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…

In this article, the author shares research into five images by artists whose work responded to and helped shape the Black Power movement: Emory Douglas's "Don't Support the Greedy," Betye Saar's "The Liberation of Aunt Jemima," Barbara Jones-Hogu's "Relate to Your Heritage," Elizabeth Catlett's "Malcolm X Speaks…

This study investigated the experiences of seven Black women educators by exploring how they navigate the complex intersections of Black hair identity and the institution of education through collective healing circles. It aims to add dimension to the conversations around intersectionality by including hair and education as they are both vital to…

At present, California community colleges serve a large proportion of Black students, but these students are not adequately supported to reach their educational goals (The Campaign for College Opportunity, 2019; National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, 2022; Cross & Carman, 2022 Simpson, J., & Bista, K., 2021). Extensive research…

This study situates transnégritude within discussions that consider the ways in which young people in Senegal, with a shared transcolonial narrative, bound through an 'imagined community,' negotiate their space, their identities, and their ways of knowing through a Hip-Hop pedagogy. Our analysis is informed by Mignolo's epistemic disobedience and…

This dissertation uses sociocultural linguistics to investigate how Black undergraduates at a Historically White Institution (HWI) understand Blackness, and how their racial socialization experiences in their pre-college years inform that perspective. This project reveals that many Black undergraduates in the HWI context may not have the benefit…

Existing research notes that Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are bastions of Black culture where Black students often feel supported (e.g., Harris in The Urban Review, 44(3), 332-357, 2012). What is less well-known are the specific practices campus stakeholders enact to create culturally-affirming environments. This study…

Young children of color experience daily messages, explicit or implicit, that they are not as good as White children. These encounters act as barriers to African American children's positive racial identity development. This paper presents findings from a feasibility study of a program to infuse a community with positive messages about African…

In this article, I build on previous scholarship about Black identities, masculinities, and sexualities within Black visual culture and how their content and concepts reverberate within a larger white-dominant culture as viewed phenomenologically through Black lived experiences. This manuscript is a first-person, focused effort toward…

This study examines how directors of Black culture centers (BCCs) address Black students' intersectional identities. We highlight the challenges that directors of BCCs face as they attempt to preserve a race salient agenda, while accounting for other critical facets of students' social identities. Findings explore how directors hold differing…

One area of identity that challenges dominant ideals of professional, neat, or appropriate appearance is Black hair. Although Black hair expression is frequent in media, politics, and pop culture, there still remains a perceived stigma surrounding its presence in positions and environments (e.g. tenure positions or predominantly White…

The influence of hip hop culture and music on African-American youth is profound and can be used as a tool to shape positive outcomes in education. Hip hop has been used effectively in the classroom to engage students and enhance their critical thinking (Gangloff-Bailey & Freeman, 2014). In addition, hip hop has been described as a socializer…

The author explores the racial and cultural ideologies that inform what it means to be Black in the United States and how this mainstream framing of Blackness intersects with teacher preparedness to engage Black textual expressions in the classroom.

Adults learn and develop in various contexts, which affect how they construct and reconstruct aspects of their identities. Such identity construction and reconstruction can occur through mediated or unmediated means. Within the context of this study, adult identity development through unmediated learning within digital spaces is analyzed. Specific…

The purpose of this qualitative study is to examine the perceptions of African American males participating in one 4A program at a Mid-Atlantic community college. Twenty African American males along with six staff members were selected to participate in the study. The study used focus group interviews to investigate students' interactions with…