Description
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. Keywords: Black girlhood, adolescence, visual methodology
