Post-Pandemic Possibilities: Black Women Youth Workers Reimagining Education (Poster 22)

• In Event: Excellence in Education Research: Early Career Scholars and Their Work

Abstract

"Even during the emergence of a global pandemic, Black girls were disproportionately disciplined, pushed out, physically assaulted, and rendered disposable during virtual and in-person schooling. Considering the anti-Black violence Black girls face in education, this study explores the spaces Black girls escape to for respite, healing, [educational] freedom, safety, and wellbeing within and outside of schools.

This study examines the experiences of Black women youth workers who create educational spaces alongside Black girls outside of traditional school contexts. Drawing on articulations of Black fugitive educational spaces (ross, 2020) and Black girl spaces, this research describes fugitive Black girl spaces, or community-based and after school educational spaces that Black women and girls co-curate to shape Black girls’ resistance to, and escape from the harm they face within and outside of schools. This qualitative project examines Black women youth workers’ approaches to creating spaces that prioritize Black girls’ wellbeing via various pedagogies, activities, and community-centered practices. This study also explores the potential of spaces Black women youth workers cultivate to remedy Black girls’ educational experiences during the pandemic, and the possibilities for these innovations to help us reimagine education post-pandemic and beyond. This work incorporates narrative inquiry and critical ethnographic methods such as interviews, participant-observations, and document and digital media analysis to understand (1) how Black women youth workers are reimagining education, and (2) the necessity of fugitive Black girl spaces to lead us toward educational change that offers Black girls sites to center their joy, healing, thriving, and educational futures. "

Author

• Ashley L. Smith-Purviance, The Ohio State University
  Presenting Author