Reciprocal Recognition: Black Girls and Women Teachers Make Each Other Visible

• In Event: Antiblackness and Black Mattering in K–12 Teaching

Abstract

Black girls are subjected to low expectations and stereotypes within culturally irrelevant school environments. This mixed-methods study examines how three Black women elementary school teachers engaged culturally relevant pedagogies (CRP) to develop their Black girl students’ sociopolitical consciousness. Findings reveal that the teachers instructed their Kindergarten through sixth grade Black girl students’ using a Black feminist lens that developed what we term “reciprocal recognition,” which means students and teachers were able to see themselves in each other. Teachers engaged pedagogies to connect students’ personal experiences to classroom instruction. This study provides a path forward to a pedagogical agenda for the education of Black girls that draws upon critical race pedagogies and practices for making them visible when teaching and learning.

Authors

• Ikbal Noureddine, California State Department of Education

• Aaminah Norris, California State University - Sacramento

• Kayla Freeman, California State University - Sacramento

• Maureen Paley

• Marvin Reed