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Other People's Daughters: Critical Race Feminism and Black Girls' Education

Authors :
Evans-Winters, Venus E.
Esposito, Jennifer
Source :
Educational Foundations. Win-Spr 2010 24(1-2):11-24.
Publication Year :
2010

Abstract

In her 1995 article, "Sapphire Bound!", legal scholar Regina Austin calls for minority female scholars in the legal field to straightforwardly, unapologetically, and strategically use their intellectual pursuits to advocate on behalf of poor and working class minority women. Even though Austin is arguing from the perspective of a woman of color, with experience and interest in the legal field, her comments are also relevant to conceptual, theoretical, methodological, and pedagogical efforts in the field of education. In this article, the authors focus on Austin's (1995) personal and professional insights for its implications and relevancy to urban girls, in particular, African American girls being schooled in urban school communities. They call for educational research, theorizing, and practice by women and scholars of color who are adamant about improving the academic outcomes and schooling experiences of Black girls. They look at critical race feminism in particular as a useful framework for representing and speaking to the experiences of Black girls in educational spaces. They present an overview of critical race theory (CRT) and critical race feminism (CRF) which serves the purpose of (1) demonstrating that CRT and CRF have practical and relevant implications for the study of African American female students' school experiences; and (2) to begin to envision the possibilities of a critical race feminism in education theoretical framework. The authors argue that there is a need for a coalition of educational researchers who seek to understand Black girls' multiple realities. Through a critical race feminism lens, the authors call attention to the realities of the state of Black girls' education.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
1047-8248
Volume :
24
Issue :
1-2
Database :
ERIC
Journal :
Educational Foundations
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
EJ885912
Document Type :
Journal Articles<br />Opinion Papers