No abstract

This article utilizes Black girlhood as a framework in a critical multimodal qualitative inquiry to explore the complexities of representations of Black girls’ hair, in picturebooks. Using a data corpus of 55 picturebooks published between 2010–2020, the authors analyzed the multimodal messages embedded in the initial introductions of Black girl protagonists. The findings suggest that contemporary children’s literature represents a broad array of Black girls’ hair, even when the central message is not about hair, denoting the importance of this cultural representation in assertions of identity. Findings suggest that the theme of elevation was demonstrated across the corpus, and was further expressed in the subthemes of; (1) salience of hair, (2) physical elevation of hair, and (3) importance of hair.

We are still dealing with multiple pandemics including COVID-19, which disproportionately affects minoritized people, as well as significant incidents of police brutality directed toward Black people. The purposes of this study are to visually document these multiple pandemics from our Black children’s perspectives as well as elevate their visual texts to advocate for hope and change. This article highlights the ways 13 Black elementary school children drew out their ideas to depict this critical time. We believe studying how children witness crises is essential for documenting history, especially when Black children’s voices do not rise above white mainstream messaging. The research question guiding our study asks, how do elementary-aged Black children visually represent this critical time in history? Findings suggest that our Black elementary-aged students not only were successful at creating visual texts that document this historical time but also that their drawings reflected hope and social change.

With funding from the American Educational Research Association (AERA), Marva Cappello, Jennifer D. Turner, and Angela M. Wiseman convened a group of critical multimodal scholars in April 2022 to initiate a national agenda that prioritizes the use of visual and multimodal methodologies to promote educational equity and racial justice for youth of color. Our conference gathering included Reka Barton, Darielle Blevins, Justin Coles, Autumn A. Griffin, Stephanie P. Jones, Alicia Rusoja, Amy Stornaiuolo, Claudine Taaffe, Tran Templeton, Vivek Vellanki, and Angie Zapata. The dialogue presented in this article centers around a collaboratively composed image (see ) created three months after our initial convening. Participants from the conference chose an image that reflected our time together and represented our hopes and dreams moving forward. Inspired by kitchen-table talk methodology (), we share our ideas through images and text reflecting on how critical visual and multimodal methodologies facilitate access, equity, and hope in education and educational research.

No abstract