Taught in the Matrix: A Review of Black Girls’ Experiences in U.S. Schools

Abstract

In recent decades, a growing body of work casts light on Black girls’ schooling experiences to inform the emerging field of Black girlhood studies. Our theoretical review applies intersectionality as a guiding analytic framework to synthesize literature in this emerging field. We specifically highlight the macro and microlevel domains of power (interpersonal, cultural, structural, and disciplinary) in U.S. K–12 schools shaping Black girls’ schooling experiences. The data were drawn from a systematic search of 75 research articles. Our analysis indicated that schools perpetuate racial containment through the policies and practices they maintain as well as the cultural artifacts, objects, and people that coalesce to influence school culture, the instructional practices and curricula Black girls encounter, and the social scripts and covert messaging that dictate how Black girls claim agency in school environments. A key contribution of this review aims to situate power—a central concept in intersectionality—to offer new insights and directions for research on Black girls.

Celebrate with me: a black adolescent girl’s speculative multimodal design of intersectional college and career futures

“…Alayah explained that these three songs were especially meaningful to her as a Black girl, especially as Black girls must expend so much emotional energy pushing past negative stereotypes about their bodies, their intelligence and their potential (Apugo et al , 2022):…”

“…Finally, Alayah designed futures for liberated Black livingness through music. Considering that Black girls invest significant emotional labor and intellectual energy to resist social stereotypes in schools and society (Apugo et al , 2022), Alayah’s playlist included Black music genres (e.g. gospel, R&B) that nurtured her spirit and offered hope.…”

“…Though Black girls are often negatively portrayed (e.g. illiterate, aggressive and criminalistic) in school and societal discourses (Apugo et al , 2022), they have developed unique ways of knowing which enable them to determine their own lives and transform society by disrupting and dismantling the matrix of oppression (Collins, 2015). In raced/gendered/youthful bodies, Black girls have also inherited the intergenerational struggle of Black women, as well as the creativity, love and resistance of their Black foremothers, Black women in their families and communities and Black women across the diaspora (Collins, 2015; Price-Dennis et al , 2017).…”

“…As a result, Black girls are often rendered invisible within dominant images and conceptions of college-goingness, and teachers are less likely to see Black girls as “college material” and engage them in the kinds of college talk (Marciano et al , 2020) that promote postsecondary readiness. Complicating matters further, college and career curricula often privilege Eurocentric literature and westernized literary perspectives, thereby positioning Black girls’ intersectional identities, epistemologies and literacies as deficits or disadvantages (Apugo et al , 2022; Gibbs Grey and Stanbrough, 2019) that must be overcome for college and career success. Although college and career preparatory curricula are often touted as promoting equal access to postsecondary success (Knight and Marciano, 2013), these ELA curricula harm Black girls by limiting opportunities for rigorous literacy learning, obscuring their postsecondary potential, diminishing their aspirations and erasing their humanity.…”

“…In US schools, Black girls are often (mis)represented by racial and gender stereotypes that overshadow positive imagery of Black girls and work to mitigate their thriving, wellbeing, and future aspirations (Apugo et al, 2022). To combat these powerful social (mis) representations of Black girl/womanhood, Black girls and women have historically employed distinctive intersectional literacy practices to creatively (re)assert themselves, (re) make their present realities, and critically celebrate their own futures.…”