Full Description
"In the powerful essays that make up Investing in the Educational Success of Black Women and Girls, Black women and girls are listened to, appreciated and valued in recognition of the unrelenting challenges to our existence in a world that continues to be committed to stifling our voices. What these authors know intimately is that such stifling is not because what Black women and girls are saying isn't important: It is precisely because it is. This book names the challenges Black women and girls continue to experience as we pursue our education and offers implications and recommendations for practitioners, teachers, administrators, and policymakers. [It] needs to be read widely and deeply studied as much for its formations and beautiful representations of Black women and girls as its recommendations. It is the truth-telling we need today and a groundbreaking resource we need today and beyond."—Cynthia B. Dillard (Nana Mansa II of Mpeasem, Ghana), Athens, Georgia; and Cape Coast, Central Region, GhanaWhile figures on Black women and girls' degree attainment suggest that as a group they are achieving in society, the reality is that their experiences are far from monolithic, that the educational system from early on and through college imposes barriers and inequities, pushing many out of school, criminalizing their behavior, and leading to a high rate of incarceration.The purpose of this book is to illuminate scholarship on Black women and girls throughout the educational pipeline. The contributors--all Black women educators, scholars, and advocates--name the challenges Black women and girls face while pursuing their education as well as offer implications and recommendations for practitioners, policymakers, teachers, and administrators to consider in ensuring the success of Black women and girls.This book is divided into four sections, each identifying the barriers Black girls and women encounter at the stages of their education and offering strategies to promote their success and agency within and beyond educational contexts.In Part One, the contributors explore the importance of mattering for Black girls in terms of redefining success and joy; centering Black girl literacy pedagogies that encourage them to thrive; examining how to make STEM more accessible to them; and recounting how Black girls' emotions and emotional literacy can either disempower them or promote their sense of agency to navigate educational contexts.Part Two uncovers the violence directed toward and the criminalization of Black women and girls, and how they are situated in educational and justice systems that collude to fail them. The contributors address incarceration and the process of rehabilitation and reentry; the outcomes of disciplinary action in schools on women who pursue college; and describe how the erasure and disregard of Black women and girls leaves them absent from the educational policies that deeply affect their lives and wellbeing.Part Three focuses on how Black women are left to navigate without resources that could make their collegiate pathways smoother; covers how hair politics impact their acceptance in college leadership roles, particularly at HBCUs; illuminates the importance of social/emotional and mental health for Black undergraduate women and the lack of adequate resources; and explores how women with disabilities navigate higher education.The final part of this book describes transformative approaches to supporting the educational needs of Black women and girls, including the use of a politicized ethic of care, intergenerational love and dialogue, and constructing communities, including digital environments, to ensure they thrive through their education and beyond.
Contents
Foreword— Cynthia B. Dillard Introduction. Establishing a Context for Centering Black Women and Girls in Education Part One. Mattering for Black Women and Girls in Schooling Contexts 1)Mid-Twerk and Mid-Laugh— Ruth Nicole Brown and Aria Halliday 2. Black Girl Literacies—Gholdy Muhammad 3. Institutionalized Efforts to Increase the Participation of Black Women and Girls in STEM— Nicole M. Joseph 4. Resistance, Silence, and Armoring. Black Girls' Navigation of the Intersections of Schools, Emotions, and Emotional Literacy—Charlotte E. Jacobs Part Two. Naming and Challenging the Violence and Criminalization of Black Women and Girls 5. The Miseducation of Our Sisters—Erin Corbett 6. Unprotected and Left for Dead. Educational Policy and the "Nobodyness" of Black Girls Disciplined Through Suspension and School-Related Arrests—Venus Evans-Winters and Dorothy Hines 7. "Staying Out the Way". Connecting Black Girls' Experiences With School Discipline to Collegiate Experiences—Tiffany L. Steele 8. Reimagining Title IX for Black Girls—LaWanda W.M. Ward, Ayana T. Hardaway, and Nadrea R. Njoku Part Three. Navigating Politics and the Politicization of Black Women and Girls in Higher Education 9. Black Women Undergraduates' Reflections on the Pathway to College. Naming and Challenging Structural Disinvestments— Lori D. Patton, Keeley Copridge, and Sacha Sharp 10. Kinks, Curls, and Braids. Untangling the Hidden Hair Politics of Undergraduate Black Women Student Leaders at HBCUs—Jamila Lee-Johnson 11. Black Undergraduate Women Navigating (Mis)Representation, Strength, and Strategies. An Analysis of Influences on Their Mental Wellness—Janice Byrd and Christa Porter 12. Black Women's Transitions and Educational (My. Intersections of Race, Dis/Ability, and Ableism—Mercedes Cannon 13. The Mistress and the Master's House. Revisiting Lorde's Speech to the New York University Institute for the Humanities—Mildred Boveda Part Four. Still We Rise. Black Women and Girls Lifting and Loving Black Women and Girls 14. Paradigm Shifting for Black Girls. A Restorative and Transformative Mindset—Maisha Winn 15. Toward a Politicized Ethic of Care About Black Girls and Women in Education—Monique Lane 16. Still Retaining Each Other. Black Women Building Community Through Social Media and Other Digital Platforms—Tykeia Robinson and Brittany Williams 17. Intergenerational Love and Commitment Between Black Women and Girls—Toby Jenkins and Vivian Anderson
