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The Urban Review

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22-06-2019

Socially Toxic Environments: A YPAR Project Exposes Issues Affecting Urban Black Girls’ Educational Pathway to STEM Careers and Their Racial Identity Development

Author: Shadonna Davis

Published in: The Urban Review | Issue 2/2020

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Abstract

In this article, the author reports findings from a youth participatory action research (YPAR) project, aimed to engage a group of Black girls from a low-income urban high school in a social justice project. The YPAR project conducted during the 2015 and 2016 academic year focused on a critical examination of the high school educational pathway to specialized fields, such as STEM careers. Findings from phase one of the project show Black girls know race and class affects their educational experiences. However, they know little about racial and gender disparities along STEM educational pathways. In fact, when given an opportunity to engage in a critical examination of school-based issues, these girls initially reified negative racial stereotypes to explain social and educational injustices. The findings reveal how school and culture intersect and affect urban Black girls’ school experiences, perception of educational and specialized career pathways, and their racial identity development.

next article Anti-racist Quantitative Research: Developing, Validating, and Implementing Racialized Teaching Efficacy and Racial Fragility Scales

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Title: Socially Toxic Environments: A YPAR Project Exposes Issues Affecting Urban Black Girls’ Educational Pathway to STEM Careers and Their Racial Identity Development
Author: Shadonna Davis
Publication date: 22-06-2019
Publisher: Springer Netherlands
Published in: The Urban Review / Issue 2/2020
Print ISSN: 0042-0972
Electronic ISSN: 1573-1960
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-019-00525-2

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Other articles of this Issue 2/2020

“It’s Everybody’s Job”: Youth and Adult Constructions of Responsibility to Take Action for School Change through PAR

What Youth Care About: Exploring Topic Identification for Youth-Led Research in School

“I Belong Here.”: Culturally Sustaining Pedagogical Praxes from an Alternative High School in Brooklyn

Anti-racist Quantitative Research: Developing, Validating, and Implementing Racialized Teaching Efficacy and Racial Fragility Scales

Right from the Start: Critical Classroom Practices for Building Teacher–Student Trust in the First 10 Weeks of Ninth Grade

“Mr. Wang Doesn’t Really Care How We Speak!”: Responsiveness in the Practice of an Exemplary Asian-American Teacher