowerment, social justice, and individual and collective agency. The curriculum is part of an organization, Sadie Nash Leadership Project, that serves thousands of high school age young women every year in New York City and Newark, New Jersey. Through this project, the team conducted a 10-week course for approximately 12 young women in the Bay Area for 3 months, and studied the impact of the course on young women’s self-conception, identity formation, and understandings of social issues. Through pre- and post-indicators and in-depth interviews with participants, as well as observations of class sessions, the study found that the curriculum and all-girls’ space offered young women a chance for critical reflection on various issues facing their lives.

Authors

• Marylin Zuniga, Roses in Concrete Community School

• Leslie Clark, University of San Francisco

• Monisha Bajaj, University of San Francisco