Examining African American Girls’ Literate Intersectional Identities Through Journal Entries and Discussions About STEM

Abstract

This article examines how three African American girls, ages 10 to 18, used journaling and interviews to better understand science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) as part of their literate identities. Drawing on prior work about literate identities, the authors introduce the concept of literate intersectional identities, which describes how participants’ diverse histories, literacies, and identities traverse categories, communities, genres, and modes of meaning within the context of a STEAM workshop. The authors employed open and thematic coding to analyze the girls’ journal entries in an effort to answer a question: In what ways do African American girls’ journal writings and interviews about STEM reflect and influence their literate identities in a digital app coding workshop? Findings reveal how their writings about race, access, and the underrepresentation of women of color in STEM helped them make sense of their self-assurance, self-awareness, and agency as girls of color interested in STEM careers.

“If We Don't Have Diversity, There's No Future to See”: High‐school students' perceptions of race and gender representation in STEM

“…In considering the disproportionate racial and gender representation in STEM disciplines, scholars have considered the educational climates many students matriculate through as a potential source of inequity. Previous findings have shown that students are aware of racial and gender disparities in STEM and often attribute these inequities to racism and discrimination (Hanson, 2009;Lewis Ellison et al, 2020). For instance, Ikkatai et al (2020) found that 61% of the high-school, undergraduates, and graduate students they surveyed reported experiencing gender bias in their math or science classes from peers or teachers.…”

“…In contrast, some in and out-of-school STEM programming centers the perspectives of Black girls (Archer et al, 2021;King, 2017;Lewis Ellison et al, 2020) and Indigenous students (Miller & Roehrig, 2018). Out-of-school learning shows particular promise when science is positioned as "mattering" by addressing community problems, what Birmingham et al (2017) refer to as "consequential learning."…”

“…To center and fully situate participants' perspectives, our critical framework was influenced by scholars employing an intersectional lens to examine exclusion from and more equitable representation within STEM (Castro & Collins, 2021;Cooper, 2016;Ireland et al, 2018;Lewis Ellison et al, 2020). To this end, we assumed that identity is multifaceted and that certain identities are subjected to exclusion and minimization by current inequitable structures (Crenshaw, 2016).…”

Grappling With Ideas: Adolescent Writers in a Rural African American Community

“…Another study explored a literacy collaborative in which girls wrote poetry expressing their identities and used writing to question, challenge, and change dominant discourses in society (Muhammad, 2015). Lewis Ellison, Robinson, and Qiu (2020) looked at three girls' STEM journal writings and uncovered intersecting themes of race, gender, power, and privilege in STEM. Within pedagogies such as these, students draw on their socially and culturally rooted identities, family, and community (Hall, 2007).…”

“They’re Killing our Imaginations”: Dialogue and Reflexive Writing Development in Historically Marginalized Students

“…In a STEM summer workshop for girls, Lewis Ellison et al (2020) studied three African American girls’ journal writing and intersectional identities. Through discussion and journaling, the girls expressed their identities as Black girls interested in STEM.…”