Visualizing Girlhood: Visibility and the Power of the Black Girl Gaze to Understand Adolescent Girls’ Identity

<p>Black feminist scholars have highlighted the various ways Black women and girls are rendered invisible throughout many U.S. institutions. In the past few years, advocates have called attention to the ways gendered-racialized biases contribute to the punitive and dehumanizing treatment of Black girls in school. This study will demonstrate how Black adolescent girls negotiate their identity at school through the creation of self-portraits. By using dual self-portraits, in which girls are able to express their own perspective and imagine the perspective of their teacher, Black adolescent girls are allowed the space to explore the relationship between power, culture and their identity development. Overwhelmingly, the visual and interview data in this study suggested two major ways girls are experienced in relation to their teachers. Their inner selves are rendered invisible (i.e. Girls believed their teachers did not know or see their inner selves) or fully visible (i.e. Girls believed their teachers knew and saw their complete selves). The findings of this research study provide information for teachers to understand how to engage Black girls in ways that support their multiple identities. This study contributes new knowledge to the field of teacher education and Black Girlhood Studies.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Education PhD, Joint with San Diego State University

Level thesis:degree_level

Open Access Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

School of Educational Studies

Year dc:date.available

2020

Author dc:creator

• Blevins, Darielle

Contributors dc:contributor

• Linda Perkins
• Marva Cappello
• DeLacy Ganley

• Adolescent
• Black Girlhood
• Visual Methodology
• African American Studies
• Education

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/668

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarship.claremont.edu:cgu_etd-1690