The Influence of Dramatic Arts on Literacies for Black Girls in Middle School [1 ed.] 9781666907599, 9781666907605, 9781666907612

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The Influence of Dramatic Arts on Literacies for Black Girls in Middle School

RACE AND EDUCATION IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

Series Editors Kenneth J. Fasching-Varner, University of Nevada, Las Vegas; Roland Mitchell, Louisiana State University; and Lori Latrice Martin, Louisiana State University This series asks authors and editors to consider the role of race and education, addressing questions such as “how do communities and educators alike take on issues of race in meaningful and authentic ways?” and “how can education work to disrupt, resolve, and otherwise transform current racial realities?” The series pays close attention to the intersections of difference, recognizing that isolated conversations about race eclipse the dynamic nature of identity development that play out for race as it intersects with gender, sexuality, socioeconomic class, and ability. It welcomes perspectives from across the entire spectrum of education from Pre-K through advanced graduate studies, and it invites work from a variety of disciplines, including counseling, psychology, higher education, curriculum theory, curriculum and instruction, and special education. Recent Titles in Series The Influence of Dramatic Arts on Literacies for Black Girls in Middle School by Portia M. York The Power and Freedom of Black Feminist and Womanist Pedagogy: Still Woke edited by Gary L. Lemons and Cheryl Rodriguez Narratives of South Asian and South Asian American Social Justice Educators edited by Anita Rao Mysore Understanding and Managing Sophisticated and Everyday Racism: Implications for Education and Work by Victoria Showunmi and Carol Tomlin Anti-racist Pedagogy in the Early Childhood Classroom by Miriam Tager Latinx Experiences in U.S. Schools: Voices of Students, Teachers, Teacher Educators and Education Allies in the Age of Trump, edited by Margarita Jimenez-Silva, Janine Bempechat, and Laura Gomez Implications of Race and Racism in Student Evaluations of Teaching: The Hate U Give, edited by LaVada Taylor

Technology Segregation: Disrupting Racist Frameworks in Early Childhood Education, by Miriam B. Tager Surviving Becky(s): Pedagogies for Deconstructing Whiteness and Gender, edited by Cheryl E. Matias

The Influence of Dramatic Arts on Literacies for Black Girls in Middle School Portia M. York

LEXINGTON BOOKS

Lanham • Boulder • New York • London

Published by Lexington Books An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www​.rowman​.com 6 Tinworth Street, London SE11 5AL, United Kingdom Copyright © 2023 The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Available ISBN 978-1-66690-759-9 (cloth: alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-66690-760-5 (electronic) ISBN 978-1-66690-761-2 (pbk.: alk. paper) The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

To ALL Black girls who have ever felt left out of dominant spaces and had to learn to successfully navigate race and gender discrimination and oppression.

Contents

List of Figures and Tables

xi

Foreword xiii Acknowledgments xv Introduction

1

Chapter One: Disclosing My Positionality: Who Am I and Why Am I Writing This Book? Chapter Two: Setting the Stage



15

Chapter Three: A Description of the Study



27

Chapter Four: Guiding Theoretical Framework and Epistemology Culturally Relevant Arts Education and Black Feminist Thought Chapter Five: Emerging Themes



Chapter Seven: Narrations of Understanding





Chapter Eight: Shifting Our Focus to Cultural Arts Curriculum and Teaching in Urban Education

Index

45 53

Chapter Six: Who Am I? How We Hear Their Voices

References

9

59 69 93

107

113

About the Author



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ix

List of Figures and Tables

List of Figures Figure 2.1 Explaining Literacies ………………………… 24 Figure 3.1 Interview Protocol for Black Girls …………… 34 Figure 3.2 Interview Protocol for Drama Teacher ….……. 35 Figure 3.3 Focus Group Protocol ………………………… 38 Figure 3.4 Writing Prompt ……………………………….. 40 Figure 7.1 Explanatory Model …………………………… 92 List of Tables Table 6.1 Individual Participant Descriptions …………… 60

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Foreword

There are times in history when certain books must be written. The Influence of Dramatic Arts on Literacies for Black Girls in Middle School is one of these books. The famous words of W.E.B. DuBois (1903, 107) are still relevant today where he noted, “how does it feel to be a problem?” Given the current state of our nation’s political and educational climate, Black students, particularly Black girls, in our nation’s educational system have been relegated to a substandard system where they have garnered media attention and a national spotlight not for the positive attributes they bring to the educational setting but for negative stories and headlines that are oftentimes manufactured to get likes and clicks. I want to be crystal clear. Many Black girls are facing an academic death in our nation’s K–12 public, charter, and private schools. Unfortunately, educators continue to make excuses as to why it is not their fault that Black girls are not achieving academically. However, they never discuss what is in their power to change when Black girls enter schools and school districts across this great nation. As a result, this book is a welcome addition to the education knowledge base as it provides a new and fresh perspective on how to effectively serve Black girls via the arts to shape their literacy achievement. I hope that this book reaches the educators and other stakeholders that it needs to reach to make a positive difference for Black girls to achieve academically in the most affluent country in the world. We can no longer, in this age of educational accountability, continue to stand by and watch the achievement levels of this student population be at or near the bottom of every significant academic barometer and be comfortable with our work as education professionals. Once the education profession chooses to embrace the educational potential of Black girls fully, we will see transformation happen for this population that truly want to achieve at a high level but are in schooling environments that do not develop their full potential. This book, The Influence of Dramatic xiii

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F  oreword

Arts on Literacies for Black Girls in Middle School, is also for Black parents who send their children to school expecting something great to happen only to be met with disappointment at the door of the school building. The greatness they expect for their Black girls is why many work one, two, or even three jobs to make sure their children have food on the table and a roof over their head so that they can make it to school. Unfortunately, when their Black girls matriculate through our nation’s schools, they are met with “educational rhetoric.” This educational rhetoric tells the parents all that is perceived to be wrong with their child(ren) rather than how the schooling experience will put them in the best position to impact their lives positively. Finally, this book embraces the voices, hopes, and dreams of so many who have died for Black students to have the right to quality education in this country. We thank you for making the ultimate sacrifice so that one day the education profession can reach its full potential by serving the educational needs of Black students. I have learned that we have to continue to push until this change happens. This is why I commend Dr. York for this valuable contribution to the education profession. An intentional focus on the positive impacts of dramatic arts on the literacies of Black girls is precisely what we need at this moment. It is my hope that this book will spark a new movement of Black academic success! Chance W. Lewis, PhD Carol Grotnes Belk Distinguished Professor of Urban Education Director, The Urban Education Collaborative Cato College of Education University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Acknowledgments

Dr. Chance Lewis—I would like to express my sincere gratitude to you for being a constant source of encouragement and delivering stellar mentoring from the moment we started working together. Even beyond my PhD journey, you encouraged me to stay diligent to accomplish my writing goals. I am thankful for your continued mentoring and support. Dr. Sonyia Richardson—I must acknowledge my dear friend, Dr. Sonyia Richardson, for your consistent and genuine support, knowledge, advice, motivation, and true friendship through the writing of this book and beyond. I appreciate our alignment and similar drive in accomplishing our career and personal goals. Thank you for being my #Blackgirlmagic sister. Reginald—Thank you for understanding while I completed this book. Although it may have been hard initially, you displayed patience, encouragement, and support as I devoted a great deal of time to this endeavor. I am also grateful for your assistance with editing. I appreciate your love for me as I try to fulfill my life’s purpose. You have been my rock, and I respect the sacrifices that you have made. I am so excited to be your cheerleader while you chase your dreams. Thank you. I love you always! Jordan—Deeply rooted in me is my desire to create a better world for you and others in your generation and future generations. I feel your silent encouragement, support, and love for me and what I do. I enjoy that you are excited for me as I worked hard at finishing this book. We will always be connected in spirit. I encourage you to live! Find your passion and life purpose. Be brave and follow it. When you close your eyes, see me cheering you on with the biggest smile you have ever seen. I love you, honeybun. My Parents—I want to thank all three of my parents, Dianne and Stan, and Bryant, for their unconditional love and encouragement throughout my life journey. Mom, you lift my spirits with your constant, unwavering love, and it does not hurt that you believe I am so smart. I always look to you for my sanity, grounding, and just being your baby girl. I love you for raising me to be a good person who wishes to do good things in life, especially when I xv

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Acknowledgments

support Black girls. Stan, it has been so comforting to have you in my life during almost all of my milestones. You did not always say a lot in every situation, but you always gave firm hugs, loving kisses, and expressions of proudness. Thank you for your support of all my exhausting ideas. Dad, you ignite my drive with continual intellectual challenges and push me to think analytically and critically, yet allow me to express my creativity and artistry. I love the continuum of conversations that we have. It is a beautiful balance of right-brain and left-brain collaboration. Thank you for your easy pivots and for your continued love and support of me and all of my dreams. I love each of you uniquely, genuinely, and continually. Monica—my Sissy; my two months each year twin, thank you. You show me that you are so proud of your baby sister and shout it to the world. You show your care and concern for my success, and I love you for that. Thank you for cheering me on with writing this book, walking through my life journeys with me, and celebrating my successes with me. I equally love celebrating your successes. We’ve have come a long way, baby. Straight outta Boston. It feels good to have you in my life. I love you forever.

Introduction

“I feel like drama class has made me feel like I can be so much more than what life stereotypes Black girls to be.” —Nasa Jupiter

WHERE DO BLACK GIRLS FIT IN SOCIETY? Black teenage girls are often and unfairly labeled loud and filled with “drama.” Their expressions may be viewed as theatrical and over-the-top. But is this true? Black girls in urban middle schools in the United States may have a set of mannerisms, actions, and styles to express how they speak, what they write, what they post on social media, as well as how they express themselves through their actions based on their culture, gender, and possibly their urban surroundings. Consequently, society often harshly judges how these girls are viewed and accepted in educational and social settings. The factors that are not considered before judging these young women are the social environments where they are raised, their basic structure and use of language, the education they may have received, and how these factors shape their identity as Black girls in society. Based on the inappropriate judgments, it is no surprise that Black girls are still dealing with severe race and gender discrimination affecting their overall confidence and performance. As we traverse through the twenty-first century, I believe the treatment of Black women would have changed for the better by now. To be thorough and objective, it is wise to research how Black girls fare in education and social situations compared to their peers. I want to clarify at the onset of this book that the terms Black girls and women are all used throughout each chapter. Based on the participants’ self -identity, discussions with the teacher, and the research conducted, I am referring to cisgendered girls and women in this study. 1

2

Introduction

Often statistics pertaining to urban teenage Black girls are unfairly categorized with all race and culture girls/women, or Black males, continuing to fail to meet the needs of Black girls. When we pull data on Black girls, we have to do a comprehensive job deciphering what pertains explicitly to them. As data emerges, it is important to note that women of color will comprise approximately 53 percent of the U.S. population by the year 2050 (Farrell 2013). So, the idea of dismissing or leaving Black girls out of a national discourse on education and asking them to hide under other group identities (by gender and/or race) is educationally unsound and inequitable (Ricks 2014, 10–21). Again, Black women are grouped with all White women and non-White women. In the wake of education, Young describes it as Black girls living within slavery’s afterlife being viewed as undeserving of receiving adequate education (Young et al. 2018, 102–8). Therefore, it is crucial to ask where Black girls fit within a historically marginalized society based on their race and gender. Secondly, we should ask how this marginalization has impacted Black girls’ confidence, identity development, and varied language use. Given the environmental, technological, and oppressive circumstances that Black girls must contend with, there are noted behavioral manifestations and other factors that stem from their use of varied literacies that challenge us to see and explore literacy differently. We tend to focus on literacy from a colonized European perspective. We have been conditioned to address literacy as reading and writing solely. In the twenty-first century other literacies are acknowledged, such as media literacy, financial literacy, and Black girls’ literacy, just to name a few. I challenge you to view literacies more broadly and culturally. Think about literacies as more than competencies. Scholars tell us that Black girls in urban middle schools face challenges with using language to construct meaning (Flood and Anders 2005; Sealey-Ruiz 2016, 290–98), dealing with harmful social media activity (Martin et al. 2018, 213–24), the cultural pressures of adolescence (Hough 2019), as well as challenges in understanding how society embraces the intersectionality of their race and gender identities (Sealey-Ruiz 2016, 290–98). Additionally, Black girls are often relegated to the margins, and most national statistics ignore Black girls’ experiences, performances, and outcomes (Ricks 2014, 10–21). It is clear that many times, statistics pertaining to urban teenage Black girls are unfairly categorized with all-girls/women or Black males, failing to meet the needs of Black girls. Black girls often wonder where and how they fit in education and other societal constructs when they easily witness their lack of representation. Yes, it is essential to ask where Black girls fit within a society that has historically marginalized them based on their race and gender. However, it is equally important to understand how they navigate their journeys to discover their place in society. Essentially, what we have learned from the data about urban Black middle school girls is this:

Introduction

3

1.  Black girls are unfairly categorized under other race and gender groups, which is educationally unsound and inequitable. 2.  This marginalization has impacted the confidence, identity development, and language usage of Black girls. 3.  Most national statistics ignore Black girls’ experiences, performances, and outcomes. I have pondered these factors pertaining to Black girls for quite some time. As a Black woman educator and artist, the burning question that I have is does art have any influence on the educational and social literacies of urban Black girls? In this case, I am referring to dramatic arts having any influence on the foundational, digital, and Black girls’ literacies of urban middle school Black girls. The more profound question is if drama influences the reading, writing, and speaking of urban middle school Black girls. The questioning of this concept is not new as Dorothy Heathcote introduced pioneering work in educational drama and process drama beginning in the 1950s that uses teacher in the role of facilitator to deepen learning with drama. Her innovative process is called Mantle of Expert (Heathcote and Bolton 1995). These techniques constitute a mixture of expressions and perspectives that creates new knowledge from exposed differences. Additionally, the question in mind is if practicing drama influences urban middle school Black girls’ confidence, identity development, and how they engage on social media. This book explores the use and impact of dramatic art strategies by Black teenage girls in relation to foundational, digital, and Black girls’ literacies as they shape and define their lives. This book will share detailed information about the processes and time I have spent conducting a study to explore this phenomenon. The Back Story Dramatic art (drama) is an art discipline or an art form that is not only used in the curriculum within school systems, but it is also used to explore feelings, allow for deeper experiences of expression, and contribute to physical, mental, and emotional well-being. This book will highlight drama strategies that enhance specific literacies, particularly with adolescent Black girls. You will read examples from teenage Black girls that have utilized specific drama strategies that they learned in their drama classes in school. You will also read about the vision and passion of the middle school drama teacher that works with the four Black girls interviewed for the study. The research from the study behind this book shows that dramatic art in education has proven to be impactful in the development of Black teenage girls in an urban school.

4

Introduction

Using the Arts in Education Throughout my career, I have discovered that art holds a place for human development in education, identity, and other forms of personal growth. I am incredibly excited when I see the positive impact that the use of the arts has on the development in urban education. Recent research informs us that arts education and arts integration impact achievement and personal development. One example is a research study conducted by Sotiropoulou-Zormpala (2016, 43–54) who sought a higher level of arts integration across the education curriculum. Her study entails curriculum development of teaching practices investigated through arts activities that would motivate educators to adopt “aesthetic teaching.” The study encouraged teachers to incorporate aesthetics into their academic pedagogy for more substantial student achievement results. The results from the study revealed enhanced student outcomes. Another study at Bates Middle School, a low performing school in Maryland, conducted a program called Transforming Teaching through Arts Integration, and was implemented for middle school reform in Anne Arundel County Public Schools (AACPS) (Snyder et al. 2014). This study proved the innate value of integrating arts with curriculum and the importance of arts integration within urban schools. The data from the Wylie H. Bates Middle School study sparked my interest based on the positive outcomes of how drama as an art form enhances literacy for urban students. In that particular research study, the focus was on drama and foundational literacy with middle school students at a low-performing, very diverse school. According to an article on Niche. com, Bates Middle School is listed as number 43 out of 367 most diverse public middle schools in Maryland (Snyder, Klos, and Grey-Hawkins 2014). The Bates study was significant because it showed the academic progress of urban middle school students through drama strategies. Integrating the dramatic arts also helps make literature more meaningful for students by allowing them to use their bodies and express their learning (Lynch 2007, 33–38). When effective arts integration models are established, they can increase student participation in the arts, increase student achievement, and contribute to improved school climate (“Browsing” 1997, 43–43). For most youth, the arts provide a natural route for connecting with the curriculum in a meaningful way (Crawford 2004). Overall, these studies concluded that arts integration, even conducted at a higher level, is effective for teaching and learning. However, the extension of the research study that I conducted was to explore how participation in the arts, using drama as the art form, impacts not only academics but also influences confidence, expression, and resiliency through written and spoken voices of Black teenage girls. Ruth Nicole Brown and Blair Ebony Smith explored the act of incorporating research, writing, and art forms that documents, engages, and analyzes the

Introduction

5

lives and artistic creations of Black girls as transformative practices that disrupt the status quo (Brown and Smith 2021). The exploration that they conducted to change the status quo of Black girls is the direction that I followed while examining outcomes during my study with the Black girls that I had the opportunity to work with. First, it is important to understand what drama is, how it can be implemented in classrooms and social spaces, and how it influences particular literacies of urban Black teenage girls. Drama and Theater as a Nuanced Field The terms drama and theater are often used interchangeably in conversation. It is essential to compare and contrast the terms to understand better as you progress through this book. Let’s start the explanation with Applied Drama, also known as Applied Theater or Applied Drama and Theater (ADT). It is an umbrella term for using drama practice in an educational context (O’Connor and O’Connor 2009, 471–77). ADT is often done in non-theatrical spaces, with participants who do not consider themselves to be artists and go beyond the traditional and limiting scope of conventional Western theater forms (Neelands 2016, 270–72; O’Connor and O’Connor 2009, 471–77). Techniques such as role-playing, improvisation, and other integrative drama methods are used in ADT, which are also used to help participants move forward in their discoveries extending beyond sole academics or professional art. Interestingly, most school systems use the term drama or dramatic arts in the curriculum. Practicing dramatic arts can be in the form of a play that can be performed for theater, radio, or even television. It can also be known as a composition in verse or prose intended to portray life, a character, or to tell a story usually involving conflicts and emotions through action and dialogue. Drama, as in a play, is meant to be performed on a stage in front of an audience at the theater. Theater art is also in alignment with drama, and often the words are used interchangeably. Consequently, ADT, theater art, and drama have been powerful mediums of human expression and exploration for many years, offering a deeper understanding of entertainment, instruction, and expression. However, according to the seminal work of Wilhelm and Edmiston, drama is not theater; drama is creating meaning and visible mental models of our understanding together in imaginative contexts and situations; it is not about performance, but exploration (Wilhelm and Edmiston 1998). Wilhelm’s and Edmiston’s philosophy enlightened me and my view of drama as I collect data for this book. Understanding drama is vital to appreciate the purpose of the study for this book. Drama practices, strategies, and activities in schools such as Forum Theater, Image Theater, Narration, Improvisation, Miming, Controlled

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Introduction

Breathing, Fourth Wall, and Storytelling, among other techniques, may be used with Black girls for their development of foundational, digital, and Black girls’ literacies. Furthermore, “a need still exists for liberation curriculum to combat historical and current social conditions that negatively impact school-aged Black girls” (Nunn 2018, 239–58). Liberation curriculum has been studied for decades, particularly concerning theology and education (Weil 1998; Carson and Cook 2005, 29–30), as shown in the work of Weil, Carson, and Cook. Additionally, the work of Boal describes the theater as a weapon for liberation and change (Boal 1985). This philosophy of liberation is the main point that I am seeking and trying to make as I navigate the research study and write this book. The critical factor in all of the work from the researchers listed above is “liberation leading to change.” In this case, the beauty and impact of drama is the act of expression toward change. Traditional curriculum may construct and present the dominant narrative reigning over the successes and failures of young Black girls. It often strips away the authority and genuine voices of Black girls about their own educational, social, and emotional growth. In the study that I conducted, I utilized a qualitative research approach to investigate the role drama may play in influencing specific literacies of Black girls in an urban middle school to explore how drama practices may serve as liberation of curriculum within those literacies. For this book’s purpose, the word drama will be used to tell or express a story, usually involving conflicts and emotions through action and dialogue to examine its influence on literacies, essentially encompassing the actions and strategies of applied theater or ADT. Examining drama strategies during the study allowed me to explore three specific literacies with urban Black teenage girls, as explained in the next section. Multiple Literacies of Black Girls The multiple literacies of Black girls should be studied differently and more accurately than what we find in current literature. Research acknowledges “the importance of advocacy for literacy practices, specifically for Black girls to make meaning of their identities within schools (Sealey-Ruiz 2016, 290–98). However, more intentional research is needed to uncover the development and use of the varied literacies that Black girls utilize. We need to examine literacies as more than competencies. We also need to come to terms with the fact that reading and writing are not the only literacies studied and practiced in the twenty-first century. For Black teenage girls to receive appropriate education and tools to navigate society, we need to understand the experiences of urban middle school Black girls who participate in drama classes and how it influences their language, identity, and social media engagement. We need to understand the data

Introduction

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on adolescent Black girls in urban middle schools and how or if they acquire skills through drama techniques and strategies. We need to understand if certain literacies are needed for navigating into and through adulthood. We did not initially know if the developing literacies through drama practice provide methods of communication for teenage Black girls to contend with discrimination, racism, and sexism. There were many unanswered questions on this topic that need to be answered to support urban teenage Black girls. The answers are not only for my personal interest but also for my research interest that supports the educational, social, and emotional growth and development of urban middle-school-age Black girls. Although this book is academic in content and nature, I take the time to connect with you by revealing the narratives shared by the participants in the study. The Influence of Dramatic Art on Literacies for Black Girls in Middle School communicates to a broad audience the influence of drama on the way Black girls talk, express themselves, what they read, their resilience, and how they navigate the world. I focus on clarity of definition of words so that people can comprehend this material without significant effort. I will use first-person often, and I will also explain my perspective in certain circumstances. Additionally, I encourage you to read the book in order as each chapter builds upon the one before it. RESOURCE If you are interested in arts-based work for Black girls using the foundation of Culturally Relevant Arts Education (CRAE), you can contact me at yorkcreativeeducation.com PREVIEW OF FORTHCOMING CHAPTERS Together we will take a journey through the ways that practicing drama can influence specific literacies of middle school Black girls that attend an urban school. This exploration highlights the intricacies of the lives of these young women inside and outside of school. We seek answers to how urban middle school Black girls fit in a society that has marginalized them and how practicing drama has weaponized them to navigate education, racism, and sexism in a demeaning society. Chapter 1 concentrates on my relationship to this subject. Here I discuss my story, my positionality, and how I became interested in this vital topic. I share why this topic is so personal for me.

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Introduction

Chapter 2 sets the stage for the context of the study. You will learn where the study took place as well as the definition of the literacies under study. It is essential for you to understand the literacies as defined to comprehend the impact that drama has on the Black urban middle school girls in the study. Chapter 3 provides the study description and reviews the processes necessary for understanding the underlying influence that practicing drama has on Black girls. I briefly discuss the research methods and procedures utilized in the study to create the knowledge found in this book. Chapter 4, on Culturally Relevant Arts Education framework and Black Feminist Thought epistemology, provides a theoretical structure from which readers can view the chapters coming thereafter. You will understand the concepts and theories as a utilized framework for interpreting the discussions that follow. Chapter 5 is an analysis of the emerging themes that allow for discussion regarding Black girls enrolled in an urban middle school who participate in drama classes. The themes were derived from the data collected and analyzed during the research study. Chapter 6 allows you to hear personal stories from the Black girls that participated in the study, as well as their drama teacher, in order to understand why and how they chose specific drama strategies to navigate discrimination, oppression, written and spoken language, and acts of social justice by utilizing their voices, behaviors, and their mannerisms. This chapter analyzes the ways in which their experiences are influenced by techniques and strategies that they learned in drama class. Chapter 7 offers more explanations on how the Black girl participants navigate and express themselves during challenging times, pointing toward their race or gender, inside and outside of school. This chapter connects the themes with each girl’s narrative; their personal stories. Chapter 8 concludes the book with recommendations regarding how to make changes and shift our focus onto culturally relevant arts curriculum and social justice advocacy. We learn how arts education can become more culturally relevant, particularly in urban middle schools. The recommendations lead to changing the thoughts and actions of educators, school administration, artists, and funders to make education more inclusive and impactful for urban Black girls.

Chapter One

Disclosing My Positionality Who Am I and Why Am I Writing This Book?

“Let the Beauty We Love Be What We Do” —Rumi

My main reason for choosing this topic is personal interest. My decision to conduct a study examining drama and literacies of Black girls was influenced by my life position as a Black woman artist and educator with a love of the visual and performing arts. I wanted to know how drama, as an art form, influences the way Black girls speak, write, act, advocate for themselves and others, navigate society, and manage their presence on social media. These acquired and practiced behaviors shape Black teenage girls. As a Black woman artist and educator, I have observed persistent race and gender-based disparities in school curriculum, classrooms, and outside of school settings related to Black girls. I have also personally experienced racism and discrimination in and outside of academic settings during my middle school years and through adulthood. This topic is deep-rooted for me. As a visual fiber artist and patron of the theater, I have become increasingly curious about the connections between arts education, arts integration, academic achievement, identity development, and social justice. I firmly believe that the arts can positively impact academic performance, academic self-concept, confidence in cultural identity, and positive school experiences for all students, particularly Black girls and women. My passion for this topic, which some might call a bias, is rooted in a place of personal experiences as a child. I grew up during a time in a part of Boston that was still very racist. During my elementary and middle school years, I lived in a section of town that was predominantly African American 9

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C  hapter One

with very few Black and brown people from other countries. A handful of White Americans lived in this middle to lower economic community. During that time, the neighborhood where the school I attended elementary school was located was in a lovely middle-class community across a connecting bridge densely scattered with households of single-family homes where Black and White, but mostly White families lived. In my case, my family and I lived in a small two-bedroom apartment not far from the school across the bridge on the lower income side. We did not live in a neighborhood of tree-lined streets filled with single-family homes at that time. It was mostly apartment buildings with no yards. Yet, for the most part, I felt I had a “normal” life with regular friends, a loving family, racial slurs, occasional racial fights, and constant feelings of being on guard physically, intellectually, and socially. Most of my friends in elementary and middle schools were also African American or Black, and at least half of the schools’ populations were Black. These schools were classified as urban schools and pulled from many neighboring residential neighborhoods. As I reflect on my past schooling experiences, I remember having less than one handful of favorite or memorable middle-school teachers at those schools. I remember having even fewer teachers of color. Even though I attended urban schools, I did not see many teachers that looked like me. Mrs. Doe, the art teacher in my elementary school, was my favorite at that time. She did not look like me. She was Asian, I think, but I loved her art class and found her to be encouraging about her students’ growth in art. She was friendly, warm, inviting, and loved art. She was the beacon that shined the light on my creativity, the benefits of making art, how art can change lives, and she possibly planted the seed in my head that I could be an artist and an art educator. That was enough to get me through most days. Incidentally, I did not have a teacher that touched me in the way that Mrs. Doe did during my middle school years. I felt marginalized and not supported by most of my teachers, but I held on to the growing desire of art making within me. Dealing with racial slurs, being called the “N” word regularly, getting into physical altercations, losing my self-esteem, and having a low academic self-concept affected how I presented or expressed myself as a Black girl and how I perceived myself academically in relation to my White peers. Although I always earned As and Bs in all subjects, I sometimes felt intimidated by my White peers. I knew I was being compared to them, but I did not always feel I had the teacher’s backing and guidance to encourage and cheer me through that competition. As hard as it was, I had to become more resilient in my educational environment. Middle school eventually became the time when I recognized my differences from the dominant culture, and it forced me to choose how I should proceed forward in life to survive academically, culturally, socially, and emotionally. I had to learn to navigate “White” spaces

Disclosing My Positionality

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within my community yet maintain my Black girl identity. Essentially, I had to learn to live biculturally to survive. Initially, it was challenging but eventually became second nature for me. I learned to code-switch naturally and with ease. Let’s fast forward to adulthood when I became an artist and an educator. I am not sure it had always been my vision as a young girl, but I embraced the journey over the course of my life time. I have intentionally led girls’ groups and taught fiber art lessons where the majority of the youth were Black girls challenged by all forms of literacies development, social justice issues, and perceptions and beliefs about themselves that may have hindered their growth as Black girls. These sessions were not only lessons in art but included deep-rooted personal discussions about the challenges that they experienced being girls and Black couched snuggly within crochet circles and art lessons. These art sessions were uniquely crafted for these Black teenage girls to acquire ammunition that combats identity crises, racism, lack of confidence, and challenge oppression through art activism and social justice advocacy. Through the lessons and conversations with the girls, I realized that Black girls receive and express content and information more openly when art forms are utilized for instruction. They were able to embrace and discuss challenging topics by inserting art, expressing feelings, and eventually creating an aesthetically pleasing product or piece of art that allowed them to show their emotions or express their experiences through art. Exploring experiences that link art to other subjects can help overcome negative encounters and shift narratives and outcomes for Black girls. I will mention again that these sessions were more than just art lessons; they were essentially lessons on developing vocabulary and speaking skills, confirming Black and girl identity, and supporting advocacy against injustices. When I decided to conduct research for this study, I found great alignment with Culturally Relevant Arts Education (CRAE) as a grounding framework. It is a framework that can support students in providing counter-narratives to dominant culture fallacies through the use of the arts. On another note, as I grew into adulthood and became more professional with my artwork, I not only created work to display in art exhibits or to sell, but I created fiber art that dealt with race, STEAM education, identity, or social justice issues. It was important to reflect on my personal racial and gender oppressive journey and how I used art to encourage and support the development of literacies and advocacy. Subsequently, I had opportunities to work with Black girls on identity art. These moments were impactful because the discussions during student participant crochet groups were specific to identity, physical features, self-expression, confidence, language, style, and other things about being a Black girl living in an urban society. I began to realize that other art forms

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C  hapter One

may serve a similar function and purpose. Therefore, I chose to explore dramatic arts with a purpose. Although my art medium and expertise are fiber arts, I love drama and acting. It allows for self-expression without judgment, precisely the leniency Black girls and women need. The techniques and strategies used in drama can be applied to many facets of one’s life, like how you read, what you write, your verbal communication, mannerisms, self-expression, and other personal developments. The discovery of these factors set in for me as an adult when I attended many plays and performance art events to study actors/performers and the messages they were trying to convey, especially women actors/performers of color. I wanted to know more about their personal history. I needed to know their personal “stories” as I researched their journeys. I like to understand what they are trying to portray or project to the world. I wondered if they were dealing with racial or gender challenges, discrimination, speaking, or other struggles as Black women. Ultimately, conducting the study on the relationship between drama and certain literacies that teenage Black girls use was personal for me because I know a part of my life’s work is to enhance the lives of Black girls using the arts and culture, broadly and intimately. At some point in my life, I realized art helped me survive and thrive as a Black girl growing up in urban communities in Boston. It saved me. I often reflect on a powerful quote by Vernon Jordan. “When you stand on the shoulders of others, you have a reciprocal responsibility to live your life so that others may stand upon your shoulder.” That is my mission through art and education. CHAPTER SUMMARY In concluding this statement on my positionality, I want to clarify that I will never give up on supporting the growth, development, and achievements of Black girls. Our society poses significant challenges for those born Black and girl. It seems that other race and gender humans existing within our society are oblivious to the challenges and missed opportunities that Black girls and women face. A challenging object of this existence for Black girls is the model of formal education institutions in the United States. Unfortunately, the education system in the United States has not fully embraced the notion that the arts can be used as an effective tool for learning, development, social justice, cultural relevance, and personal growth. I wrote this book because I feel passionate about the impact that the arts have on the lives of Black girls, but I also feel qualified to speak in this area of research based on my education, skills, and life experiences. My qualifications stemmed from my roots of being born and raised as an urban Black girl who loves the arts

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and education. As Rumi professes, “Let the Beauty We Love, Be What We Do,” I will continually hold that directive near and dear to me. If you are interested in securing STEAM–fiber arts workshops or hearing more about supporting Black girl students through the arts, please contact me at dryork@ yorkcreativeeducation.com or visit yorkcreativeeducation.com.

Chapter Two

Setting the Stage

“I want them to feel comfortable within themselves, enough to express themselves in whatever way they see fit.” —Maria Gomez

Understanding my perspective and positionality on where and how Black girls navigate life in urban schools and the impact of the arts lead me to present more information about the study that I conducted for this book. It is crucial for me to set the stage for your understanding of where I conducted the study and who was involved in the study. Knowing my passion and vision for Black teenage girls, it is clear why I find it important to study a population of girls that identify as Black, who were enrolled in an urban middle school, participate in drama classes, and had a Black woman teacher that taught the classes. The Black teenage girls and the Black woman drama teacher would be the ideal sample population to conduct this study. Of course, the sample population had to be well crafted in order to study a specific group. I needed to find answers to questions pertaining to the impact of drama on certain literacies of Black teenage girls who attend an urban middle school. I thought it would be fitting to conduct my research at an active urban middle school in an urban intensive city. My introduction to and entry into a well-known urban public charter school in Charlotte was having the opportunity to meet the superintendent of that school. We both attended a social event one fall evening, and my mentor introduced me to her. I had already known about the school that she directs and desired to become more familiar with the inner workings of the school. I needed to connect with the teachers and students in order to dig deeper into the impact of the arts with that school’s population. I sought out that school because I knew several things about the school that would be ideal for my study. I knew that the school: (1) included a middle school, (2) was located in an urban city, (3) had a Black girl population of students and teachers, and (4) offered drama elective courses. Each 15

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of these factors were pertinent to my study. After the formalities of meeting the superintendent of the school were behind us, the superintendent gave me the approval to move forward with selecting students and a drama teacher at her school for my case study. I was thrilled and acted immediately. I did not want to lose this opportunity. For anonymity purposes, we will call the school Stonybrook Charter School. The school is a K–12 charter school located in Mecklenburg County that serves 1,607 students, where 1446 are Black, 147 are Hispanic, 2 are White, 3 are Asian, and 9 are of two or more races. The physical location of the school was in a very urban neighborhood. The total population includes 786 males and 821 girls. However, the middle school encompasses 5th–8th grades; approximately 540 students. My focus was on traditional 6th through 8th middle school grades. In particular, Black girls in 7th and 8th grades. I was also focused on the drama teacher who is a Black woman. I knew this particular school had a Black woman drama teacher that taught the middle grades. Next, I had to narrow down the number of participants for the sample population because I wanted to conduct a qualitative case study in order to get in depth research results. In order to select a quality sample population for this study, I used a concept called Purposive Criterion Sampling. The concept of purposive sampling entails selecting specific types of individuals and sites for the study because they can purposefully inform an understanding of the study’s central phenomenon (Ames et al. 2019, 26–26; Creswell and Creswell 2017; Mertens 2010, 469–74). From that overall school population, my case study included four Black girl students in 7th and 8th grades, and one Black woman teacher. Creswell and Creswell recommends no more than four to five participants in a qualitative case study research design to get depth and breadth of the situation for each individual (Creswell and Creswell 2017). I followed Creswell’s qualitative case study design format. The caveat in working with this youth population is that I had to get student assent that they freely agreed to participate in my study, but I also had to get their parent’s and/or guardian’s consent since they were underaged youth. The participants selected for the study were chosen because their participation was central to addressing the research questions that guided this study. This study involved voluntary participation, and the participants were informed many times that they had the right to cease involvement in this study at any time. I wanted to be very clear with all of the participants that their participation was voluntary. I assured the students and teacher that the study process was legitimate and approved by my university’s institutional review board (IRB). I was thrilled that each participant felt comfortable enough to submit all assent and parent consent forms in order for me to move forward with the study. Additionally, I am thankful that each student and the teacher selected completed the full research study allowing me to complete this book.

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Since we are exploring the influence of drama on certain literacies of Black girls, I find it important to define key terms and literacies for better understanding of the study. The next section will provide an overview of terms and words used while I conducted the study and wrote each chapter of this book. KEY TERMS The following terms and descriptions help explain the terminology that I used while I conducted the study and during the writing process. The goal is for this section to be useful for you as you navigate each remaining chapter of the book. This section highlights the areas of art, drama, literacies, and race. I want to make clear that the drama strategies and concepts as explained by multiple resources are just some of the strategies that may be used in drama instruction with students in schools. These are just some of the strategies that may be used for communication, expression, and literacies development. In the next section, you will also get a better understanding of the literacies outlined in the study. The Black girls and teacher that participated in my study used many of these strategies. Arts Education: Refers to learning, instruction, and programming based upon the visual and tangible arts, including performing arts like dance, music, drama, and theater, as well as visual arts like drawing, painting, sculpture, and design works (US Legal, n.d.). Arts Integration: An approach to teaching in which students construct and demonstrate understanding through an art form where students engage in a creative process that connects an art form and another subject area to meet evolving objectives in both (Kennedy Center 2019). Black: Refers to African American, Black, African, African European descent. Black Girls’ Literacies: Refers to specific acts in which Black girls read, write, speak, move, and create in order to affirm themselves, their world, and the multidimensionality of young Black womanhood and/or Black girlhood (Muhammad and Haddix, 2016, 299–336). Breathing Exercises: A strategy used in drama for vocal endurance, calming nerves, and voice control (Kaplan 2021). Data Literacy: Refers to using the right tools and training to make informed decisions in order for a student to take charge of his or her growth, or a teacher pinpointing specific skills his students need to enhance (Pietila 2017).

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Digital Literacy: Refers to “the literate use of devices like smartphones, tablets, and laptops that have permeated every corner of our lives from work to school to personal relationships, and part of a well-rounded education includes being able to use these devices to achieve a variety of goals (Pietila 2017). Foundational Literacy: Traditionally known as reading, writing, and meaning-making skills that are gained in the early years and used as building blocks upon which other skills can develop (Pietila 2017). Forum Theater: A play or scene, usually indicating some kind of oppression, and is shown twice. During the replay, any member of the audience (“spectactor”) is allowed to shout “Stop!” step forward and take the place of one of the oppressed characters, showing how they could change the situation to enable a different outcome. Several alternatives may be explored by different spect-actors (Farmer 2019). Improvisation: The act of creating together without pre-planning requiring two or more people and involves spontaneity, animation, and co-creation (Romanelli, Tishby, and Moran 2017, 12–22). Mantle-of-Expert: An education approach that uses imaginary contexts to generate purposeful and engaging activities for learning (Heathcote and Bolton 1995). Media Literacy: Refers to the creation and consumption of media. “Someone who is ‘media literate’ can adapt to new communication formats, whether that is instant messaging, push notifications, wikis, online communities, blogs, or vlogs, and knows how to choose the most effective medium for communication in any given situation” (Pietila 2017). Mime: To act a part with mimic gesture and action, usually without words (Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary, n.d.). Narration: A technique used whereby “one or more performers speak directly to the audience to tell a story, give information, or comment on the action of the scene or the motivations of characters” (Farmer 2019). Process Drama: An imaginative tool for students to explore issues and process real-world situations (Kennedy Center 2019). An example of process drama is “taking a walk in someone else’s shoes. Story Telling: A technique used rather than learning stories by rote study. “Participants should identify key images and important moments and retell the story in their own words” (Farmer 2019).

Setting the Stage

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Taking a Walk in Someone Else’s Shoes: A form of process drama that allows students to “act out and empathize with real-world situations and it provides educators with real-world arts assessment strategies (Bowell and Heap 2017; Kennedy Center 2019). Theater: Theater, in dramatic arts, is referred to as an art concerned almost exclusively with live performances in which the action is precisely planned to create a coherent and significant sense of drama. “Though the word theatre is derived from the Greek theaomai, ‘to see,’ the performance itself may appeal either to the ear or to the eye, as is suggested by the interchangeability of the term spectator (which derives from words meaning ‘to view’) and audience (which derives from words meaning ‘to hear’)” (Chaillet, Davis, and Guthrie n.d., para. 2). Visual Literacy: Refers to the ability to comprehend and to create videos, photos, infographics, and other visuals that are essential for daily life and career success (Pietila 2017). DEFINING LITERACIES Now that you understand why I chose to study Black urban middle school girls and how drama participation may influence certain literacies, where the study took place, and my positionality to the study, it is important for me to explain the specific three literacies that I focused on and the impact of arts education. Once you comprehend these concepts you may be able to appreciate the analysis of the data collected from each participant as you read through the remainder of the book. Explaining Literacies When we interpret literacy, we traditionally comprehend that to mean reading and writing. However, a broader, more varied perspective on literacies has been investigated and delineated in relation to the literacies in education today. Reading and writing are no longer considered the sole forms of literacy. The “top 10 literacies in education are digital literacy, media literacy, visual literacy, data literacy, game literacy, health and financial literacy, civic and ethical literacy, news literacy, coding and computational literacy, and foundational literacy” (Pietila 2017). I have chosen an important additional literacy to be included with the lineup of the top 10 literacies for this study. The important literacy is “Black Girls’ Literacy.” “This literacy refers to acts in which Black girls read, write, speak, move, and create to affirm themselves, their world, and the multidimensionality of being young, Black, and

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female” (Muhammad and Haddix 2016, 299–336). It is critical to include this literacy in the study given the fact that my focus is on Black middle school girls. Often, literacies besides foundational literacy are left under examined leaving deficits in alternative literacies that affect language, confidence, expression, identity, and navigating other layers in the lives of Black girl adolescents. This book takes into account literacies that may be underexamined and specifically focuses on foundational, digital, and Black girls’ literacies. The concept of the study is concerned with how Black girls develop, employ, and perceive appropriate literacies skills by participation in dramatic art classes. The book also explores how the development and employment of these three literacies help Black girls combat discrimination and oppression, while advocating for justice. In the following sections, I explain the three literacies that were examined in the study. The Foundation of Language Foundational literacy is the framework where other literacies can be strengthened. Foundational literacy is traditionally known as reading, writing, and meaning-making skills gained in the early years and are used as building blocks upon which other skills can develop (Pietila 2017). This is the “foundation” of how other literacies can be created, developed, and implemented. This is what students in the United States are conditioned to learn from the time they begin speaking and reading. Therefore, “students need to understand the importance of reading and writing as direction to be motivated to excel in their other literacies development” (Brown 2014, 35–49). “It is through active engagement in the reading and writing processes where children learn ways to use their growing knowledge and skills fluidly and in combination with all domains of development in their lives” (Brown 2014, 35–49). It is important to understand that reading and writing build upon a wide range of developing skills and is an ongoing process. Consequently, with solid foundational skills in place, students will develop and flourish in other areas impacted by their language use and development. Given the basis of foundational literacy, it is essential to discuss and dissect a core component: reading. For nearly a decade, the reading scores of eighth-grade students in the United States have been stagnant or have dropped, particularly in large city urban school districts, which show achievement scores below state and national averages (National Assessment of Educational Progress 2017). Additionally, the 2015 Program for International Assessment (PISA) data on reading outcomes showed the average scores of fifteen-year-olds in the United States well below the same age students in countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Poland, Finland, and Canada (National Center for Educational Statistics 2015). The data also revealed

Setting the Stage

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that the state average achievement score for North Carolina is lower than the overall U.S. average achievement score (National Center for Educational Statistics 2015). Subsequently, in some states, particularly in the southeast, like North Carolina, the average reading scores of students in eighth-grade public city schools in urban areas trend at less than proficient levels (National Assessment of Educational Progress 2017). I am sharing the data from North Carolina in addition to the national and international statistics so that you can see the comparison of reading scores for students in the same grades and same age ranges around the world. Moreover, my study was conducted at a school in Charlotte, North Carolina, with students that fall within the researched grade and age data provided. Going even further, when studying these scores more deeply, “Black girls in eighth grade have significantly lower reading scores than White, Hispanic, Asian, and Pacific Island girls, as well as White and Asian boys, as presented from results analyzed from 2011 to 2017” (Nation’s Report Card, n.d.). Consequently, middle school Black girls’ foundational literacy is lagging in comparison with their domestic and international peers. The Digital Era Digital literacy encompasses the literate use of devices like smartphones, tablets, and laptops, as well as being able to use these devices to achieve a variety of goals (Pietila 2017). It is also a way of expressing knowledge using language, images, sound, and multimedia through digital platforms (Hobbs 2017). Digital literacy is a broad spectrum, therefore in this study, digital literacy will pertain specifically to social media platforms and usage. In our current technological society, middle school is around the period that students spend considerable time on social media platforms. In fact, according to Common Sense Research, thirteen- to seventeen-year-old youth reported their heavy use of social media helped them feel more popular and confident, and less anxious and depressed (Common Sense Research 2018). It should be noted that many middle schoolers indicate that Instagram, SnapChat, and YouTube are their most used social media sites. Although they may utilize social media sites frequently, they expressed their concerns about negative social media activity due to inappropriate postings, getting hacked, getting their feelings hurt, lack of privacy, inappropriate pictures, bullying, negativity, and stalkers (Martin et al. 2018, 213–24). Additionally, data reveals that girls use social media platforms more than boys, and the level of usage correlates with mental health (Common Sense Research 2018). At age fifteen, 43 percent of girls in the United States were using social media at least an hour per day versus 31 percent of boys, and girls reported more social and emotional difficulties as they aged compared to boys (Common Sense Research

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2018). When social media activity becomes excessive and negative, it is detrimental to the health of the user. In this scenario, it seems to be mostly girls. The data did not reveal the percentage of girls that were Black or other races. However, Black girls contend with more social and emotional anxiety in their daily lives partly through their activity and immersion on social media platforms. Their levels of anxiety vary based on the types and meanings of social media posts that may target their gender and/or race. According to Sealey-Ruiz, it is vital to examine the usage and type of social media engagement from middle school girls to understand the impact on their lives (SealeyRuiz 2016, 290–98). This phenomenon will help uncover if the participation of drama strategies impacts the ways that Black middle school girls adjust their behaviors, words, and posts on social media. The Multidimensionality of Black Girls Black girls’ literacy is an instructional practice that becomes a space for resistance and for Black girls’ educational excellence that prepares them to be successful in life (Sealey-Ruiz 2016, 290–98). Although I include this literacy in my study as one of the three underexamined literacies, it is also a framework and approach that can be used in the classroom to exemplify how educators can make changes to enhance the literacies of Black girls (Sealey-Ruiz 2016, 290–98). Educators in schools across the nation should be concerned about the notion of Black girls feeling invisible, feeling voiceless, or acting out of character through their language and actions. Few efforts have explicitly focused on African American girls, whose unique struggles are often conflated with the experiences of Black males or White females (Evans-Winters 2010, 263–77). It is crucial to examine this ongoing national problem concerning the traditionally underexamined literacies of Black girls and explore alternative methods and pedagogy to address academic and social issues. What better way to research and fine-tune methods that actually work for Black teenage girls? Scholars have called for the need to center Black girls in literacy research by speaking to the invisibility, mistreatment, and dehumanization of girls in schools, classrooms, public media, and research literature (Evans-Winters 2005; Muhammad and Haddix 2016, 299–336). I conducted my study using drama as the art form to actually center Black urban middle school girls in literacy. It is imperative that educators and researchers deeply examine the varied literacies development of Black girls. Sealey-Ruiz (2016, 290–98) contends that Black girls draw on their critical literacies skills by reading, writing, and speaking about their individual and collective experiences. This concept aligns well with my study that explored how drama impacts what and how Black girls read, write, speak, and address social and racial issues.

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EXPLAINING THE ARTS Arts in education and arts integration are solution-focused concepts used to enhance Black girls’ multiple literacies in urban middle schools. Research has shown that integrating the arts has been associated with improved literacy skills (Bransford and Schwartz 1999, 61–100; Martins and Popkewitz 2015, 7–17). “The arts can open pathways toward understanding the richness of people and cultures and foster a sense of being” (Bucheli et al. 1991, 25–26), yet scholars posit that “the absence of the arts can hinder achievement” (Chappell and Cahnmann-Taylor 2013, 243–68; Charland 2011, 1–17; McDermott et al. 2017, 27–33). This study explores dramatic art as the art form to open the pathway toward understanding. Arts Education Arts education is vital for developing academic skills and concepts, not only aesthetic or performance pieces. Incorporating the visual and performing arts into middle school curriculum encourages balance, engagement, and strategy transfer to develop language use, language skills and increase reading comprehension (Chappell and Faltis 2013; McDermott et al. 2017, 27–33). It was important for us to understand the definition of arts education at the onset of this study. Arts education refers to learning, instruction, and programming based upon the visual and tangible arts, including performing arts like dance, music, drama, and theater, as well as visual arts like drawing, painting, sculpture, and design works (US Legal, n.d.). This book focuses specifically on dramatic arts in education. Dramatic Arts According to Edell, one strategy for girls to reclaim public spaces is for them to intentionally craft and perform the stories they want to express, allowing them to claim and own physical spaces for themselves, to offer their voices and write original narratives based on their own experiences (Edell 2018, 211–24). The message behind this research leads us to believe that practicing drama or theater produces great benefits to the lives of girls. Edell’s research goes on to explore the underserved Black and Latina girls of color and how performance and theater can become a safe place for these girls to share sensitive stories. Essentially, share detailed experiences that they might not be able to share in other spaces in their lives. This is similar to the vision that Ms. Gomez, the drama teacher at Stonybrook School, had for her students. She wanted them to have an appreciation for the arts, particularly drama, where

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they can learn essential life skills. She also wanted them to feel comfortable in her classroom “safe space” to be able to express themselves in whatever way they see fit in the real world. Practicing dramatic art (drama) can be in the form of a play that can be performed for theater, radio, or even television, and can also be known as a composition in verse or prose intended to portray life, a character, or to tell a story usually involving conflicts and emotions through action and dialogue. Understanding drama is vital to appreciate the purpose of this study fully. Drama practices and activities such as Forum Theater, Image Theater, Narration, Improvisation, Miming, Controlled Breathing, Fourth Wall, and Storytelling, among other techniques, may be used with Black girls for their development of foundational, digital, and Black girls’ literacies. Figure 2.1 below shows the relationship between drama and foundational, digital, and Black girls’ literacies. Drama is at the center of the literacies where Black girls engage in practices and strategies that support how they navigate their reading, writing, speaking, language, social media usage and activity, and their identity being Black and girls. The cyclical model depicts that the Black urban middle school girl employs this framework with drama as the central core of practicing strategies that she utilizes to examine and perfect any of the three literacies, at any time. The idea is not that one literacy reaches .

Figure 2.1. Explaining Literacies. By the author.

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excellence prior to building upon another before the Black girl can move on to reach excellence of another literacy, but that they function intermittently and simultaneously. This process is providing skill development and growth for urban Black middle school girls. Additionally, intertwined within the model concept is the act of social justice. EXPLAINING SOCIAL JUSTICE After reviewing and understanding the meaning of the three underexamined literacies as stated above, it is vitally important to understand the connection that practicing drama has with social justice. This connection has been explored and explained for decades, maybe longer. In fact, in his seminal work, Boal described the theater as a weapon for liberation and change. Initially, Boal argued that theater is political and oppressive, which is where he studied further and formed a new concept on theater toward liberation and change in his work Theater of the Oppressed (Boal 1985). In contrast, Gallagher used “critical ethnography, feminist, and poststructuralist approaches to produce research on theater’s role in urban education. Gallagher focuses on cultural and academic conflict in large urban schools—schools that often label their students as ‘at-risk,’ uses theater and drama education as a source or outlet to better understand conflict, difference, and culture (Gallagher 2007, 12). Conflating intellectual ideals, both Gallagher and Boal have contexts that are linked to social justice and challenging unjust practices and devise collective strategies for change. The philosophical concepts of both Boal and Gallagher lay a foundation for exploring drama and its alignment with expression, identity, confidence, and advocacy or social justice. I connect their combined foundation to my study in the domain specific to Black urban middle school girls, guided by the “CRAE framework, which encompasses social justice through art” (Hanley and Bell 2013). The concept of social justice through the arts, in this book, dramatic arts, also creates space for teachers to offer discussion and their own perceptions about curriculum, pedagogy, and reality of Black middle school girls navigating education and life. I am especially reminded about this concept when I hear a statement that the Black woman drama teacher, Ms. Gomez, said to me during the interview process. She said, “I want them to feel comfortable within themselves, enough to express themselves in whatever way they see fit.”

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CHAPTER SUMMARY Often, we are not aware of how to define terms that we use in research, education, and the arts. This can lead to confusion, miscommunication, or even stagnancy on moving forward with work that can benefit students; particularly Black girls in urban schools. You may not agree with each term, concept, or explanation that I have provided, but these are the definitions and explanations that I have chosen to use for my study and this book. I encourage you to process these words as you continue to read the book.

Chapter Three

A Description of the Study

“I learned how to control my temper, learned how to control myself, like, do my breathing technique and all that other stuff to be more confident” —Bobo

I learned as a doctoral student at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte that conducting an original study required methods and a methodology. Although this section is not a traditional methods and methodology section, it does lay out how I had access to participants, data, and other information that is pertinent to this story. I had to clearly understand the difference between the methods and methodology terms before moving ahead with collecting data. I learned that research methods consist of what one does to collect information that will then be analyzed. Examples of this are using systems such as surveys, interviews, focus groups, and other options for qualitative methods of data collection. Additionally, I learned about quantitative methods of data through numerical instruments and formulas to evaluate data from the number of steps involved the process of collecting it. This is what is called the methodology. Research methodology refers to the philosophy behind the chosen research ideology employed to do the methods. Both methodology and methods will be briefly discussed in this chapter to help explain how I gathered the important information for this book. CHOOSING A PROCESS I make the assumption that one conducts research using particular methods that will best answer the research questions of interest. If a researcher wants to know why something happens or is interested in the happenings of a particular phenomenon, it is most suitable to ask questions in interviews, surveys, and other personal formats. Consequently, a statistical approach will 27

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not provide the answers to those particular “why” questions. Instead, they tell the numerical percentages that exist. Numerical methods are beneficial if we want to understand relationships, differences, and comparisons. To learn the answers to the questions that I had about the influence that drama participation has on underexamined literacies of Black girls in an urban middle school, I needed and wanted to conduct a qualitative study. I needed to know what was happening with the study participants when they used drama strategies to deal with certain situations in life. I needed to know why certain things happened as the study participants engaged in community through language, in person, and digitally. Lastly, I wanted to know why the participants felt the way they did. I needed to hear and understand personal stories from the study participants. Since I understood the type of information that I needed to help answer the research questions, I knew that I needed to conduct a qualitative study. It seems that I have embraced qualitative research because I want to hear and know the personal connections about the subject from the participants. Through my prior research and while conducting this study, I have gained a love and appreciation for qualitative research. Hearing specific stories from the study participants allowed me to develop narratives that were unique and special to them. Their voices and important circumstances contribute to the research and the content of this book. Qualitative, Interpretive Research This book represents a qualitative, interpretive approach to studying the challenges that Black middle school girls have in dealing with language, including spoken, written, and displayed on social media; identity as a Black teenage girl or woman in an urban school; and navigating a racially charged society. Discrimination and oppression often reveal themselves as dominant forces invading the lives of Black girls where they often are challenged with how to combat those forces, as well as how to initiate acts of social justice. Below, I discuss the purpose of qualitative research as I share the methods that I used for the study to write this book. By utilizing a qualitative research approach, this study investigates the role drama may hold on influencing certain literacies of Black girls in an urban middle school as an effort to explore how drama practices may serve as liberation with those literacies. Creswell (2013) outlined specific verification procedures that can enhance the credibility of qualitative research such as, persistent observation, triangulation, peer review, prolonged engagement, clarification of researcher bias, member checking, reflexivity, and rich, thick descriptions. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore and investigate experiences of Black girls in an urban middle school who participate in drama classes and how drama influences these underexamined literacies

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(foundational, digital, and Black girls’ literacies). It was important for me to study if the Black girls’ participation in drama classes helped the girls develop strategies conveyed through written and spoken language, expression, underlying voice, and behaviors that helped them navigate deeper layers of discrimination and oppression. I embraced the fact that the experiences that the Black middle school girls face may happen inside and outside of school settings. Additionally, during the interview sessions with the girls, my observations homed in on their physical and verbal reactions to their experiences as told by them. Research Design Research for this study was conducted using a qualitative case study design. “Case study is used to develop an in-depth understanding of a single case or explore an issue or problem using the case as an illustration (Creswell 2013; Yin 2014). Creswell contends that “case study research is an approach where the investigator explores a real-life bounded system or multiple systems defined as the case/s (Creswell 2013). This approach involves detailed data collection involving multiple sources of information (e.g., interviews, audiovisual material, documents, reports, focus groups). Constructing a case study protocol is important for the validity of the study. I opted to use the qualitative case study protocol as defined by Ponelis (2015, 535–50) that entails (1) deciding the unit of analysis; (2) selecting the case; (3) deciding the number of cases; (4) determining the data collection techniques and procedures; (5) collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data; and (6) writing a report. Case study research begins with identifying a specific case that may be defined as an individual, a small group, a relationship, a project, or even a decision process (Yin 2014). This research design was chosen for my study for the sake of looking at subunits that were situated within a larger case to analyze data within the subunits separately (within case analysis), between the different subunits (between case analysis), or across all of the subunits (cross-case analysis) (Baxter and Jack 2008, 544). I chose case study to explore the whole case (a group of five study participants) consisting of multiple individual cases (each of the five individuals within the group). Each participant was considered an individual case within a larger unit as one whole case. In other words, the drama teacher and four Black girls in the drama class were individual cases within the larger unit or group as a whole. I chose this design so that I could fine-tune my study with just that group and not spend time collecting data on the entire drama classroom of students that may not be pertinent to the study. This case was bounded in that the participants under study met specific criteria for the case.

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Once the case was fully developed, I was able to move forward with getting to know each participant at a deeper level. There were four Black middle school girls enrolled in the drama class, as well as the Black woman as their teacher. Case study methodology can be particularistic and descriptive as it focuses on a particular group, illustrates the complexity of the situation, and can explain the reasons behind a problem or question (Harreveld et al. 2016; Merriam 2019). The data collected allowed me to interpret and theorize about the phenomenon under investigation. My goal was for this particular study to be informed by participant interviews, a focus group, a short writing prompt, as well as study the existing literature in the field. In essence, as a non-participant/observer/researcher, I did not participate in any class instruction or writing samples, yet I interviewed the sample population, observed how they responded to the questions, and observed their interaction with classmates and their teacher while they participated in the entire study. The “study sample size of five participants was chosen to provide ample opportunity to identify themes of the cases and conduct cross-case theme analysis due to the small group size. This design allowed for individual case descriptions and themes within the case as well as the emergence of different perspectives within the case (Creswell 2013). This description of a case study fits best with my desire to uncover information and facilitate the exploration of the influence of drama participation on traditionally underexamined literacies of urban middle school Black girls. I thought about two overarching questions to help guide my research and the types of interview questions that I would ask the study participants. The two overarching questions were as follows: RQ1. What are the experiences of urban middle school Black girls who participate in drama classes in relation to their language, identity, and social media engagement? RQ2. What role does the drama teacher play with urban middle school Black girls who participate in drama classes as they address language, identity, and social media engagement?

Now, I could spend time designing specific interview questions for the girls and the teacher to get more detailed information. In fact, interview questions, focus group questions, and a writing prompt were designed for the study participants to answer in order to uncover personal information about circumstances and actions that took place in each of their lives. Although quantitative researchers try to disassociate themselves from the research process as much as possible through the use of rigorous scientific methods, qualitative researchers acknowledge and sometimes embrace their involvement and role within the research. We recognize that our daily lived experiences impact how we interpret information and present ourselves. We

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know that we bring our experiences to what we research. As researchers, we know that we are physically the tool to collect and interpret data and cannot completely disassociate ourselves from the process. In research, this human involvement is best associated with the term subjectivity. “Subjectivity is defined as the notion of lived experience in its historical, political and physical contexts since researchers are the instrument for data collection and interpretation” (Schwandt 2007, 400–403). Earlier in this book, I shared my positionality and how my subjectivity may be present throughout my research. This is an example of the ways that the researcher impacts the research, or how data may impact the analysis of the researcher. While I was a graduate student, I connected with qualitative research because I found it very important to hear the voices and the stories of the participants under study. Later in this book, you will read the participants’ narratives categorized in themes that were created from the analyzed data results of the qualitative interview questions, focus group questions, and writing prompt questions. Next, I want to give you a little more detail on the research processes that I used for the study. RESEARCH METHODS At Stonybrook School I chose the sample population for the case study to include four Black middle school girls and one Black woman drama teacher. It turns out that the girls selected to participate in the study were in seventh and eighth grades and all identified as Black. The drama teacher identified as a Black woman. Due to the nature of the research questions under investigation, these participants were selected for the study because their participation was central to addressing the research questions that guided this study. This is called purposive sampling. Purposive sampling boasts of having specific criteria that participants must meet in order to be selected to participate in a study. It also aligns with and is central to answering the research questions for a study. The purposive sampling criteria used for this study included the following: 1.  Identify as a Black, African American, or African 2.  Identify as girl or woman 3.  Be enrolled in Stonybrook School’s drama class 4.  Be enrolled in the sixth, seventh, or eighth grades (middle adolescence) 5.  Be employed as the drama teacher for the middle school drama classes at Stonybrook School (adults only) This technique resulted in a sample of five participants for my study. I worked with the teacher to purposively select students that met the criteria and would feel comfortable answering questions, sharing information, and

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who have also participated in drama classes long enough to have learned strategies and techniques through the teacher’s instruction. Once a group of students that were interested in participating were identified and met the study criteria, they had to provide assent and signed consent forms from their parents or guardians in order to participate being that they were all under legal adult age. Following Creswell’s case study guidelines, we settled with four students. None of the participants specified if their girl identity was other than cis gendered. The teacher also met the purposive sampling criteria and agreed to participate in the study. Once the study group was solidified, interviews took place in person. Each participant met with me individually, and the entire group met with me in person for the focus group session as I took on the role of facilitator. BUILDING RAPPORT Although I did not initially know any of the students or the teacher at Stonybrook School who were selected for this case study, I knew that I needed to build some type of rapport since I wanted to collect personal data from each of them. To strengthen rapport and facilitate honest communication, I ensured confidentiality during this entire process. I needed these girls and the teacher to feel comfortable and vulnerable enough to share their personal experiences with me. I needed to be welcoming, open to share information, and somewhat vulnerable with them in order to get the group to trust me as an outsider. There are several points that I thought would be beneficial in aiding me to build rapport with that group. I openly shared my positionality with the participants and why I was in their space asking them personal questions. I shared that I identify as a Black woman, fiber artist, educator, and lover of drama and theater. I shared that I grew up in an urban city and attended an urban middle school similar to their own. Each of these points helped to spark conversations lending to understanding in order to lower guarded walls and build trust. I really wanted them to trust me, and I had to earn it. I also knew that the setting for conversations needed to be in a space that the participants were familiar with and where they felt comfortable speaking freely. Equally important was how I needed to provide comfort to the teacher first. As an adult, my conversations with her could be very candid on why I was conducting the study and what my positionality was to their situation. These are good examples of how the researcher and research are subjectively intertwined, yet that scenario allowed for me to create rapport through our lived experiences and intersectionality. Initially, I had a phone conversation and in-person meeting with the drama teacher in order for me to start building a trusting relationship. I was open and frank with her about my intent. I also desired to understand her education

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approach, drama curriculum, pedagogy, and intent for her class in order to understand that drama teacher’s vision for her students; especially her Black girl students. As a researcher, I wanted to gain a better understanding from the teacher of the specific activities, techniques, and settings within the drama classes, as well as expectations, and philosophy on culturally relevant teaching and multicultural education that she employs with her students. I wanted to understand her beliefs, perceptions, and the role she plays with drama’s influence on the literacies of her Black girl students. However, prior to collecting actual data from the teacher and other study participants, I had light-hearted conversations with participants as an effort to get to know them better and ease any tension or fear they may have of sharing information with me. I asked many “get to know you” questions and shared personal information about myself. I cannot express enough how much I needed them to trust me. Ironically, I may have been almost as nervous as the participants being interviewed, and our nervous reasons may have been similar. To start, acceptance for who we are was at the forefront. After breaking the ice with the participants, I invited each person to create an alias name which I used throughout our discussions together. This helps ensure that they can trust that their true identities will not be revealed in hopes that they would feel free to speak openly. To strengthen rapport, I spoke with each participant about confidentiality. It was important that they knew their information and that their identities were private. I shared that I would use their alias in any written or verbal discussions about the experiences they shared with me, which allowed more trust for them to speak with confidence knowing that their stories could not be traced back to them. GETTING BETTER ACQUAINTED Knowing that I wanted to conduct a qualitative case study, I knew that I needed to use data collection methods that allowed me to gather the appropriate data. As such, the following information outlines the types of data that were collected during my study. Qualitative Interviews Qualitative participant interviews were central to this study. One instrument for this study was semi-structured face-to-face interviews, which enabled planned focused conversation in order for me to find out detailed and more in-depth information about each individual than casual conversation. I have included the student and teacher interview protocols below in figure 3.1 and figure 3.2. Additionally, the use of semi-structured interview (SSI) provided

Figure 3.1. Interview Protocol for Black Girls. By the author.

SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEW PROTOCOL FOR BLACK GIRL STUDENTS Date: Demographics/Warm-up 1.  What is your first name? 2.  What grade are you in? 3.  How do you identify your gender? 4.  How do you identify your race? 5.  How long have you been in drama classes? 6.  Tell me a little about what you do in the drama class 7.  What has been your experience participating in the drama class with students of other races and genders? Experiences with foundational literacy through drama 1.  What activities have you practiced in drama class that have helped with expressing yourself through writing? 2.  How has participation in the drama class impacted how you speak? 3.  Tell me about a time in drama class where you learned how to use your body to express what you want to say. 4.  From your experiences, how does practicing drama influence what you read or write? Experiences with digital literacy through drama 1.  Let’s shift the conversation a little. Please share with me any social media platforms that you use. 2.  How much time do you spend on social media each day? 3.  Tell me how you express yourself through your posts or comments on social media platforms. 4.  Share an example of a post on social media where you acted out of character. 5.  Have you ever felt unsafe while using social media? If so, what was that like? 6.  Please tell me how using social media may help you feel empowered? 7.  From your experiences, does practicing drama influence what you post on social media? 8.  Tell me about a technique that you practiced in drama class that may influence what you post in text messages or on social media.

Experiences with Black girls’ literacy through drama 1.  What strategies or activities practiced in your drama class helped you express how you feel about your race or culture? 2.  Tell me about a time when you felt oppressed. 3.  In your opinion, can practicing drama be used to challenge oppression and fight for social justice? 4.  Please explain how participating in drama classes helps you feel empowered. 5.  Please explain how your participation in the drama class has an impact on how you feel about yourself as a Black girl. 6.  Please share with me an experience that you had in drama class that made you feel empowered as a Black/African American girl. 7.  Please share with me if participating in drama class helps you feel confident about being African American/Black. 8.  Please share with me if participating in drama class helps you feel confident about being a girl. Students’ understanding of the influence of drama/Wrap-up 1.  Based on your participation in the drama class, how do you believe the strategies that you are learning and the experiences that you are having will help you in the future with how you express yourself and communicate? 2.  What activities or strategies have you learned in the drama class that are your most favorite? Wrap-up 1.  Please share any additional information that you would like for me to know about your participation in the drama class and how it shapes you as a Black girl in middle school. Figure 3.2. Interview Protocol for Drama Teacher. By the author.

SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEW PROTOCOL FOR DRAMA TEACHER Date: Demographics/Warm-up • What is your first name? • Tell me a little bit about yourself and how you came to teaching drama in middle school. • Explain what you enjoy the most about teaching drama.

Culturally relevant arts education through drama • • • • • •

What are your beliefs on arts integration or arts education? What is your level of familiarity with culturally relevant teaching? What is your level of familiarity with culturally relevant arts education? Would you say that drama strategies align with social justice? What drama strategies would you use to explore challenging oppression? • How could drama strategies be transferred to support social justice issues? Perceptions of drama influence on Black girls • What influence, if any, does drama have on the literacies (foundational, digital, Black girls’) of Black girls? (Allow me to define these literacies first). • Would you say that drama connects with self-expression? • How would you explain the participation of Black girls in the drama class having any impact on how they feel about themselves as Black girls? • Are you aware of any of the Black girls using the strategies that they are practicing in class for combating oppression from race and gender inequality? • Tell me about a strategy that you use in class that may help Black girls with expressing themselves in writing or through body language. • Please explain how drama strategies can assist Black girls with how they express themselves on social media platforms? • Are you aware of any of the Black girls using the strategies that they are practicing in class for expression on social media? Black girls in co-ed, multi-racial drama class • Please share how you teach cultural relevance through drama to a mixed-race and mixed-gender class. • Do you see the Black girls in class using the strategies to overcome race or gender inequality? • Can you explain how any strategies that you use in the class deal with race, culture, or identity? • Tell me about a strategy that you use in class that may help students with their exploring cultural reading and/or writing. • Please share your beliefs on how drama teachers may use culturally relevant arts education as a form of social justice. • Please share any additional information that you would like me to know about the drama class.

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data on the participants’ attitudes, perceptions, and experiences, which was crucial for this study. The SSI was designed to ascertain subjective responses from selected participants regarding particular situations they have experienced using a detailed interview guide (Creswell 2013; McIntosh and Morse 2015). Essentially, SSI allows each participant to hear the same questions in roughly the same way but allows the researcher the freedom to probe with follow-up questions at any time. I created these lists of questions to ask the participants before the interviews began. I used the same initial questions for each student participant and allowed the conversation to flow naturally during the interview process. I used a different list of questions for the teacher during her interview because I needed to get a different perspective from the teacher. The beauty of using the SSI process is that it allows me the freedom to ask questions out of order or insert new questions when I feel they are necessary for the conversation and to get more information about a particular topic or train of thought. The interviews with the girls lasted between thirty to fortyfive minutes and about sixty minutes for the teacher. Under some circumstances, that time frame may be questioned for validity. However, attempting to research students in public schools has become increasingly challenging. I was given direct instruction by the principal/superintendent of the school guiding me on the amount of time that I could pull the students from classes, how much time I could spend conducting the study at the school, as well as instructions on not being alone with the students while I interviewed them. The principal was protecting the students that she had full responsibility for while they were in the learning environment that she governed. Of course, I followed all of the directives. I practiced my strategy of being kind and relatable, while keenly gathering information from all of the participants. Interestingly, as I sat across the table from each of the Black girls during each interview, I could not help but wonder what they were feeling, thinking, and believing as they looked at me from the other side of the table. Just looking at the expressions on their faces and processing the way they framed their answers did not seem quite enough at the time. But I pressed on. As our conversations became more in-depth, I noticed each girl became more comfortable in her sharing more personal information, even the shy ones. I slowly witnessed smiles spreading across faces and more relaxed body positioning in their seats. I felt like I was making progress. Finally, after all the individual interviews were completed, I conducted the focus group. FOCUS GROUP I found it imperative to get the group of middle school girls and their teacher together for a group discussion so that I could gather additional data within the entire unit for my case study. I chose to conduct a focus group (FG) with

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all of the study participants after they all completed their individual interviews with me. I did not want any of the participants’ thinking to be swayed in their individual interviews if they had heard the thoughts and ideas discussed in the FG first. For that reason, the FG was conducted after the individual interviews. The FG session lasted a little over an hour. A focus group (FG) interview as a data collection method not only relies on question-and-answer format of interviews but also relies on the interaction within the group and is led by a moderator (Creswell 2013). Using a focus group as a qualitative research strategy would be appropriate when the researcher is interested in how individuals form a perspective of a problem (Bostan 2015, 1444–50), and it would add meaning and understanding to existing knowledge. As the moderator for the FG technique, I collected data using an interview protocol (See figure 3.3) that helped identify the experiences of the Black girls and the drama teacher to complement the data that I had previously collected during their individual interviews. This helps give me an even better understanding of their way of thinking and way of expressing their personal stories. We met as a group in a small conference room where some of the individual interviews were conducted. The girls were noticeably very familiar and Figure 3.3. Focus Group Protocol. By the author.

FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTIONS PROTOCOL Probe Questions: 1.  How have you learned how to apply the things that you practice in drama class to your everyday life? Follow-up Questions: 1.  Have drama strategies and techniques helped you deal with feelings of discrimination or oppressions? If so, how? 2.  What are your favorite drama strategies to use when trying to manage feelings or emotions? 3.  How often do you use drama techniques and strategies when you speak in conversations? 4.  How often do you use drama techniques and strategies when you post on social media? Exit Question: • Is there anything else that you would like to say about the influence that practicing drama may have on how you speak, what you say, what you post on social media, or how you navigate being a Black girl?

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comfortable with that room. They had favorite chairs they sat in and enjoyed swiveling in the chairs as they talked. During the focus group I noticed that the girls were able to hear a response to a question from one of their peers and were able to agree or disagree with the response in order to express their own perspectives. Naturally, animated full conversations began to flourish among the group members instead of the earlier one-word answers to the questions that I posed. I enjoyed watching them converse and interact with each other during the session. They seemed to enjoy each other’s company and conversation as they learned new and interesting things about their peers and sometimes their own thinking about a topic. This allowed me to use new data to prove deeper points in alignment with answering the research questions. Furthermore, focus groups can be used when making a case for data triangulation as a means for demonstrating validity, often used in conjunction with other qualitative methods like in-depth interviews (Nel et al. 2015, 35; Wilson 1997, 209–24). As a researcher, I learned that when conducting qualitative research studies, it is important to demonstrate validity of the data. There are three types of questions used in FGs: probing, follow-up, and exit questions. For this research study, the FG session included two components: focus group interview questions and a writing prompt. Although some researchers recommend a minimum of three to four focus group meetings for simple research topics (Burrows and Kendall 1997, 244–53; Nel et al. 2015, 35) for a duration of one to two hours, that process may differ when the group consists of younger participants such as school-age children (Gibson 2012, 148–59; Heary and Hennessy 2002, 47–57) because students tend to have shorter attention spans and will begin to lose focus and interest in the topic quicker than adults. Additionally, I did not want the student participants to miss lots of instructional class time just to participate in multiple focus group sessions with me. I promised the students, teacher, and principal that I would be minimally invasive of the student’s academic time while conducting my research. I wanted to utilize the time wisely to focus on the benefits of conducting the FG. I reiterate, the benefit of hosting the FG session was that I was able to probe for additional details through active listening. Active listening in qualitative research involves listening beyond the usual sense of hearing. It requires that the researcher use all of the senses, including intuition, to process the situation. I must admit, the FG experience was quite informative and a necessary piece of the puzzle. WRITING PROMPT During the focus group, each girl was asked to engage in a fun activity of answering a timed three-minute writing prompt related to what they learned

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in drama classes and how they use those skills to react to negative messages on social media. The teacher answered a separate writing prompt asking her to share how she would react as a drama teacher when dealing with an issue of a Black girl from her class who felt disrespected or oppressed by a situation that happened to the student inside or outside of school. The students and the teacher were given three minutes to answer the writing prompts (see figure 3.4) on a piece of paper that I provided to them. I encouraged them to be as creative as they wanted in their responses. Surprisingly, I received a short poem, direct answers, and a picture from the members of the group as their ways of expressing how they would react to certain racially challenging or oppressive situations. At the end of the FG, when the three minutes were up, we regrouped and had more discussions about how the girls navigate life using strategies that they learned in drama class. Afterwards, I had plenty of data to use for the study. Figure 3.4. Writing Prompt. By the author.

WRITING PROMPTS: 3 MINUTES TIMED Students: You are on a popular social media site and run across a post that negatively depicts Black girls as loud, rude, not smart, and unattractive. You see your friends and others reposting and making comments both for and against the negative post. You think about techniques that you have learned in drama class. How do you express yourself after seeing the post? What are your next steps? Teacher: You are teaching a group of students in a drama class and one of the Black girl students is not in a good mood because she experienced disrespect as a Black girl by someone inside or outside of school or on social media. Her behaviors in class were uncharacteristic of her and out of line, altering her language, tone, expression (body, facial, etc.), and interaction with other students. Your next teaching instruction for the drama class to assists this student in dealing with racial disrespect or oppression is . . .

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A NARRATIVE APPROACH My intention with the semi-structured interview process and focus group activities was to create a narrative approach after hearing the participant’s personal stories. This approach allows each participant to tell her own story representing the context with integrity. It allows the participants to talk about past events and experiences that have occurred to them and how those experiences shape their circumstances and who they are becoming. Subsequently, this approach allows listeners or future readers to enter into the world of the storyteller. Therefore, I sought to learn whether drama had any influence on three underexamined literacies of Black girls enrolled in a particular urban middle school in Charlotte with the purpose of hearing their stories. Through this approach, the participants were able to elaborate on their experiences of being Black and girls, using language in person and on social media, and how certain drama strategies have given them ammunition to combat some negative experiences. During the time that I spent with them, the Black girls were able to explain incidents that have happened to them, how it made them feel, and how they dealt with certain situations by using drama strategies that they learned in drama class. Ideally, you will see the strength of the girls as their narratives are centered on solutions that bring them strength, confidence, peace, and growth in how they present themselves to the world. They use ingenuity incorporating strategies learned in drama class to make changes that affect their growth (Hines and Menefee 2022). In essence, “narratives are a way of making sense of information by providing space for participants to acknowledge their stories” (Hollander and Gordon 2006, 183–212). As a researcher, I want to acknowledge and highlight their experiences through their stories. The participants’ narratives were audio recorded to ensure accuracy of the information that I collected. During the sessions, I used a digital hand-held recording device for each interview and for the focus group session. The recordings were verified by listening to each recording two or three times while reading along with the transcribed words. It was very important for me to not only hear each word accurately but to understand the meaning of and intended emotion of each piece of content. I used NVivo software to devise patterns, themes, and codes for analyzing the data. Each of these steps serves an important role to produce valid data to authentically capture the stories that each participant shared with me. Methods of Data Analysis: Thematic Analysis Inductive thematic analysis was used to identify recurring patterns within the dataset. Thematic analysis is a method for identifying, analyzing, organizing,

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describing, and reporting themes found within a data set (Braun and Clarke 2006, 77–101; Smedley and Coulson 2017, 1688–93). For my study, “simultaneous data collection and analysis of the drama teacher and Black girls’ perceptions and experiences were used to allow me to shape the study as it proceeded (Glesne 2016; Holloway and Todres 2003, 345–57). I adopted the technique of organizing data as it was collected and then organizing it into emerging concepts or themes, which helped me achieve concurrent data collection and analysis. Braun and Clarke’s “thematic analysis process was employed during the examination of my data to identify and code narrative themes. There are six steps to Braun and Clarke’s thematic analysis process that I followed. (1) familiarize myself with the data; (2) generate initial codes; (3) search for themes; (4) review the themes; (5) define and name the themes; and (6) produce a report” (Braun and Clarke 2006, 77–101). I followed each of the steps, giving me a feeling of organization and less chaos with the data as I navigated the analysis process. I am sharing this process so that readers will be able to understand better the Black girl’s narratives in the future chapters of this book. Specific coding techniques helped me code all the data by really hearing and taking to heart every little thing that the Black girls and their teacher said. In fact, “In Vivo coding, one of the techniques used, has been labeled ‘literal coding,’ ‘verbatim coding,’ and ‘inductive coding’ (Saldaña 2021, 236). Descriptive coding was another method used explicitly for the writing prompt artifacts that were obtained during the focus group. “Descriptive coding is a method that assigns basic labels to data to provide an inventory of their topics (Saldaña 2021, 236). I thought this would be the best coding method for the writing prompts. One of the most critical outcomes of qualitative data analysis is interpreting how the individual components of the study weave together. Saldaña posits, “codeweaving is the actual integration of key code words and phrases into narrative form to see how the puzzle pieces fit together” (Saldaña 2013, 276). Codeweaving is the process that I undertook to reach relevant themes by sorting data into themes that were similar and connected words or phrases (Glesne 2016). “Coding enables the researcher to attach labels to segments of data that depict what each segment represents (Charmaz 2006). Finally, I reviewed patterns and themes and refined the data using an iterative process to compare and contrast the perceptions and experiences of the Black middle school girls in drama classes and their teacher, as they relate their perceptions of their literacies. Qualitative researchers face criticism for being subjective during the data analysis process. They are often accused of only finding in the participants narratives that they wanted to see. Managing subjectivity is about managing threats to the validity in qualitative research. Qualitative researchers pay

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special attention to acknowledging their biases and continually address them throughout the entire research process in order to establish and maintain validity of the research. This belief system and philosophy must be upheld for qualitative research to continue to produce effective data. A common concept that qualitative researchers employ is data triangulation. Next, we need to talk about note taking. Note taking often plays a significant role in qualitative research. Taking notes during or after interviews helped me get my thoughts on paper to be later analyzed. These notes were helpful for narrative analysis and supported the analysis process. The multiple sources of data collection methods in my methodology used for consistency within the overall data were semi-structured interviews and a focus group that included short writing samples from the participants. This encourages “data triangulation which is a method that uses different sources of information to increase the credibility of the study and strengthen the validity by analyzing the topic from multiple perspectives (Creswell 2013; Glesne 2016). The reason the participants were interviewed and observed in a focus group setting was to establish the consistency of the primary source of data, the semi-structured interviews (SSIs) used to conduct this study that supports data triangulation. Reflexivity is an additional method that I employed to strengthen the validity of this study. Conducting a credible qualitative study requires the researcher to intentionally reveal underlying assumptions or biases that may influence data collection and analysis (Enosh and Ben-Ari 2016, 578–84; Mills and Gay 2019). In qualitative studies, the researcher is the primary instrument of data collection and analysis, therefore, it is difficult for the researcher to extract personally held ideas, beliefs, and assumptions. Reflexivity practices are necessary to help minimize bias by developing an awareness of how the research will be conducted, how the researcher will relate to the participants, and how the researcher reports the results (Enosh and Ben-Ari 2016, 578–84; Charmaz 2006). I engaged in reflexivity practices early on, which enabled me to maintain awareness of how my personal ideas and beliefs may have influenced how questions are asked and interpreted, and how I interacted with the participants. As a researcher, I used journaling strategies to ask myself reflexive questions which helped develop a consistent pattern of awareness of potential subjectivity and bias. Rich, thick description is the final strategy that I used to enhance the validity of this study. Rich, thick description refers to the task of providing a detailed description and interpretation of observed behavior within a particular social context (Creswell 2013). The following facets “characterize the rich, thick, description method: (a) description observed social actions, (b) assign intentionality to these actions, (c) capture the thoughts and feelings of participants, (d) describe the relationships between participants, and

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(e) encourage meaningful interpretation of the data (Harreveld et al. 2016; Merriam 2019). Detailed transcriptions of interviews were used to showcase the diverse perspectives of the individual participants, with the goal of equipping myself to create a detailed description of the context of each participant’s experiences. With this in mind, I provided background information when sharing the participants’ accounts of lived experiences in order to enable the reader to come to his or her own conclusions about the validity of the interpretation presented. All of the steps mentioned above helps explain the validity of the study. “Validity is the degree to which qualitative data accurately gauges what the researcher is trying to assess (Creswell 2013; Mills and Gay 2019). A valid study is one that has adequately collected and interpreted its data so that the conclusions represent the real world and participants in the study (Yin 2015). You can now understand how I took specific steps to establish the validity or trustworthiness of the research for this book.

Chapter Four

Guiding Theoretical Framework and Epistemology Culturally Relevant Arts Education and Black Feminist Thought

“As social conditions change, so must the knowledge and practices designed to resist them.” —Patricia Hill Collins

Dr. Mary Stone Hanley, playwright, poet, educator, and scholar, is credited with developing “the Culturally Relevant Arts Education theoretical framework. Hanley, Noblit, Sheppard, and Boron articulate the theory’s main points in the book Culturally Relevant Arts Education for Social Justice: A Way Out of No Way. The framework is presented as a model of Culturally Relevant Arts Education (CRAE) based on intra and interconnections—of learning, creating, disciplines, social power, controversies, theories, models, and experience (Hanley et al. 2013). Hanley and her colleagues explored and shared her personal connection to the theoretical framework in how she expressed CRAE as a synthesis of her life as an artist, an educator, a researcher, an activist, and an African American woman. Learning this is when I formed my deepest connection to the CRAE framework and Dr. Stone Hanley. I am also an artist, educator, researcher, activist, and African American woman. We have similar identifiers, and I can relate to the care and concern she puts into using culturally relevant arts in education and social justice. The CRAE framework also embodies the importance of social justice to recognize the roots of internalized oppression. “Social justice has a long history and has been described as an ‘equitable redistribution of resources’ and as recognition of culture and identity for those who are marginalized and subjugated in society” (Bell and Berry 2007, 21–25). Consequently, Hanley et al. (2013) 45

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explained social justice work as internal and external of self and the world to make meaning of the world. The Influence of Dramatic Arts on Literacies for Black Girls in Middle School examines the foundation to culturally relevant arts education. CRAE is deliberate in focusing the arts on social justice and includes motivating artists and arts participants through a pedagogy that uses their cultural knowledge and experiences as an asset that explores action and critical reflection about the arts, artists, the world, and art’s work in the world (Hanley 2011, 420–44). Hanley et al. also contends that the foundation of this model is imagination and creativity; thus, she expressed that “creativity is empowering; you take risks, test the world, shape media and meaning, and thereby change the world” (Hanley et al. 2013, 3) This statement is powerful and conveys how CRAE outlines and gives direction to pedagogical models that are useful in school settings. A clear understanding of the CRAE framework will allow you to follow along with why I conducted my study and why I chose this framework to ground my study. ALL ABOUT THE CRAE FRAMEWORK The CRAE framework offers six pedagogical models as its tenets, three in the arts and three in the non-arts. The first three in the arts are (1) arts production, (2) arts integration, and (3) aesthetics. Arts production explains that artists or arts participants learn skills to express ideas and emotions through arts media. Secondly, arts integration involves the use of arts blended with other content areas to teach and learn non-arts subjects. The last of the arts pedagogical models is aesthetics, which outlines the experiences and perspectives of the world of arts and artists. Comparatively, the three non-arts pedagogies are (1) multicultural education, (2) critical pedagogy, and (3) Contextual Teaching and Learning (CTL) (Hanley et al 2013). “Multicultural education can be explained as a required approach to meet the needs of both race and social group constructs in order to address modern society undergoing complex social, economic, and political transformations due to globalization” (Sultanova 2016, 49–53). Secondly, critical pedagogy as defined by Freire aims to challenge cultural and structural power relations through an analysis of systems of power (such as practices within schools). It is a teaching approach inspired by critical theory, and it attempts to help students question and challenge the dominant narrative (Freire et al. 2014). Lastly, “CTL is defined as a way to introduce content using a variety of active learning techniques designed to help students connect what they already know to what they are expected to learn, and to construct new knowledge from the analysis of this learning process (Bonnet et al. 2018, 500–510; Hudson and Whisler



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2008, 54–58). CRAE completely embodies the essence and structure that aligns with my research with Black girls and their drama teacher at an urban middle school. During the study, I explored all three arts pedagogical models with arts production through drama class, arts integration, and aesthetics. Additionally, when I interviewed the participants, I witnessed the non-arts pedagogical model in relation to multicultural education and expression of ideas and emotions while challenging forms of oppression through social justice using drama as the art form. I encouraged the Black girls to speak freely about how they utilized drama strategies that they have learned in class when speaking, in their behaviors, and how they address racism and oppression. I knew that I needed to keep in mind, given the life experiences that the Black girls shared, that it was essential to understand the significance of the social justice aspect of the CRAE framework as I worked with them during the data collection scenarios. Demonstrations of Culturally Relevant Arts Education for Social Justice There are numerous examples of how CRAE can be demonstrated and shared while focusing on social justice through the arts. Examples include counter storytelling, using a critical lens of the arts for young people to analyze inequities and develop strategies, drawing on action and reflection within the arts by focusing on liberation, using hip-hop as critical pedagogy, and creating experiences of recognition and achievement for youth. According to Hanley et al (2013), the arts can be a model process for engaging social change, uncovering secret stories, and creating empathy within schools and communities. Hanley contends that “the arts can challenge invisibility and silencing by empowering Black youth to be creative and become critical change agents who challenge demeaning perceptions and practices (Hanley 2011, 420–444). Interestingly, the Black middle school girl students in my study explored these processes as they shared their perspectives and narratives on navigating particular literacies while calling upon drama techniques and strategies learned and practiced from their drama classes. Subconsciously, those Black girl students utilized CRAE. Arts for Social Justice Within the construct of CRAE, social justice art is explored, developed, and expressed to make changes in attitudes, behaviors, and systems within schools and communities. Defining social justice art begins with the artwork itself. One seminal scholar, Fraser (1997), defines social justice as a relationship between the redistribution of resources in response to socioeconomic

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injustice. Additionally, it can be believed that the essential characteristics of all art are its ability to communicate ideas, emotions, and experiences through imagery, audio, movement, metaphor, or other forms of expression. This explanation gives you an idea of the process of activist art, which can be birthed from the art for social justice movement. Activist art can actually be defined as social justice art and is often used to awaken awareness, mobilize people to action, or inform people of specific social conditions (Hanley et al. 2013). However, within the development and expression of CRAE, social justice art calls for evaluating these constructs. Consequently, as you can imagine, it is difficult to determine how social justice is evaluated. However, there is a calculated method with the CRAE framework. That framework views the evaluation process as systemic shifts, attitude changes, or a spectrum where the social impact may fall anywhere from basic community building to organized community change. The ultimate goal of CRAE is to promote empowerment so that all individuals may assert their inherent creativity to create a world that shares, recognizes, and includes their gifts (Hanley et al. 2013). As I processed how I wanted to ground this study in culturally relevant arts, I also needed to ground the study with a foundation that solidifies the empowerment of being Black and girl. Because I chose to investigate the influence of drama on literacies, specifically with Black girls and women, I knew I needed a solid foundation to support CRAE and guide the study. Black Feminist Thought epistemology was selected to help work in conjunction with CRAE and guide the study, keeping in mind that the drama teacher is a Black woman instructing mostly Black girl students in her classes at an urban middle school. In the following section, I explain the tenets of Black Feminist Thought epistemology and its application to the research that I conducted. Black Feminist Thought Without the personal voices of Black women and girls, their lived experiences cannot be accurately produced. Therefore, the omittance of the experiences of Black women and girls further demonstrates the silenced voices of Black women and the sovereignty of White women’s experiences (Hill Collins 2009). Black Feminist Thought (BFT) demonstrates Black women’s emerging power performing as agents of knowledge. BFT is an epistemology written by Patricia Hill Collins (2009) that places the knowledge of Black women at the center of analysis. BFT speaks to the importance of knowledge in empowering oppressed people, particularly, Black women. Too often, the voices of oppressed people are only heard if their experiences are framed in the thoughts and understandings of mainstream culture (Hill Collins 2009). However, my study explores the experiences and thoughts of Black girl students taught by a Black woman teacher, where their voices could be heard



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and understood through a Black Feminist Thought lens, not the lens of the dominant cultural narrative. One distinguishing feature of this epistemology is that new knowledge from the consciousness of individuals and the social transformations from political and economic institutions are important for change. It is essential to understand that the personal new knowledge from the consciousness of individuals is highly significant. Therefore, understanding BFT tenets and placing Black women’s experiences at the center of analysis offers fresh insight into worldviews. Through this framework, Black girls and women can speak their truth profoundly and openly. My time spent with the Black girls and their Black woman teacher created moments for them to share their authentic experiences. Tenets of Black Feminist Thought Epistemology There are two tenets or contributions of BFT that help further our understanding of the connections between knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. First, BFT offers a shift in how we think about oppression by embracing race, class, and gender as interlocking systems of oppression. Second, BFT is concerned with ways of addressing truth. These elements align with the purpose of Black urban middle school girls addressing their truths around oppression and discrimination. Beyond these BFT tenets are three key themes (Hill Collins 2009): (a) BFT is shaped by the experiences Black women have encountered in their lives, hence their personal stories; (b) Black women’s experiences are individually unique; however, these are experiences that connect them with other Black women; and (c) Black women’s experiences intersect through the diversity of their age, class, religion, sexual orientation, and other intersectional identities. The collective identity of Black women as articulated through BFT awakens their consciousness, which provides a new meaning to their own identity, revealing how they resisted the ways they have been oppressed. This epistemology offers underrepresented groups, in this case, namely Black women and girls, a way of contributing new knowledge about their own experiences and allows for non-dominant groups to define their reality. In my study, the ideological perspectives are shared through the voices of the Black girls and their Black woman drama teacher. I intentionally chose to seek their perspectives and knowledge while I allow their voices to be heard, as they are often left out of the thoughts and words of the dominant culture. They are often grouped and spoken for without considering their innate voices and experiences. The epistemology examines the reality that Black women and girls embrace a mutual understanding of what it is like to be oppressed, based on the multidimensionality of being Black and girl/women and based on their varied lived experiences. The epistemology creates an avenue of

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supportive and safe exploration and representation. In my study, each student shared different experiences during the focus group but could relate and often signified when they heard similar relatable stories of oppression and discrimination from their Black girl peers. BFT suggests that the experiences of Black women are dissimilar to the experiences of women of other ethnic backgrounds. Since Black women’s lives have been told and shaped by so many external influences for centuries, BFT encourages Black women to develop, redefine, and explain their own stories through the lens with which they identify (Howard-Hamilton 2003). I explored the experiences, beliefs, and perceptions of Black girls and their Black woman teacher to investigate how they express themselves using language, movement, expression, and engagement with social media. I asked each Black girl student and their teacher from the drama class to pinpoint strategies and techniques that they learned and practiced in class to understand if these experiences are unique ways of developing certain literacies in spaces and manners that may differ from those in the mainstream positions of power. Additionally, I wanted to see how they responded to discrimination and oppression as Black girls in mainstream society. I wanted to give them a platform to speak freely about their experiences and share how they address adverse incidents through the use of drama techniques and strategies. The conversation started with the drama teacher providing an outline of how she teaches her class as a Black woman that teaches Black girls who have challenging life experiences and her vision for employing specific techniques that incorporate cultural relevance. She provided strategies that she uses in her class that help her Black girl students cope with questioning identity, cope with oppression, and other things that may cause stress on them as young Black women. Next, I assessed if these approaches created a space in which student learning can be engaged through profoundly personal and cultural experiences that allow these students to realize their own literacies development. Essentially, the teacher used techniques that combine drama as an art form with exploring Black Feminist Thought for the Black girl students to inadvertently strengthen their foundational, digital, and Black girls’ literacies. Aligning Frameworks CRAE is used as the foundation to ground BFT in my study because it emphasizes the knowledge and instruction through the arts and non-arts to practice social justice beyond the dominant societal views. BFT specifically brings forth the insights of Black women and girls by actively acknowledging the oppression placed upon them. The realities of the injustices Black women and girls face are revealed only when their stories are told from



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their standpoint, using drama strategies that give them strength to live life authentically. Providing the platform for Black middle school girls and their Black woman teacher to speak their truth and their lived experiences from their position brings forth an awareness of a population of girls and women who are sometimes misunderstood, excluded, and may often feel voiceless or invisible. Up to this point, I used Culturally Relevant Arts Education through the lens of Black Feminist Thought as a framework to develop the analysis of the data. Through this blended framework, I was pleased with the analysis of each participant’s interview transcripts for emerging themes from a position that placed drama as a culturally relevant art form intertwined with the Black girls’ perceptions of their foundational, digital, and Black girls’ literacies. That served as the focus of the analysis. Additionally, using Black Feminist Thought epistemology to understand the instructional practices and meaning that drama seemed to have on Black girls and women through her lens, I discovered that the teacher can provide the backbone of the pedagogy for the drama class.

Chapter Five

Emerging Themes

“I try to highlight something that may be seen as a negative into a positive.” —Ms. Marie Gomez

Understanding how we got to this point of the book is vital to connect with the themes that emerged from the data collected from the teenage Black girls and their Black drama teacher at an urban middle school in Charlotte. Now that you have read through the research process and the grounding framework, the themes that follow will explain how and why the participants navigate and respond to specific life incidents they experienced. I discovered a highly flexible approach providing rich and detailed data by using thematic analysis, a method for identifying, analyzing, organizing, describing, and reporting themes found within a data set (Braun and Clarke 2006, 77–101). This process helps to investigate how other members of the study group respond to themes (Smedley and Coulson 2017, 1688–93). During my research, concurrent data collection and analysis were achieved and organized into emerging concepts or themes, which delineated the participants’ shared experiences. Themes were reviewed and refined using an iterative process to compare and contrast the scenario based on the drama teacher’s role and the experiences of the urban middle school Black girls in the drama classes. Essentially, I was able to formulate themes that indicated common experiences among participants. In the sections below, I share the main themes that emerged through the data analysis of the interviews, focus group, and writing samples. Theme 1: Experiencing Racism After hearing the harrowing stories from some of the Black girls that I interviewed, it is not surprising that racism and their experiences of it rose to the 53

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top of the themes. “Racism refers to a hierarchy of superiority/inferiority of the human” (Grosfoguel 2016, 9–15). This hierarchy can be constructed and marked in diverse ways. Evans-Winters and Esposito (2010, 11) posit that “Black girls have learned to survive in a racist society, even while in school, by adopting a race-less persona. Through each of the racist experiences that the girls shared with me, I shuddered to think about how they must have felt when it happened to them or even how hard it was to endure the abuse. My mind raced to think if they stood their ground with whom they identify as and what they believe in at the moment of the racist encounter, or did they cower down and go into a protective shell in order to feel safe. These experiences often teach Black girls to be race-less and feel invisible. This brought me back to when I was a middle school girl attending an urban school in Boston. The alternative is for those girls to ignore and suppress negative responses against their humanity of being Black and girls. They had to learn that to be successful and safe, they could not be who they were organically, which often altered their identity and confidence. The data analysis from the interviews demonstrates that some study participants experienced racism, discrimination, or feelings of oppression inside and outside of school. Thus, during the study, we explored how their participation in drama classes helped them deal with their thoughts, emotions, and reactions to these challenging racist and oppressive experiences. Theme 2: Confidence and Expression Generally, an adolescent girl’s self-confidence begins lagging in sixth grade, with a rise in anxiety and questioning her academic abilities and intelligence around seventh grade (Hough 2019). Knowing these facts, data reveal that confidence directly impacts levels of engagement and success. Confidence is needed to inspire trust and communicate effectively, yet self-doubt and nerves can undermine one’s ability to act decisively and confidently (Nasher 2019). Surprisingly, the Black girls in this study felt comfortable sharing the transitions of their confidence levels as they become more familiar with different drama strategies used as tools for communication. Through their stories, it was clear that they managed uncomfortable discriminatory situations where they eventually learned successful reactionary approaches that allowed them to maintain and build their identity and confidence levels. Drama is used for expression and to convey messages and points; in essence, drama is used in alignment to explore expression, identity, and confidence (Boal 1985; Gallagher 2007). The Black woman drama teacher I interviewed, Ms. Gomez, firmly believes that students should have an outlet for self-expression within her drama class. She states, “I want them to feel comfortable within themselves, enough to express themselves in whatever

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way they see fit.” Consequently, in her class, she has set up a private digital platform where her students can go online and have a space to express themselves through words where others have limited access to judge them. The platform is designed as a space of no judgment, with free expression, which was conveyed to me as a successful strategy for her students to build trust, freely express themselves, and to gain confidence. Through the analysis process, confidence and expression emerged as central themes. Theme 3: Drama Through Foundational Literacy Foundational literacy is the basis for written and verbal expression that extends through other literacies. This entails reading, writing, and speaking. Each of these skills undergoes development as individuals practice skill-building activities utilizing varying forms of pedagogy. It is not surprising that foundational literacy emerged as a main theme. As I spent time with the Black girls, there were several conversations where their language and expression, both in person and on social media, were pivotal in navigating certain scenarios that they shared. Additionally, foundational literacy is a key conduit in expressing their voices, the Black girl/woman voice, when addressing social justice issues, racism, and discrimination, whether in person or on social media platforms. Theme 4: Advocacy on Social Media Common Sense Research (2018) informed that thirteen- to seventeen-year-old youth report their heavy use on social media during those ages, and that girls use it more than boys. It should also be noted that “many middle schoolers indicate that they do have concerns about social media activity due to inappropriate postings, getting hacked, getting their feelings hurt, lack of privacy, inappropriate pictures, bullying, negativity, and stalkers” (Martin et al. 2018, 213–24). When coupling these statistics with the additional challenges Black girls specifically face with racism, sexism, and feeling voiceless, my analyzed data revealed something exciting and promising for Black girls as they gain advocacy skills in support of social justice for themselves and others while using social media. Advocacy on social media emerged as a theme as it aligned with the other themes of Experiencing Racism and Confidence and Expression. Theme 5: Cultural Relevance It is challenging for teachers in urban education to develop a cultural and contextual understanding of individual students in their classrooms while

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maintaining an emphasis on the heterogeneous academic needs of students in urban settings (White et al. 2017, 18–34). The refreshing thing about the Black woman drama teacher and her students in her classes at the urban school where I conducted my study is that she intentionally strives to understand their unique cultures and the contexts of the representation for each of her students. As a Black woman and teacher, I believe she expressed a deeper understanding of the cultures of being Black girls. It was hard for her to overlook her own innate cultural experiences when she witnessed them through her Black girl students. Cultural relevance emerged as a central theme during the coding process. The CRAE framework allowed for exploring how Black girls display mannerisms and physically express themselves during specific situations. As outlined earlier in the book, there are three non-arts pedagogies under the CRAE framework: multicultural education, critical pedagogy, and Contextual Teaching and Learning (CTL). “When we zone in on multicultural education, we learn that it must meet the needs of both race and social group constructs” (Sultanova 2016, 49–53). The drama teacher used intentionality as she delivered her curriculum in a manner that encouraged culture and its context and relevance of it. The cultural relevance theme emerged as the data revealed the passion, intentional pedagogy, and vision that the drama teacher exuded for her Black girl students who participate in her drama classes. She intentionally created spaces and lesson plans within the drama class to meet the diverse needs of her students. Theme 6: Race and Gender Identity Earlier in the book, we were informed that Black girls are often relegated to the margins, and most national statistics ignore the experiences, performances, and outcomes of Black girls (Ricks 2014, 10–21). Continuing the skewed narrative of where Black girls fit within a society that has historically marginalized them based on their race and gender, “Black girls are often left voiceless and feeling invisible in school, potentially receiving inequitable education” (Sealey-Ruiz 2016, 290–298). Race and gender identity emerged as a central theme through the coding process. Much of the conversations with the Black girl students and their Black woman drama teacher revolved around their treatment for being born Black and a girl. Subsequently, none of the participants made particular demands against the notion that Black girls are maltreated or discriminated against. Through my research, I encountered an article by Muhammad (2014, 323–26) whereby a study was conducted highlighting a summer writing collaborative for Black girls where they spent time writing in a space influenced by Black women writers of the past. This writing collaborative provided a roadmap for these young girls to understand self-identity among dominant narratives and charged the Black girls to create

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similar pathways for Black girls in future generations. This writing collaborative exemplifies what I believe Black girls’ literacy stands for. There is a strong need for spaces and pathways that encourage and support strength in Black girl/woman identity. CHAPTER SUMMARY Simultaneous data were collected, coded, and analyzed from the drama teacher and Black girls. Their perceptions and experiences, as told by them, were used to guide me in shaping the study as it proceeded (Glesne 2016). Through the CRAE framework and BFT epistemology used during the study, I analyzed the interview transcripts for emerging themes from a position that placed drama as a culturally relevant art form within the context of the lived experiences of Black girls as they navigate foundational, digital, and Black girls’ literacies. In the next chapter, you will hear personal narratives about their lived experiences from the drama teacher and the Black girls that participated in this study. The girls shared experiences where they have chosen to implement specific drama strategies to guide them through challenging situations in and outside of school. The drama teacher shared how she views her role as a Black woman and teacher to support her Black girl students.

Chapter Six

Who Am I? How We Hear Their Voices

“Drama helped me be more confident and express things more clearly.” —Alice

After collecting data from each student and the drama teacher through interviews, discussions, and my observations, I had to take time to really process the information that they shared and exhibited so deeply. I proceeded to analyze the data, uncovering the emerging themes listed in the previous chapter, and I was able to decipher how the participants navigated challenges in life by using strategies and techniques that they learned by participating in drama classes. In the following sections of this chapter, I share demographic details about each participant so that you better understand who they are, their perspectives, and hear their voices through their personal narratives. PARTICIPANTS As outlined in table 6.1, the following is a summarized description of each participant in the study. Participant grade, gender, race, length of time participating in drama classes, favorite drama practices, social media usage, and some outside-of-school experiences were revealed to provide a richer picture when reading the upcoming sections. All participants’ names were changed to protect anonymity. Please get to know each of the study participants intimately to understand them better as you read about their experiences on navigating through society being a Black girl and how they use drama strategies to support the growth of specific literacies. Listed below are more details of each participant. 59

Years in Drama 3 Yrs 6 Yrs 2 Yrs 3 Yrs 1 Yr

Time N/A ½ Hr 3 Hrs 4 Hrs 4 Hrs

Social Media N/A TikTok & IG TikTok & IG IG TikTok, IG, Twitter, Snapchat

Race African American Black Black African American African European

Gender

Woman Girl Girl Girl Girl

Grade/Role

Teacher 7th Grade 8th Grade 8th Grade 8th Grade

Pseudonym Name

Ms. Gomez Nasa Jupiter Bobo Alice Noemi

Table 6.1 Individual Participant Descriptions Portia M. York, PhD Other Info Educator-12 years Mother is an actor Liberian Speaks out for justice African and trying to understand her identity in America

Favorite Strategy N/A Improv Shakespeare into raps Improv Going into character

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Participant Descriptions Participant T1: Ms. Maria Gomez—“I want them to feel comfortable within themselves, enough to express themselves in whatever way they see fit.” Ms. Maria Gomez is a self-identified African American woman drama teacher. She stands about five feet, two inches tall and has medium brown skin. She wore cute natural hairstyles and fashionable clothing each time I met her. She appeared to be around the ages of twenty-seven to thirty-two years old. Maria Gomez has worked in education for seven years, yet not all of the years at the particular school where I conducted the study. She came to Stonybrook School three years ago and accepted the position as a drama teacher even though that had not been her background before coming to the school. After working the first year as the drama teacher at the school, the administration thought that she was doing such a great job and continued to develop her in that role. Partly, she earned the role of drama teacher at that school because she brings drama and theater experience into the field of education. She owns and runs a small nonprofit that recruits and exposes urban students to theater. She is very passionate about enhancing the theater IQ of urban youth as that is often an unrecognized and unimportant social development in those communities. It was clear to me that Ms. Gomez exhibits her passion for drama and theater with urban youth by teaching drama to urban middle school students, in addition to running her nonprofit organization. Ms. Gomez makes the distinction that her class is “drama” and not “theater” class. She expresses this in a way that is exemplified in how she designs her classroom space and lesson plans to allow for the unique individual expressions of her students. This type of classroom culture welcomes diverse gender and cultural identities, learning strategies and techniques through reading, watching, and interpreting plays. Ms. Gomez makes a distinction between drama used for personal cultural strategies for expression and interpretation versus theater used for the actual production and performance of a play. Ms. Gomez’s vision and goals for her students are to have an appreciation for the arts, particularly drama, where they can learn essential life skills. Ms. Gomez stated, “I want them to be exposed to things like audience etiquette so that when they grow up, they know how to behave.” She also said, “I want them to feel comfortable within themselves, enough to express themselves in whatever way they see fit.” She encourages strength building with the students in her class—strength building in the sense of being young adults who can engage in different unfamiliar and often difficult settings and feel confident about their presence in society. Maria Gomez plans to continue working at the school for quite some time to expand her drama curriculum to meet her student’s academic and cultural needs. Ms. Gomez explained the class demographics to me, stating that she

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has both boy and girl students, and the majority are either African American or Latino. She noted that she does have a few Asian students as well. She also noted that there are more girls than boys in her classes. At Stonybrook, students are assigned to drama classes and other elective classes in middle school when their schedules are set for the year. This obviously means that some students are thrilled to be in the drama class, and some students are merely taking it to get a passing grade for the year. The students that I was able to engage with during the study explained that they enjoyed being in the class and requested to be in drama classes for more than one year during their middle school tenure. Although Ms. Gomez prides herself on being a fair, sensitive, and understanding teacher toward all students, she admitted that she especially enjoys working with her Black girl students in drama class, mainly to guide them through life challenges. She professes to understand them and what they deal with as Black girls because she has experienced similar situations in her own life. She can teach the class from a place of empathy and truth. She gave an example of how she empathizes with Black girls stating, I have overheard, um, Black girls just talking about, you know, like, well, I’m just having a bad hair day or whatever, and they feel bad about themselves. Their day is ruined. It’s real. We all have felt awful some days. I know how it is to be a Black girl. I know that having your hair done, and especially in middle school, is like really important. You know, we all have bad days, and you know, like I try to just be positive with these girls.

Ms. Gomez is sensitive to Black girls wanting to feel good about themselves and be accepted in all environments. She knows the importance of Black girls building self-confidence, especially in a school setting. Maria Gomez chose to build her repertoire of culturally relevant pedagogy for her drama classes by listening to her students and silently observing their behaviors. She also was wise by connecting with other innovative drama teachers to share and gather ideas through online teacher sites. As she expanded her curriculum and enhanced her pedagogy, she intentionally focused on her Black girl students’ core academic and social needs. Maria Gomez believes that her students’ participation in drama class will help them achieve the vision she has set for them. Essentially, she wants them to successfully navigate as Black girls in school and in the world. During my time with Ms. Gomez, she clearly expressed her passion for working in an urban school with the given population of students. She always remains fair and professional when speaking about her lessons and delivery to all of her students, not solely her Black girl students. However, through this

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process, she learned perspectives from her Black girl students that she had not known previously. It surprised and pleased her to hear about the drama strategies that her Black girl students loved and considered their favorites, the strategies that worked for them individually when advocating for themselves and others, and how they became better at life skills like public speaking. She believes this knowledge from her Black girl students would help shape her future drama classes to include more culturally relevant arts education focusing on drama instruction. Additionally, Ms. Gomez was very impressed with her Black girl students in articulating their experiences with me while I was interviewing them. Ms. Gomez was required to be in the room with me at all times while I was interviewing the students, for their safety. As she listened to her students during the focus group, I later found out that it confirmed for her that she was on the right track with teaching and supporting her urban Black girl students. She states, It was fun just to learn the perspectives of my students, and I feel like it’s helpful for shaping the future of my classes. Like, figuring out and listening to my students about what’s important to them and then trying to incorporate their needs in my class.

I had a great experience working with Ms. Gomez. She exuded a passion for teaching Black girls and urban students. It was crystal clear that she could relate to and connect with her Black girl students. It was only after Ms. Gomez explained her class vision to me and more details about herself that she gave her blessing for me to spend time with the girls that she protected and held dear to her heart. It was evident that she had grown more comfortable with me, so I had the chance to meet with each girl individually. Because the students were minors under the age of eighteen, I previously mentioned that it was required for Ms. Gomez to be in the room with me during each interview that I had with the girls. This was for their protection. However, Ms. Gomez chose to sit farther away from the students and me during the actual interview to allow privacy and freedom of speech. She did not want any of her students to feel uncomfortable speaking their truth if their teacher were sitting right next to them. Half of the student interviews were held in the conference room near the school’s front office, and the other half was held in a very large room with high ceilings that served as a general office for three teachers that taught the specials classes at the school. When I conducted the interviews in the large room, the only people in the room were the student, Ms. Gomez, and myself. The interview room was private and a familiar setting for the students. Let’s meet the student participants.

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Participant S1: Nasa Jupiter—“I’ve been able to speak out more and speak up.” Nasa Jupiter was the only seventh-grade student in the sample population for the study, and she self identifies as a Black girl. She had chestnut brown skin and is average height and medium build. Her personality was bubbly and fun. You may tell this by the pseudonym name that she selected for herself as a participant in this study. Nasa Jupiter. Nasa Jupiter has been in drama classes at school and some drama clubs outside of school since she was in first grade. Nasa Jupiter’s mother is a local actor who has engaged Nasa Jupiter in drama settings since she was very small. Her mother believed that participating in drama classes would help Nasa Jupiter emerge from her shyness. Nasa Jupiter agreed with her mother’s thoughts. As she wore the khaki pants and white golf shirt that is the school uniform, Nasa Jupiter made herself comfortable in the chair across the table from me as we began our interview session. I sensed an initial nervousness from her and instantly introduced myself to try to break the awkward silence. I shared my name, why I wanted to interview her, and my interest in the overall project. I shared how I wanted to find solutions for Black girls and needed to hear her stories about the drama strategies she used to help her through challenging situations inside and outside of school. As she nodded her head and looked back and forth at me and the top of the table, she confirmed that she wanted to be a part of the study. That is when I asked her to choose any name she wanted to be identified by for the purpose of this study. I had a series of interview questions that I had previously prepared and started with the first few questions to get to know her a little better. Nasa Jupiter explained that she enjoys participating in the drama class as it helps her deal with hard things, discrimination as a Black middle school girl, and becoming more confident and less shy. She shared her positive experiences as a student in the drama class, stating, In this school, usually, we learn about improv, and we also learn about what to do when in plays, what not to do in plays. Kind of like how to feel in our feelings and stuff. Drama class is also a good experience to, like, get to know other students and how drama class affects them, because I feel like drama affects lots of people in many different ways.

As we continued the easy-going interview, I frequently nodded at Nasa Jupiter to allow her to speak as long as she pleased. I wanted to remain silent as long as possible. Once she became silent about a particular question, I moved forward with another question to keep her engaged and not shut down. Nasa Jupiter shared that her favorite drama strategy is improvisation. During

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our interview session, she shared experiences where she could use many strategies that she learned in drama class to navigate challenges, thus enhancing her speaking, reading, writing, and advocating as a Black girl. You will read more about her experiences in the next chapter. Participant S2: Bobo—“I can express myself the way I want to show me.” Bobo is in the eighth grade, and she identifies as Black and a girl. She is taller than Nasa Jupiter and slender with beautiful shiny dark skin. Her hair is dark, and she wears it straight. She has bright eyes and full lips and seems quiet and shy. Bobo is Liberian and shares this information with me as she talks more about her culture and how it does not allow girls and women to express themselves. She explains that women in her culture are restricted to certain liberties in life. Although Bobo loves being Liberian, she does not care for the restraints often put upon her. She has been taught to hold her feelings in and not express emotions or personal thoughts. She has been taught to control her voice and not speak in a certain tone or say certain things because she is a girl. For many years she felt this controlling of girl behaviors stifled how she wanted to live her life, but she did not know how to branch out respectfully. Bobo shared that participating in the drama class at school has allowed her to express herself in ways that her culture does not encourage. She noted that she is still very respectful of her culture but finds joy and peace in thinking and speaking about her personal ideas around race and gender, and other social issues of the world. She has been participating in drama classes since sixth grade for the two years she has been enrolled at Stonybrook School. Prior to this drama class, she had not been in any drama classes. Her participation in drama classes has helped her deal with challenges in school and on social media and how to navigate the nuances of her culture socially. Bobo shares, We do drama activities. We act, we learn Shakespeare and a lot of other stuff. Sometimes we get in groups, and we do scenarios and scenes where we act out different situations. It’s to show how we can handle things. And yeah, we play a lot of games for acting. It’s pretty fun, you know, getting to act with people that relate to you and, like, know what you like. Y’all both can understand each other and support and work with each other. Help each other.

Additionally, Bobo shared her favorite drama activity. She thoroughly enjoys turning Shakespeare plays into rap songs. She found that activity to be very fun. She was introduced to Shakespeare during her time in the drama class and learned a great deal about his work. Before reading Shakespeare’s plays in drama class, she had never heard of him. This experience has ignited

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Bobo’s interest in Shakespeare plays that she never knew existed. She reads more Shakespeare plays now. You will read more about Bobo’s experiences and how she utilizes strategies and techniques that she learned in drama class to help her navigate being a young Black Liberian girl living in an urban community. Participant S3: Alice—“It helped me be more confident and express things more clearly.” Alice is a slender, tall, dark brown–skinned eighth-grade student at Stonybrook School and identifies as an African American girl. Her hair is worn in corn braids. She has been participating in drama classes for the three years she has been enrolled at the school. During the sessions, Alice was somewhat quiet and did not freely talk a lot but answered all of my questions. She chose not to spend time deeply elaborating on her responses. Alice shared that she enjoys being in the drama class and gets a lot out of it. She expressed some of the things that she learned while participating in drama classes. Alice shares, We learn about different, like, types of acting, and then we do games of demonstrating it. Like, an example is we have two people or three people go outside the room and then, um, the people in the class, uh, they all know this one topic that has to do with drama that the students outside of the room do not know. When they come back in the room, the other students have to, like, give hints of the topic to see if the other students can guess it. It helps us learn more about drama stuff. We also do other things like learn to express our feelings. She [Ms. Gomez] puts on a video of a play, and we have to write about our feelings and what we think the play was about. We have to write about how it affected us.

The activities that Alice participates in during class encouraged Alice to learn to be more expressive with her thoughts and feelings. She admittedly has learned not to bottle everything up inside and is becoming more expressive with her feelings. One of the things that stood out for me while talking with Alice is what she stated as her favorite drama strategies. Alice really enjoys reading Shakespeare’s plays in drama class and using improvisation. She believes the strategies help her with her language arts class lessons and being a more confident Black girl. Additionally, I noticed that although Alice may be shy at times, she speaks up for social justice issues. When Alice speaks, her comments have been well vetted in her mind prior to stating her thoughts. She has a passion for doing and stating rights and wrongs and attributes that to becoming more confident in herself through what she has learned by practicing drama.

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Participant S4: Noemi—“Take a walk in someone else’s shoes.” Noemi initially identified herself as African European. Of the four girls in the group, she is the shortest. She has a butter pecan complexion and has a great big smile that she flashes often. She notes that she is African but has been in America for a while. She did not say which country in Africa she is from or exactly how long she has been in America. When I asked her how she identified, she struggled with the proper term to identify herself. She initially said she was African European. She is trying to understand the term African American and sometimes even refers to herself that way. She eventually identified herself as African American as she has heard her peers use that term. She felt like it fit her. She is in the eighth grade and identifies as a girl. She has been a student of the school for a little over a year and has been participating in drama class that entire time. Noemi enjoys the drama class and says that is where she met her closest friend, who happens to be Hispanic. Noemi noted that although her friend is Hispanic and she is African, they have become close friends because they have a lot in common. She wanted to clarify that their races and nationalities are not preventing them from being best friends. As the conversation went on, Noemi shared that she likes being in drama class and has learned a lot. Noemi shared what she has done in drama class, stating, It’s really easy. All you just have to do is, like, get to know people. And then you can meet people that you connect with. And, when you’re performing, it’s just like bringing out how you feel, like, not just faking the tears; you have to feel it to bring it out and project it for people. Drama class is actually great because that’s where I met one of my closest friends, and we have something in common. We have a space to just do what we like together and make it fun.

Noemi admitted that her favorite drama strategy is going into character. She believes that strategy helps her deal with challenging situations that she faces in her life. She can transform herself into a character that she conjures up and be that person when she is dealing with a difficult or harmful situation. Additionally, Noemi expressed the enjoyment of participating in Ms. Gomez’s drama class. She says she feels better when she participates in that class. She hopes that she will learn new and more strategies that will help her as a Black girl. She states, “I think the stuff that she [Ms. Gomez] teaches will help me express myself better with my friends and when I have to speak in public.” The anecdotal data collected during interviews provided rich and thick descriptions, serving as the primary sources of emerging themes explained in the previous chapter. During interviews, participants were allowed to

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discuss and describe their experiences relating to their responses to certain scenarios and if they used specific drama techniques or strategies within their responses. To understand the influence that drama participation has on the foundational, digital, and Black girls’ literacies for each of the students who participated in this study, I will share their personal narratives in the next chapter. I felt that it was also important for me to share the narrative of the Black woman drama teacher. They are interconnected. The teacher’s vision, understanding, and passion for working with teenage Black girls in an urban school is grounded in Black Feminist Thought epistemology and sheds light on her communication with her students and the instructional techniques that she uses in her classes.

Chapter Seven

Narrations of Understanding

“Before I post, I’m like, would this impact you in a good way, or would it affect you in a bad way? Take a walk in someone else’s shoes.” —Noemi

I felt privileged to spend time getting to know each unique girl and the drama teacher during their individual interviews and the focus group. I realized that they opened up and shared their personal experiences, feelings, and emotions around those experiences with me, a stranger. They eventually arrived at a comfortable space where they chose to trust me with their feelings and hear their voices from a Black teenage girl perspective. I was all ears, utterly interested in listening to their experiences. I share narratives from the drama teacher and each Black girl in the sections below. I want readers to understand the oppression and discrimination that the girls went through as young people and hear how they navigated those spaces using strategies that they learned through practicing drama. I also want you to read about their growth in public speaking, their vocabulary, and advocacy. Initially, I sought to explore their behaviors using drama strategies concerning their language, identity, and social media engagement. Although I was able to glean many valid points that supported my search, I also absorbed the girls’ strength, resilience, and intuitive nature to call upon learned behaviors from class to assist them with living and operating in a world that is often not kind to Black girls. Earlier in the book, we learned about the themes that emerged through the collected and analyzed data. In this chapter, you will read personal stories from each participant encompassing those emergent themes. The findings from the analyzed data reveal influences that drama has on specific literacies of Black girls in an urban middle school as told through their voices about their personal experiences. Pietila (2017) explains that foundational literacy is reading, writing, and meaning-making skills gained in the early years and used as building blocks upon which other literacy 69

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skills can develop. All participants during the study address the influence that practicing drama has on developing their reading, writing, speaking, and advocacy for Black girls and Black people in general, even while engaging on social media platforms. This is a crucial piece of information, particularly in the field of education. The remainder of this book will delve into the details of how the girls used certain drama strategies as they faced discriminatory and oppressive challenges inside and outside of school. CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT First, it is imperative to understand the classroom environment that Ms. Gomez creates for her students. Her vision for her Black girl students guides the pedagogy she chooses to implement within her drama classes. For the drama strategies that Ms. Gomez teaches to be practical, memorable, meaningful, and effective, it is important to understand how the drama teacher creates a classroom space that is inviting to all students’ cultures, genders, and backgrounds. She wants her students to be comfortable freely expressing themselves in the classroom space to assure self-confidence and self-esteem. As an example, Bobo shared that her favorite drama activity is turning Shakespeare plays into rap songs and believes this activity enhances how she is able to express herself. Knowing this, Ms. Gomez teaches strategies for her students to practice that extend beyond classroom instruction; thus, helping students navigate through some challenging life experiences. Many of the drama strategies that she taught helped the Black girls with what they say, how they speak in person, and what they post on social media. The strategies also encourage and build self-confidence, allowing Black girls to express themselves through their personal narratives. In the classroom space, Ms. Gomez teaches drama strategies like Take a Walk in Someone Else’s Shoes, Improvisation, breathing techniques, and Shakespeare raps as tools to help her students gain skills that assist how they navigate through life. The strategies that were just listed are favorites of her Black girl students, but they are not limited to that list. Ms. Gomez admits that she especially connects with the Black middle school girl students in her drama classes as she remembers and understands what it is like to be an adolescent Black girl. She acknowledges that her Black girl students sometimes come from challenging backgrounds and feel misunderstood. She knows they want to be seen, heard, and accepted in school and society. Because Ms. Gomez has strategically created a physically and environmentally safe space in her class, her Black girl students can feel safe and comfortable sharing personal experiences, learning drama strategies, and having intimate discussions in the confines of the drama classroom with people that they trust. It seems Ms. Gomez is on the right

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track supporting her Black girls and is fulfilling her educational vision for her Black girl students. Although Ms. Gomez does not expand upon her teaching approach with formality, it seems clear to me that her pedagogy incorporates process drama. This instructional method, often used in education, offers teachers and students the experience of an event through improvisation rather than rehearsing and presenting a final performance (Process Drama 2021). This strategy opens a space for learning more deeply about oneself and the connected people engaged in the improvisation and less about the energy of an audience. This strategy also promotes listening, empathy, and sensitivity for others. In the next section, you will read the narratives pertaining to each girl’s experiences. They are categorized by the themes that emerged during the data collection and analysis processes. This journey of exploration began for us during the winter months of the year. The students at Stonybrook School had already had a winter break and returned to school for the second semester, so they had become comfortable with their peers, their teacher, and the instruction. Once I was approved by the school’s superintendent to enter the school to work with several Black girls and the drama teacher, I began to schedule appointments. Naturally, I started communicating with the teacher, Ms. Gomez. She was instantly very receptive and friendly as I explained my project and the time I would need to spend with her and some of her students. Because she was so friendly, I did not feel that I was inconveniencing her but rather that she was pretty interested in participating in the project. I believe she also wanted to share the drama lessons that she teaches in her classes to help uncover how her teaching impacts the lives of her students. After a couple of short phone conversations and emails allocated to introductions, explanations, and meeting arrangements, we were finally able to connect to interview. I intentionally crafted my schedule around the times I was allowed to visit the school during periods when the girls had lunch, breaks, or specials where I did not disrupt their core class times. For the in-person interviews, I was able to speak face to face with Ms. Gomez and each of the four students. Each time I arrived at Stonybrook School, I was comforted by the laughter of the students, the chatter in the hallways, and the interesting and colorful student creations and assignments that adorned the walls. As an educator, there is something about primary and secondary education that stimulates a familiar comfort for me. When I finally had the first opportunity to meet the four young women that I would be interviewing, admittedly, I was a bit nervous. I wanted them to accept me instantly, to know that I come in peace. I wanted them to feel comfortable enough to open up and talk with me. Shortly after the initial introductory niceties, I was hoping that we could chat as if we had known each other for a little while. To my enjoyment, that is essentially how the interviews went despite some nervousness from a couple of the girls and myself. They

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showed up to the room wearing their khaki pants and burgundy or white polo shirts, following the uniform dress code. They had middle school girl hairstyles, some straightly pressed and some natural. Each girl had a pleasant smile, warm energy, and a willingness to allow me into their worlds. During all the interviews, the girls sat across the table from me so that we could look directly at each other. I intentionally maintained a pleasant look on my face, often smiling. I wanted to maintain a neutral yet friendly stance. Admittedly, I laughed joyously in response to some of their funny stories; and with sincerity, I am sure I looked sad through some of the painful stories that they shared with me. As I reflect on those experiences, I appreciate the opportunity to be present in those moments, their moments. I recognize they could have changed their mind at any time and not opened up to me. After collecting fascinating data from the interviews, I was completely excited to go home after each visit to transcribe the data. Additionally, I took notes that were more specific to my observations during my time with the girls and their drama teacher at the school. After collecting, transcribing, and coding all of the data, many themes were revealed. It excited me to see the collected raw data come to life for the collective whole. In the next section, you will read about the themes and stories from the girls that relate to each of them. The narrations in the next section are written under category labels of each of the six themes: Experiencing Racism, Confidence and Expression, Foundational Literacy, Advocacy on Social Media, Cultural Relevance, and Race and Gender Identity. After reading each theme’s section, you will personally witness how their stories come to life. THEMES AND STORIES Experiencing Racism The theme Experiencing Racism emerged as a factor in education for urban middle school girls during this study. It seemed to be the most relevant theme that surfaced during my conversation with the girls. This theme relates to situations that urban middle school girls endure while in school, in their personal lives outside of school, and when they engage on social media. Essentially, the girls discovered and declared that drama practices helped them overcome hostile racist challenges and encounters. The data findings indicate that the Black girls experienced racism through the encounters shared for the study, experiences that jolted them into action. Several of the girls shared some of these occurrences of racism or discrimination. For example, I was deeply saddened by a story that Bobo shared with me as she openly talked about a situation that she encountered at a rest area while she and her family were

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traveling by car from North Carolina to Virginia for a family wedding. It was her aunt’s wedding, and the family was excited to take the trip to celebrate her aunt getting married, but they also enjoyed vacationing as a family together and taking a road trip. Bobo, her younger brother, and her mother were traveling in her car. They stopped at a gas station to fill up the car, for the family to get a stretch break, and to use the public restrooms. Since Bobo was the oldest child, she had to watch her brother while her mother was in the bathroom. Bobo and her mother would take turns using the restroom so that one of them could keep an eye on Bobo’s little brother. She and her brother playfully waited for their mother outside the restroom door, giggling and chatting about the family members they were excited to see at the wedding. Suddenly, a large, burly adult White male walked by them, looked them directly in the eyes, and called them the N-word, as Bobo described. In this case, she meant the word nigger but was too embarrassed to use that word with me. Bobo shares, This one-man, he came, and he looked at my brother and me and said the N-word directly to us, and I was like, wow. I was shocked. It was like a year ago, and I was like, wow, people still act like this now, you know, I was like, you know what, I’m not gonna let it affect me. I’m gonna keep on going. Won’t ruin my day. I will just breathe. Keep Breathing.

Bobo shared that she was a bit scared when he glared at them and called them that word because he was an adult man, and he was White. She mentioned that she was often fearful of White people. Her mother was still in the bathroom. She knew that she was responsible for the safety of her little brother and herself. She did not know if she should yell out for help, alert someone who worked at the store, cry, or just wait for her mother to return. Although Bobo was shocked, hurt, and mentioned that she was afraid, she talked about the breathing techniques that she learned in drama class to assist her in blocking outside negativity. Using these techniques influenced how she reacts to certain situations. She did not want to cry; she did not want to scream; she did not want to say rude or negative words as retaliation to the White man’s comment. She did not want to get her brother upset. She wanted to remain safe. She wanted to protect her younger brother and keep him safe until her mother returned. She did not want her brother to feel scared, start crying, or scream. Bobo went into action with the breathing technique that she learned in drama class. She held her brother’s hand tightly, stared at the floor, and started breathing as she counted to four. In-2–3–4, out-2–3–4, in-2–3–4, out-2–3–4. She did this several rounds until she felt herself calming down. When she calmed herself, she knew she could also keep her brother calm. Bobo explained that she was proud of herself for not allowing the negative

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racist comment spewed at her and her brother to cause her to become angry and respond with negative words or actions. Bobo shared, “I learned how to control my temper, learned how to control myself, like, do my breathing technique and all that other stuff to be more confident.” Bobo learned the breathing strategy in drama class and recognized that it helps her contain her anger and allows her to calmly express how she wants to be seen as a Black girl. She wants to be seen as smart and calm, and able to handle different situations. The racial slur also did not cause Bobo to break down in tears or slump into depression due to the fact that she practiced her breathing exercise and refused to let the encounter ruin her day. During the interview, Bobo talked about how Ms. Gomez instructed the class to practice breathing exercises in drama class when they get nervous or anxious while performing in a play or reading a script. Ms. Gomez applied a four-count number to the breathing exercise. She started with breathing in, counting in her head 1, 2, 3, 4, and then releasing, counting in her head 1, 2, 3, 4. When she does this, her mental and physical state transforms to calmness, says Bobo. As Bobo shared her story with me, I kept thinking that she was a young teenage girl with an even younger brother who had to contend with such hatred living in the twenty-first century. This incident happened in 2019. It baffles many people that such racist acts and people still exist. As I pondered Bobo’s situation, it hurt my heart to realize that Black students still experience what I experienced over thirty-five years ago. I do not recall having the strategies to breathe, not scream out, and not cry or be afraid. I wondered if Bobo felt like she should shrink as a human being hearing the N-word spewed at her and her brother. I was thrilled when she told me that she maintained her composure by employing the breathing techniques she learned in drama class. She employed a successful strategy. That situation could have escalated to be much more severe or could have caused not only shock for Bobo and her brother but also emotional or psychological damage. They were in an unfamiliar place with no one nearby to call. The breathing exercise that Bobo learned in drama class helps her in many situations, including combatting racism. Nasa Jupiter also experienced a racial incident that caused her to feel emotionally bad about herself and feel threatened. Nasa Jupiter plays soccer on a team after school. During one of her soccer games, a White male student on the other team did not like that she was good at the game or the fact that she was even on the team. She was one of the few Black students on the team and one of the few girls on the team, but she loves playing soccer and was thrilled to be on the team. She experienced degrading remarks while on the soccer field by that very same student. Nasa Jupiter shares,

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People on the other team decided that it would be okay to call me the “B” word. And I felt, like, really down, and I felt, like, I kind of just, like, felt bad that he would call me that. And he also called me the “N” word because of my skin color. So that really made me feel, yeah. So, it made you feel a certain kind of bad way.

At that moment, Nasa Jupiter felt hurt and down because someone would use negative slurs against her race and gender for no reason except hatred or jealousy. When Nasa Jupiter referred to the “B” word, she meant the word bitch. When Nasa Jupiter referred to the “N” word, she meant the word nigger. However, she did not retaliate with her own negative words or actions based on how the incident made her feel emotionally. Instead, Nasa Jupiter shared that improvisation skills help her adjust in different situations, even when dealing with race and gender denigration. She believes that learning how to promptly deal with whatever is thrown at her by managing her behaviors and comments is something that she learned in drama class. Nasa Jupiter used the improv strategy by adjusting to the negative racial and misogynistic slurs spewed at her. Nasa Jupiter knew that improv meant that she needed to take what was happening in her current situation in the soccer game and adjust her mood and actions to make something new exist. That is precisely what she did. She continued to play well in the game, did not allow the racial slurs of other students to intimidate her level of playing ability, and created a situation in her head where she was the star of the soccer game. She envisioned the rest of the game and played the game as if the words coming at her only made her actions and behaviors kinder but driven to win the soccer game of which she was the star. During the interview, I listened intently to how this young woman was brave enough to keep playing, keep pushing, even though hurtful words were underhandedly thrown at her out of the ear and sight of coaches and parents. I thought about the grit that Nasa Jupiter developed to withstand the consistent harassment because of the color of her skin, her gender, and her remarkable ability to play soccer well. She was able to call on the improv strategy that she learned in drama class to adjust and create a new situation, if even in her own mind, to withstand the racist and misogynistic experience on the soccer field. I was also poised to hear the story of Noemi and how she experienced discrimination on a different level where she was able to employ a drama strategy. Her encounter was not what we would typically note as racist. It may be labeled as Black on Black hatred, but to Noemi, it was a racist act. The situation happened in school with another student. The other student was a middle school Black boy. Noemi had to cross paths with this student regularly since they had several classes together. Please recall that Noemi is the student that initially self-identified as African European. She is still trying to

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understand how people of African descent identify in America. She acknowledges that she is Black and African. However, Noemi was shocked that a student who had the same skin color as her would discriminate against her because of where she was originally from, Africa. Noemi shared, “This guy, he thinks I’m, like, African cause, like, I’m from Africa, and so he just says, go back to your country, you ugliest Black bitch. I just have to ignore it and keep going.” Noemi was vulnerable in sharing that she was wholly hurt by his comment and was shocked that someone who looked like her with the same skin color, even though they were not born in the same country, would say those hurtful words to her. She viewed this as a racist act toward her because she has learned that those types of words are often said to Black people by White people. This hatred act against her hurt her not only deeply but also terribly confused her. Noemi learned through drama class that she can go into character sometimes to deal with the negativity from other people. Instead of instantly becoming hurt and defensive to the foul words that Noemi’s peer said to her, she chose to go into character, outside of herself and her feelings, to have conversations beyond the negative comments to move beyond that instance. Noemi’s strength deeply moved me. Her level of insight on figuring out how to navigate in a new country that does not treat people with Black skin respectfully impressed me. Although I experienced hurt because of her pain, I was impressed with Noemi using the drama strategy of going into character to move beyond the painful experience. She chose to pretend to be someone else where those hurtful comments spewed at her would not apply. That means that she chose to hide her true identity in her mind. She made the decision to pretend she was not from Africa, was not Black, nor was she a girl in her new character. That scenario provided the space to withstand the hurtful comments from someone who shared the same skin color. Noemi shows signs of struggle with identity and confidence. However, Noemi shared that she goes into character often to get through the week or month in school. I was impressed with how Noemi used what she learned in drama classes to give her strength but was very saddened by this incident and how she chose to hide her identity to make it through life. This level of what Noemi is calling racism is a by-product of internalized self-hatred. Her Black male student peer did not see that he and Noemi are more alike than he cared to consider and that he is subject to the same type of racial slurs from others. In fact, I’m inclined to believe that he has already experienced attacks of racial slurs by his White peers that have caused him pain and a feeling of displacement. Yet, I believe he chose to transpose the pain and hatred that he felt onto another person to feel better about himself and fit in with the other name-callers. Through the data collection process, I learned that these Black girls had learned drama strategies to combat racism, discrimination, and misogyny as

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they strengthened their identity as Black girls. Each of these girls experienced racism or discrimination inside and outside of school. They used breathing techniques, improv, or going into character strategies that they learned in drama class to help combat those challenges, validating that practicing drama strategies has influenced words, actions, attitudes, and behaviors of Black middle school girls. Confidence and Expression After hearing the stories around racist and misogynistic incidents that happened to Bobo, Nasa Jupiter, and Noemi during the interviews, it became apparent that these young Black girls could push past insecurities by practicing drama activities and strategies. Confidence was another theme that emerged from the data. Confidence directly impacted the girls’ levels of engagement and success with foundational, digital, and Black girls’ literacies. Consequently, the Black girls felt comfortable sharing the transitions to improve their confidence levels, partly attributed to learning strategies and techniques in their drama classes. Three of the girls communicated that practicing drama strategies helped them feel more confident and helped them control negative behaviors. Nasa Jupiter shares, “I feel like drama class has made me feel like I can be so much more than what life stereotypes Black girls because we can be so much more than we can express in our feelings, and we can be more than just us, basically being more than what life thinks that we are.” That statement was powerful coming from a thirteen-year-old girl who displayed the maturity to understand society’s stereotypes of certain groups of people. Nevertheless, she also understands the importance of rising above the negative stereotypes to embrace the excellence that she can exude. She can embrace confidence in herself and her abilities through the conversations and activities that she participates in while in Ms. Gomez’s drama class. The class allows for safety and care that feeds her confidence inside and outside of that classroom space. She goes on to say, “My mom said that when I was little, I was, like, very shy. And that’s why she started signing me up for drama at a very young age. So, over the years, she said that she has seen me go through lots of stuff as a more confident, Black female.” It was evident that Nasa Jupiter and her mom witnessed growth in Nasa Jupiter’s confidence, and they both attribute that growth to her experiences in drama class and the strategies that she utilizes from that class. Alice’s comments also contribute to the emergence of the Confidence and Expression theme. She expressed how drama helped build her confidence as a Black girl by merely learning how to embrace her fears during hard situations like speaking in front of large crowds. Alice is a shy young lady and always felt uncomfortable speaking publicly, even in smaller groups. She did

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not like to be put in the spotlight and certainly did not like to feel stupid by saying the wrong things in front of people. Even as I sat with her during the interview to hear about her experiences, she was soft-spoken and shy. She did not often make eye contact, but she did not seem nervous or fidgety. Alice learned in Ms. Gomez’s drama class that she could speak up intelligently, and others looked forward to what she had to say. She realized that her words always made sense, but she did not have the confidence in herself to be seen or heard by others. She never forced her voice on others. Practicing plays, poetry readings, and creating rap songs from Shakespeare lines helped Alice feel more comfortable and confident standing in front of a crowd and speaking proudly. She loved each of those class activities that helped her find her confident voice. Interestingly, Noemi shared during her interview that she is also a shy person but believes her confidence emerged through practicing drama strategies in Ms. Gomez’s class. She said, “I am sometimes still shy, but, like, I can even share that sometimes I feel a little bit more confident now that I take drama.” From my observation, Noemi had not previously thought about how the drama techniques encouraged and reinforced her confidence. However, it was edifying for me to see Noemi’s enlightenment of her own development of her confidence. These Black girls shared examples of how practicing drama has helped them gain more confidence; thus, they are better equipped to handle varying situations within education and society. In fact, during the focus group session, two of the girls made strong comments about Black girls being confident. They spoke confidently about themselves and shared their thoughts on the topic as the group conversation was allowed to flow without interruption. Although two girls led the conversation on that topic, all of the girls nodded in agreement as a unified group during personal testimonies. The gist of the conversation around that topic focused on how Black girls cannot allow people to force societal “dominant culture norms” on them and that Black girls and women are strong, powerful, and confident and do not need to succumb to imposed expectations. Bobo shared these sentiments in the group discussion and attributes her confidence to strategies that she learned while participating in drama classes: If we need to meet society requirements to identify what it is to be a true girl or a Black girl and on top of that, we’ve got to prove to them that they’re wrong about us; prove that we can do this, we can do that; we’re not this, we’re not that. We are stronger than they know!

I sat across the table in awe of the strength that I saw emanating from Bobo and the other young women after hearing their confessions about their

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confidence. I could not express the happiness rising within me because I was trying to remain neutral. We have to keep in mind that they are middle school girls ages twelve to fifteen. These girls have weaponized themselves with drama strategies that insulate them from the harsh realities that Black girls and women face in our current society. As the conversations during the one-on-one interviews and within the focus group continued to develop, it became clear to me that the confidence theme closely aligned with expressing confidence while engaging on social media. Incidentally, Advocacy on Social Media is a theme that emerged that you will read about further in this chapter. Noemi shared that her way of showing confidence while engaging on social media is to post positive images of Black girls and women on social media to show the strength of African American girls and women. The entire focus group participants were nodding and agreeing when they heard Noemi say those words, signifying that they embraced those same sentiments. I understood their reactions to be proud of the positive images of the African American women and girls that they posted on social media, where they found strength in their alignment with these women who looked like them, thus inspiring confidence in these young women. Additionally, expression is another theme that emerged along with the confidence theme. They seemed to surface hand in hand during the data analysis process, so I decided to create the Confidence and Expression theme as one. I learned this when two student participants shared how practicing drama influenced how they can express themselves in school, outside of school, and within different crowd sizes very confidently. For example, Bobo learned to express herself despite her restrictive Liberian cultural norms. This is where confidence and expression go hand in hand, but it was hard to determine which came first—confidence or expression. An example is when Bobo said, Well, drama has definitely impacted my life because I’m Liberian, so, like, I’m African. I came from a culture where you really can’t express yourself as a girl like that in the U.S. As a Black girl, I like drama. It just motivates me. Like, I could do anything. I can express myself the way I want to show myself. Represent myself the way I want to respect myself and respect others.

Bobo made it clear that as a Liberian girl, she is expected to present herself in a certain way and often cannot freely express her feelings, thoughts, or words. She must be secondary to boys and men. She has been conditioned to control her feelings, thoughts, and words. By practicing drama, she is able to grow as a young lady in a respectful way and still honor her Liberian culture. She has learned a way of expression through speaking, using certain language, and facial expressions. She believes that practicing drama has given her an

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outlet to express herself. She has confidence in what to say and how to say it. She attributes her newfound confidence and expression to the strategies she learned in drama class. Some of the strategies that Bobo embraced in this area are learning how to read and interpret Shakespeare and utilizing it as a way of expression. She spends time understanding the stories written by Shakespeare and enjoys reciting them aloud to her peers in her class. She enjoys using the lines in Shakespeare’s plays to convert to rap songs and sing them in front of the class. Speaking publicly in front of her class about her feelings and thoughts has helped her grow as a Liberian Black girl. This practice has been beneficial for Bobo. Another student, Nasa Jupiter, shares that drama helped her express her feelings more positively when dealing with people who are antagonistic toward her. She shared an activity that Ms. Gomez does in drama class. The activity entails that certain students are selected to rate the performance of other students negatively. Nasa Jupiter shares, On purpose, she [the teacher] got like negative people to rate us. And she tried to, like, see how I would respond, and she showed us that if you let these people affect you and how you feel and respond, then you’re being as negative as they are. And so that basically taught us not to stoop down to people’s level and to express positive actions, and to believe in ourselves.

The purpose of the activity was for certain students to intentionally rate the performance of other students in a negative manner. Ms. Gomez wanted the raters to be direct and specific. She wanted the students that were being rated to exercise confidence and express themselves with mindfulness. She guided the rated students to be prepared for inappropriate and negative comments that could be said to them at any time and suggested strategies that were more professional. Some strategies like walking away, taking the high road, not engaging or retaliating with negative words in the conversation, and just breathing deeply with a four-count. Ms. Gomez wanted her students to adopt positive strategies of expression whenever they encounter negative moments. The strategies they learned helped them become more confident and comfortable expressing themselves. These learned behaviors link to Black girls’ literacy and how teenage Black girls navigate society with language, confidence, and expression. They have formed a sense of confidence in being Black and girls coupled with employing strategies of expression in a multitude of scenarios. The student participants embodied Black girls’ literacy as an instructional practice that became a space for resistance and for the educational excellence of Black girls that prepares them to be successful in life (Sealey-Ruiz 2016, 290–98).

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Ms. Gomez intends to plan lessons and develop a curriculum that supports Black girls’ literacy. Additionally, the actions of these young girls are evidence of the underpinnings of the CRAE framework. Their actions and learned behaviors through drama practice draw on critical literacies skills by encouraging Black girls to read and write about their experiences of being a Black girl in today’s context (Sealey-Ruiz 2016, 290–98). This study with the middle school Black girls adopts Black girls’ literacy guidelines by connecting drama and its influence on Black girls as they develop their identity. It is evident from the study that these Black girls built confidence and explored expression through drama participation. Foundational Literacy When the group was asked if there was anything else that they would like to say about the influence that practicing drama may have on how they speak, what they say, what they post on social media, or how they navigate being a Black girl, three of the Black girls indicate that participating in drama class influenced their speaking, reading, and writing, essentially, their foundational literacy. They clearly shared that their vocabulary expanded, they could use more words and speak in public, they felt more intelligent, and they increased their book reading list. In addition, they shared that their increase in vocabulary was an effect of being exposed to more plays by reading or watching them in class and then having detailed discussions about them. In fact, at the time of the study, Ms. Gomez was trying to secure a grant so that she could take all of her students to professional plays. She wanted them to witness the performances not only for the acting but also to learn etiquette while attending a professional play. The young women agreed that the classroom activities they learned unlocked their interest and desire to read even more. Several sub-themes were revealed after hearing the girls speak freely about the connection between drama and foundational literacy. I explained below how drama influences foundational literacy more deeply through the following emergent sub-themes. Reading. Based on reading outcomes data from 2015 PISA, the 2015 NCES average achievement scores in reading, and the 2017 NAEP average reading scores of students in eighth-grade public city schools in urban areas, Black girls in eighth grade have significantly lower reading scores than White, Hispanic, Asian, and Pacific Island girls, as well as White and Asian boys. The data from my study indicates that three out of four student participants support that their drama instruction has positively influenced their reading. This is clearly anecdotal and not statistical evidence.

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Alice and Bobo love reading Shakespeare in their drama classes and believe that it enhanced their vocabulary and made reading even more intriguing. In fact, they had never heard of Shakespeare and did not think they would even want to read that type of literature initially. Alice soon realized that she genuinely enjoys reading Shakespeare because Ms. Gomez made it fun by asking the students to create rap songs using lines from Shakespeare plays. Consequently, Alice got in the habit of looking up all things Shakespeare on her phone because she wanted to learn more and more about Shakespeare. In response to posting her love of Shakespeare on social media, Alice shares, “We learn about Shakespeare, and then I might look up an account about poetry or Shakespeare, and then sooner or later, I’ll keep seeing Shakespeare and poetry over and over on my timeline. I also might post a Shakespeare quote online that I learned.” Bobo also shares her love of Shakespeare and proudly mentions that Shakespeare was introduced to her through her drama class. She says, “I love Shakespeare. So basically, we’re reading Romeo and Juliet and a lot of Shakespeare. So, I’ll be able to understand the words and the work more. It helps my vocabulary. Read more Shakespeare!” I have honestly never seen a middle school student exhibit that much excitement about Shakespeare. I work in education and have never seen a middle school Black girl express just how much she loves reading Shakespeare. I found it eye-opening that Ms. Gomez is exploring literature, plays, techniques, and performance-watching etiquette in her classes. The results from this study support that drama influences the foundational reading skills of these middle school Black girls. Not only have the students embraced favorite activities and strategies that they have learned in drama classes, but they have figured out when and how to ignite those strategies to enhance what and how much they read and develop a more substantial interest in wanting to read more. Writing. “When students actively engage in the reading and writing processes, they learn ways to use their growing knowledge and skills fluidly, and in combination with all domains of development in their lives” (Brown 2014, 35–49). Additionally, the Black girls’ literacies framework allows Black girls to draw on their critical literacies skills by reading and writing about their individual and collective experiences of being a Black girl in today’s context (Sealey-Ruiz 2016, 290–98). The Black girls in this study learned how to express themselves better through writing while participating in drama class. Alice exclaimed, “We watch plays on video and then write out our feelings.” Ms. Gomez would give instructions to her students to write how they felt about the play, how the play touched them emotionally, how or what they would have done differently if they were in the play, and their overall feelings about the work. Alice explained that she could more easily express her thoughts and feelings as a Black girl based on participating in that particular

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activity in drama class. The practice of writing about one’s feelings about a play gave her the experience to write about her own feelings more expressively and easily. Alice has had difficulty expressing herself in childhood, and through more frequent and directed writing activities in her drama class, she is able to express her personal thoughts and feelings. I could see in her face that the ability to express herself more easily brought relief to her life. Additionally, Nasa Jupiter shares, “with my writing, um, it’s [drama] helped me a lot.” Nasa Jupiter clarified that she had been in drama classes since she was a young child and believed that her writing is pretty decent now due to the multiple years of participating in drama class and having the opportunity to practice writing in her classes. She also admits that her writing continues to get better. Interestingly, Nasa Jupiter compares her writing to that of one of her close friends. She mentions a friend who did not participate in drama until middle school. She spoke about her friend’s writing quality and how it was boring and not expressive, having lots of errors. Nasa Jupiter noticed how practicing drama strategies helped her friend become more creative in her writing. She believes that her friend actually enjoys writing now. Since I had not met the friend, I had to believe that Nasa Jupiter saw this growth in her friend’s writing and that it was partly attributed to participation in drama class. Additionally, Bobo shared that studying Shakespeare has helped with her writing and enhanced her vocabulary. Vocabulary was a key focus for Bobo in the writing process. She stated, “Um, it like enhances my vocabulary. Some words that I know and can say, some people would not really understand cause they weren’t, like, in drama and stuff.” Bobo recognizes that her vocabulary expands through her participation in multiple reading and writing assignments in her drama classes. Speaking. This study extends foundational literacy as the developed written and spoken language skills based on other literacies. Black girls are often stereotyped as ineffective speakers or lack the confidence or vocabulary to speak well. The data collected and analyzed from the study showed that a sub-theme emerged under Foundational Literacy around speaking that participants believed were influenced through drama practice. Alice posits, “It helped me be more confident and express things more clearly. Say what I really mean to say.” Alice made it clear to me that she can confidently speak to students or adults and use proper words to say exactly what she means to say. She understands the power of words and is proud that she is able to use them and speak appropriately. Additionally, Nasa Jupiter gave more details on how her speaking, influenced by drama practice, helped her emerge from shyness. Nasa Jupiter shares, I kind of went through, like, a phase where I was very shy and timid, and I wouldn’t really speak that much because I always thought, well, what I say

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would be wrong or something. So, when I started doing drama class, I’ve been able to speak out more and speak up. So, it’s helped me with my speaking a lot.

Nasa Jupiter joins Alice in her thinking about the influence of drama participation on her speaking. Not only is Nasa Jupiter able to use the correct words with the correct meanings, but she notes that because of her proper word usage, she feels more confident speaking out publicly. As I spent more time with these young women listening to their experiences, it became apparent that they recognized that drama influenced overcoming shyness and having the confidence to speak clearly and actually speak publicly. Advocacy on Social Media An additional topic that emerged during the interview process was advocacy on social media. Given the state of our society with interaction and engagement with social media, I was not surprised that this topic emerged as a theme during the discovery and analysis processes. Each of the young Black girl students I interviewed shared that they spend considerable time (thirty minutes to four hours) on social media per day. I wanted to critically explore their activities employed on social media as it relates to skills that they learned through practicing drama. When I asked the young women which social media platforms they used, they mentioned the use of combinations of Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter as their preferred social media platforms. Although their time engaging on social media ranges from a little to quite abundant, they each explained to me in their own ways how they try to refrain from participating in negative, harmful, and inappropriate activity while online. Incidentally, each student participant shared that they have experienced negative moments on social media. However, they all shared that they intentionally work at not acting out of character through words and actions after reading hurtful posts or seeing harmful pictures on social media. They eventually attributed the management of their emotions and actions to the hurtful, harmful messages to strategies that they learned in drama class. Through the data collection and analysis process during this study, all of the Black girls shared that they felt comfortable in those social media spaces to advocate for themselves and other Black girls and women. Additionally, they have learned to manage their responses and behaviors on social media and do not feel bullied or intimidated to engage in responses posted on social media. In fact, Alice shares, “if I’m responding to a post, I say my opinion or if I think they’re wrong or right, or I might share facts about the topic being discussed.” Alice exhibits that she feels confident enough to post her opinion appropriately about what she sees on social media. She also has

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enough confidence to give judgment on if another social media poster’s post is “wrong” or “right.” This action is a vital step for Alice as she has learned to research topics for facts that she may post instead of engaging in gossip, hearsay, or bullying, but then feel confident enough to express her thoughts and feelings in a professional manner and let her voice be heard. Bobo shares that she likes to remain positive when she engages on social media. She does not want to get caught in a verbal battle with others on social media over personal opinions or hurtful messages. She shares how she navigates as a teenage Black girl on social media by stating, I can encourage somebody, motivate somebody to do good cause you don’t know the situation they’re going through. So, like, you could make somebody’s day by, like, just commenting on, like, simple and nice stuff that can inspire them. It’s a lot of things going on right now by being Black and stuff. So, you just have to keep your head up, keep on going, stay positive, don’t look at the negative things.

As I listened to her positive, encouraging words for others on social media, I witnessed a young woman that expressed maturity with a kind heart and wanted to see good things happen to people. I could clearly hear through her conversation that she stands for positivity. She let me know that in drama class, Ms. Gomez always imparts words on the students to be mindful of how they treat and judge others because you never know what that person could be dealing with. Ms. Gomez had the students practice the “Take a Walk in Someone Else’s Shoes” strategy in class as encouragement for students to be more sensitive to the feelings and emotions of others. After speaking with Nasa Jupiter, she admits that some posts that she reads on social media actually bother her. She gets angry or feels hurt or sad if she sees a negative post about her, whether it was intentional or indirect. She gets especially sad when she sees mean and hurtful posts directed at her friends. In the past, she would see a negative post and fire back with anger and vengeance at the poster or others who ridiculed the victim of the post. These actions spiraled and caused Nasa Jupiter to feel deep sadness. Upon learning some strategies in drama class, she learned to work through how she responds and what she says within those responses about herself and her friends, but mainly she is working on not allowing posts on social media to affect her mood, thoughts, and feelings. She is a kind-hearted young woman who rambles a little about how people may not know what other people are really going through in someone else’s life. “They don’t know what a negative post could do to a person,” she says. Essentially, negative posts could devastate others, but Nasa Jupiter believes if folks could walk in others’ shoes, see what others deal with, experience the challenges of others, as learned in process

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drama, then just maybe the mean, hurtful posts would decrease. Nasa Jupiter states, “One of the main things is that I shouldn’t let what people say or what people do affect how I feel because, at the end of the day, it’s my life, and they’re probably just jealous of me, so I shouldn’t really respond to posts. They should take a walk in my shoes.” Additionally, Noemi has discovered how to manage her reactions to posts she reads on social media. She states, “Before I post off, I’m, like, would this impact you in a good way, or would it affect you in a bad way? So that’s why I barely post stuff. Take a walk in someone else’s shoes.” She regularly assesses how her words or actions affect herself as well as others who hear or see what she does or says. She is very mindful of her actions and behaviors around her social media usage and, in fact, recalls the drama activity that she learned in class to remind her. Take a Walk in Someone’s Shoes is a strategy practiced in process drama where the students are asked to be mindful of how and what they act out based on another person’s situation or experiences. It is a strategy where students explore issues and solve problems by exploring a different point of view and have an opportunity to rethink their assumptions about a person or situation. This is a vital tool for students to learn to navigate life as they interact with various people or groups. As I continue to spend more time speaking with the young women, I discover that Noemi learned to speak out against injustice for herself and others by becoming more empathetic to others and their situations through using the Take a Walk in Someone Else’s Shoes strategy. Noemi witnessed peers and others feel defeated or extremely hurt by the criticism and hurtful judgmental words directed at them. She empathized with their pain and adopted that learning strategy in varying situations in her life, not just during drama class. Although digital literacy encompasses the literate use of devices to achieve a variety of goals, it is also a way of expressing knowledge using language, images, sound, and multimedia through digital platforms (Hobbs 2017). Each of the girls was mindful of their actions in person and online. They were also keenly aware of how their voices and actions could support, stand up for, and advocate for others. They learned that their voices could be powerfully damaging or powerfully uplifting. Utilizing the drama strategies even supported their confidence in scenarios that happened while they engaged on social media. Each of the students acquired enhanced reading, writing, speaking, and confidence through the instruction they received in the drama class to advocate for themselves using digital literacy while engaging on social media.

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Cultural Relevance Not surprisingly, cultural relevance emerged as a theme during the study. It seems that the implementation of drama as an art form in alignment with the demographics of the Black girls and their Black woman teacher, the urban school setting, and navigating life as Black girls sparked the importance of culture. We are aware that the arts can open pathways toward understanding the richness of people and cultures and foster a sense of being (Bucheli et al. 1991, 25–26). Equally important is that the arts can give rise to one or many voices in educational settings that impact academics and cultural contexts for students and teachers. This became evident during the interview process and the focus group. I want to reiterate the significance of CRAE as a framework for this study. The data collected and analyzed from this study indicates that the CRAE framework laid the foundation for what is already happening within the instruction of Ms. Gomez’s drama class. Ms. Gomez is quite intentional with the instructional design of her curriculum and the delivery of her lessons. Covered under the drama umbrella, Ms. Gomez incorporates reading, writing, speaking, and expression while exploring the concepts of identity, confidence, and culture. Her students not only do a lot of Shakespearean and poetic writing and reading in her class to enhance foundational literacy, but they also embrace drama strategies, activities, and practices as training to become more comfortable in being themselves and embracing their cultures. That is the vision that Ms. Gomez has for the growth of her students. Ms. Gomez states, I love the fact that I allow my students to be anything that they want to be. Sometimes my students come from a very hard background and hard home life, and so I want for my students in my class to just be able to become a doctor, become a lawyer, or become a cowboy or whatever they want to be.

Although Ms. Gomez was not initially aware that she was employing many of the tenets of CRAE from a BFT lens with her Black girl students, she displayed specific pedagogy in the classroom to support their academics along with their diverse cultural backgrounds. She was actually implementing CRAE through drama using a BFT lens. It was refreshing for me to see this middle school teacher teaching at a deeper level, making a valid impact on the lives of impressionable Black girls. Ms. Gomez embraces all students’ cultural knowledge and experiences as an opportunity to explore actions and critical reflection about the arts and education while using drama as an art form. She is unapologetically intentional about the work she does with her students. Ms. Gomez has a unique way of sharing her passion for accepting diverse students and allowing them

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to transform into whom they want to become in life. She is enthusiastic about doing this through the dramatic arts. Ms. Gomez shares, You should be able to be yourself before you can transform into another character. I think that their participation [in drama class], um, just sorta helps them be able to be comfortable in their own skin. So, I try to highlight something that may be seen as a negative into a positive and I feel like it helps with their self-esteem and feel comfortable with themselves. Um, bringing awareness to different situations is a way that drama teachers could incorporate it [culturally relevant art education-CRAE]. And we could do that through simple discussions, um, analyzing different plays that sort of touch on social justice issues. Um, that’s sort of what I do, and I’m definitely a firm believer that we need to bring those things to light. And I believe that drama is sort of a way to incorporate those sorts of things.

Ms. Gomez has a great handle on working with a diverse student population and implementing cultural pedagogy. However, Ms. Gomez may not fully understand the connection between drama and its influence on foundational, digital, and Black girls’ literacies; yet she delivers a form of critical pedagogy that aims to challenge cultural and structural power relations through an analysis of systems of power (Freire 1982). Multiple discussions with Ms. Gomez revealed that she always taught in schools with diverse cultures, and she is receptive, almost empathetic to different backgrounds. She landed her role as the drama teacher at this urban school with this experience and sensitivity as a Black woman teacher. Ms. Gomez creates lessons in drama class to teach her student population with cultural relevance from a critical lens. Her school administration and social environment embrace her passion for implementing culturally responsive pedagogy and developing additional curricula that would be more useful and beneficial for Black middle school girls in an urban middle school. When I asked Ms. Gomez what she would do differently to support her Black girl students in her drama classes, Ms. Gomez shared, I would add more plays and discussions about the things that they [Black girls] go through. I think that that would be really helpful for the day-to-day stuff that they go through as just Black children. I am extremely sensitive, and I tried to incorporate a sort of an appreciation for different cultures. We’ve done, like, a poetry slam, um, and we’re doing, actually a Black history thing where the students will research a person and then try to dress up and act as them.

Ms. Gomez believes that the practice of drama allows her students to explore their race and culture in the comfort of her classroom without judgment. A good example is Bobo, who is African and now believes that participating in drama class allows her to express herself in ways that her culture does not

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encourage. Through Ms. Gomez’s drama class, Bobo was able to respect and appreciate the discipline and beauty of her culture yet have opportunities in Ms. Gomez’s drama class for her voice to be heard. I discovered that Ms. Gomez brings in Black culture to the drama activities. Noemi shares some fun activities that the class did for Black History Month. She states, “We had to do, um, a show for Black history for Michael Jackson, so, we had to, like, dance like he used to and use your body to show what is going on and express culture. You didn’t have to, like, really talk.” Ms. Gomez thinks these activities that tie in Black history really help her students explore and embrace their cultures in her classes and in the real world. She enjoys watching her students transform into characters in different roles and express how that relates to or impacts their real lives. The data indicates that the CRAE framework laid the foundation for what was already happening within the instruction of Ms. Gomez’s drama class. Her students not only do a lot of writing and reading in her class to enhance foundational literacy, but her vision is for her students to embrace drama strategies, activities, and practices so that they feel comfortable in being themselves and embracing their culture. For her Black girl students, this journey of reading, writing, and expression allowed them to explore Black girls’ literacy. Ms. Gomez states, I try to foster a positive relationship with all of my students so that they are comfortable with being able to be themselves and how to be in the world. I want for children just to have an appreciation for the arts, particularly drama. I want them to be exposed to things like audience etiquette so that when they grow up, they know how to behave.

Additionally, Ms. Gomez realized that the drama instruction that she teaches in class actually taps into the underexamined literacies and transforms into life skills for her Black girl students. Ms. Gomez shares, “I didn’t realize that, um, the stuff that I was really doing actually was so reality-based. Um, I mean the stuff I’m teaching in class, I didn’t necessarily, like, think of it as a life skill of theirs.” We know that one of the challenges in urban education is the need for teachers to develop a cultural and contextual understanding of students in their classrooms while maintaining an emphasis on the heterogeneous academic needs of students in urban settings (White et al. 2017, 18–34). Ms. Gomez prides herself on her sensitivity toward the culture of her students. Through a more in-depth analysis of the data, drama influences enhanced Black middle school girl students’ reading, writing, speaking, and advocacy. Teachers must recognize and have a commitment to equity, access, and understand the environment where the student is being raised. As a Black woman, Ms. Gomez appreciates the unique backgrounds of her Black girl

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students and perceives them to be proud of their culture, and thus believes drama instruction influences how they express their cultural selves. She also shares her vision and teaching as she embraces culturally relevant pedagogy in her lesson. RACE AND GENDER IDENTITY As we learned earlier in the book, “Black girls are often left voiceless and feeling invisible in school, potentially receiving inequitable education (White et al. 2017, 18–34), requiring further discussion and research. We also know that “adolescent girls’ self-confidence begins lagging in sixth grade, with a rise in anxiety and questioning her academic abilities and intelligence around seventh grade (Hough 2019). The data from Hough does not indicate the race of the girls, yet we have learned that Black girls contend with the additional pressure of race discrimination that affects how they perceive and embrace their identity. However, the data from my study revealed that three of the student participants felt more confident navigating being Black and girls in society due to participating in drama class. Moreover, data that emerged from the focus group around confidence steered toward Black girl confidence as a by-product of their race and gender. The gist of the conversation in the focus group centered around how Black girls are strong, powerful, and confident and do not need to succumb to imposed societal expectations. Their conversation intrigued me as I observed their strength, even after hearing about the traumatic racial and gender bashing incidents they endured. As we conclude the narratives on where Black girls fit within a society that has historically marginalized them based on race and gender, we know that most national statistics ignore the experiences, performances, and outcomes of Black girls. However, the data in this study indicate that these four Black girls share experiences about the influence that participating in drama has on their confidence, expression, and advocacy skills as Black girls. After sharing their personal negative race and gender encounters, including racial slurs and acts of misogyny, these Black girls share that they use drama activities that they have learned in class to express who they are as positive, unique beings in person and on social media platforms, as well as build their confidence and advocate for themselves and other Black girls. Bobo shares, We should be boosting each other up in our economy and help each other rise up because we are at a point where White people are against stuff and us; we should be trying to stick together, help each other, and we should keep on doing that instead of bringing each other down in this economy.

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After spending some time talking to Bobo, I discovered that she is able to speak up for what is right, particularly concerning justice for Black girls. Her words sounded as though she has witnessed some injustices toward Black people and sees the benefit of rallying together to fight for what is right. She has taken a stance on helping people who look like her instead of contributing to the racial and misogynistic hurt instilled upon those people. “Participating in drama class has helped her identify incidents that are right and wrong and feel empowered to speak out to support others in need. I must reiterate that this theme can draw on critical literacies skills by encouraging Black girls to read and write about their experiences of being a Black girl in today’s context by connecting to drama’s influence on Black girls’ literacy. These Black girls build confidence and explore expression through drama participation. Although each student participant has favorite drama practices and activities that they learned in class, the data indicates some drama practices and activities to be more effective than what they chose as their favorite. Drama Resources outlined several strategies that were implemented in the class with the study participants, like Thought Tracking, Storytelling, and Improvisation (Drama Resources n.d.). The Black girls shared their own experiences where those strategies were effectively used to combat their personal challenges and enhance their literacies. CHAPTER SUMMARY Each of the drama practices offered was effective in the girls’ personal and educational lives. They shared many compelling experiences, some frustrations, and some accomplishments. As I listened to their personal stories and marveled at how well they navigated the discriminatory instances by using drama strategies, I could not help but feel a bit sad that they had to experience the pain and a bit proud that they were able to protect and defend themselves, as well as develop foundational and digital literacies. Much of their growth is a consequence of their time with Ms. Gomez and the instruction that she imparts upon them. Ms. Gomez enjoys being present and advocating for cultural acceptance as a Black woman for her students. She recognizes differences and the life challenges that her students bring to the classroom. Ms. Gomez shares her perceptions on what she has learned about her students and how she can extend her vision for her Black girl students. Ms. Gomez also encourages her Black girl students to freely express themselves as she believes it is important for their identity development.

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Figure 7.1. Explanatory Model. By the author.

Ms. Gomez knows when to dig more critically with lessons and when to allow for practice and appreciation of drama strategies and activities. As Gallagher outlines, “drama teachers learn to situate their classrooms as a safe environment to develop essential life skills within their students” (Gallagher 2016, 20–36). It will serve the reader well to view my explanatory model below (see figure 7.1). This model explains how practicing drama directly influences several literacies and behaviors of urban Black middle school girls.

Chapter Eight

Shifting Our Focus to Cultural Arts Curriculum and Teaching in Urban Education

“Drama is my everyday life now.” —Bobo

Now is the appropriate time to refresh you on the thesis of this book. Let’s recall how we began the thought process in the introductory chapter. Not only were you informed of the challenges that urban teenage Black girls combat, but questions were also posed about the growth and development of urban Black middle school girls concerning their education and social and emotional development. The main questions seek to explore how the arts, namely dramatic arts, influence the growth and development of urban middle school Black girls. As you continue reading the book, the CRAE framework is introduced. You learn that the ultimate goal of CRAE is to promote empowerment so that all individuals may assert their inherent creativity to construct a world that shares, recognizes, and includes their gifts (Hanley et al., 2013). Based on the discovery during the research study for this book and other peer-reviewed data, there is a lack of culturally relevant arts in education, particularly in the area of dramatic art. Given the lack of CRAE curriculum within drama, this book presents drama as a positive factor for curriculum and instruction to influence foundational, digital, and Black girls’ literacies of Black girls in an urban middle school. Although the life experiences of the Black girls are importantly acknowledged and addressed as a result of the activities, techniques, and strategies that their Black woman drama teacher employs in the classroom, it is known that one of the challenges in urban education is the need for teachers to develop a cultural and contextual understanding of students in their classrooms (White et al. 2017, 18–34). To explore this 93

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phenomenon, interview questions and focus group questions were developed and asked to the study participants. Their answers were used to examine the experiences of Black middle school girls who participate in drama classes. The collected data from the middle school Black girls were analyzed to discover any influence that drama activities, techniques, and strategies had on their reading, writing, speaking, social media engagement, and advocacy for themselves and other Black girls. Ms. Gomez acknowledges that what she teaches in class is reality based and offers life skills development for her students, particularly her Black girl students. Her strategies and pedagogy align with the principles of BFT and the CTL non-arts pedagogy of CRAE. For example, Noemi, Bobo, Nasa Jupiter, and Alice each acquired active learning techniques in drama class like improv, breathing exercises, and taking a walk in someone’s shoes that helped them connect what they already know and experience with constructing new knowledge. In essence, each girl used an active learned technique in drama to deal with racism, sexism, and discrimination, as well as reading, writing, confidence building, and strong identity development. Additionally, we must remember the significance of the Black woman drama teacher. Ms. Gomez’s participation in the study for this book allowed her to perceive her Black girl students as intuitive cultural young women. “I did not realize everything they experience in their lives and how drama helps them. I’m so proud of them,” says Ms. Gomez. This experience also confirmed for Ms. Gomez that her teaching is significant to the development of the Black girls that she teaches, as well as draws from culturally responsive teaching concepts. The remainder of this book includes the discussion of this study and ways to look toward future work and solutions. In the introductory chapter, we learned that “Black girls in urban middle schools face challenges with using language to construct meaning (Flood and Anders 2005; Sealey-Ruiz 2016, 290–98) “dealing with harmful social media activity, “navigating the cultural pressures of adolescence (Martin et al. 2018, 213–24), as well as “understanding how society embraces the intersectionality of their race and gender identities (Sealey-Ruiz 2016, 290–98). When urban middle schools lack culturally relevant drama programs that strategically align with foundational, digital, and Black girls’ literacies, it is a detriment to the growth and development of Black girls in many areas. By utilizing the Culturally Relevant Arts Education framework through the lens of Black Feminist Thought epistemology, drama strategies and practices are found to be impactful for grounding arts-based instruction with cultural significance. We learned how Black urban middle school girls use certain drama strategies as social justice advocacy to combat race and gender discrimination through this study. Furthermore, we learned the vision of and instruction by their drama teacher as she worked with these



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Black middle school girls in an urban setting to help them develop into confident and poised young women. The information shared in this book is significant because scant literature explicitly links the influence of drama with these three literacies (foundational, digital, and Black girls’ literacies) of Black girls in an urban middle school. Scholars, educators, students, parents, funders, researchers, and school reformers may be able to glean information from this book to enhance the development of teenage Black girls in urban schools. This book is intended to be informative and instructional, less theoretical as the goal is to impact Black urban middle school girls’ lives directly with practical guidance. After comprehensive data collection, considerable time coding and analyzing the data, and making sense of the results of the data in order to share with constituents that may find this useful, it is important that I dedicate a section to this book on suggestions for moving forward with the information. First, the study’s findings suggest that Black girls who participate in drama (1) experience enhanced foundational language, (2) acquire more positive racial and gender identities, and (3) demonstrate effective management of social media engagement. These three components are keys to how drama strategies influence how Black middle school girls navigate important areas of their lives. “Drama is my everyday life now,” says Bobo, as she expresses her frequency of utilizing many drama techniques in how she speaks, what she reads, how she responds to posts on social media, and simply how she embraces her identity as a Black girl. Moreover, additional findings suggest that the Black woman drama teacher plays a significant role with Black middle school girls in her drama classes as they successfully navigate academics, identity development, and social media engagement through practicing drama activities that they learned in class, despite the race and gender challenges that they face throughout their lives. It is clear that the teacher’s role is quite significant because she invested considerable time and effort in selecting and implementing a curriculum that is culturally responsive yet useful and valuable in the lives and current situations of these Black girls. She also intentionally set the stage of her classroom to be extremely welcoming to diversity. As a Black woman, she understands the greatness and tribulations of being born Black and a girl. Her vision for her students was for them to feel comfortable with themselves and who they wanted to become. She wanted them to believe it! I was in awe by the way Ms. Gomez, a young, excited urban educator, poured her knowledge, passion, and energy into the drama curriculum and instruction to make it culturally relevant for her students. Ironically, she did not actually realize that what she was doing in the drama class with her Black girl students had been researched and peer reviewed. She did not realize that it was operating under the framework of culturally relevant arts education

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(CRAE). Ms. Gomez was designing and instructing a specific curriculum to enhance her Black girl students’ arts knowledge and lives. After spending considerable time with Ms. Gomez, Alice, Bobo, Nasa Jupiter, and Noemi, it became evident that there was clearly something unique taking place in Ms. Gomez’s classroom and in the individual lives of all five of the participants. At the end of my data collection period, I was excited to analyze the data so that I could more clearly decipher and understand what I was hearing from these participants during the interview sessions. Not surprisingly, I was informed by the data that practicing drama, particularly interspersed with cultural relevance, influences specific literacies with urban Black middle school girls. As an educator, researcher, and artist, I often pondered this phenomenon, but now I had the opportunity to test its validity. With so much valuable data at my fingertips, I would be prudent to push this agenda toward innovative and enhanced curriculum, pedagogy, life skills, and extended research. Some areas of focus for solutions are general curriculum redesign, dramatic arts redesign, and culturally responsive teacher skillset. CURRICULUM REDESIGN Most middle school curriculum leaves out culturally relevant pedagogy and the knowledge and dedication of a team of teachers that work with urban middle school students. My analyzed data needs to be used for redesigned or new curriculum and instructional practices that provide the academic knowledge and personal growth for all middle school students. The specifics of the redesign that I am referring to integrate the dramatic arts. This endeavor can be accomplished in the ways suggested below. 1.  Create an instructional model integrating Culturally Relevant Arts Education (Drama) curriculum design with other subject-matter courses. 2.  Construct learning communities for arts and core content teacher collaboration to design culturally relevant teaching and instructional practices. Schools must invest in redesigning a curriculum that integrates the performing arts or drama curriculum that includes the CRAE framework. In addition to the drama CRAE model meeting cultural and academic expectations, it should also meet the life skills needs of the students. Life skills can include navigating social media, focusing on identity growth, self-confidence, and being receptive to the diverse population of student bodies. While committing to this redesign of the curriculum, schools and school systems must intentionally form learning communities intended for collaboration with



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others in the communities, having the sole purpose of designing a curriculum that integrates culturally relevant drama instructional practices and pedagogy into the content classes (i.e., English, social studies, Spanish, history). These learning communities should encompass various content teachers (drama and core content) to work together to foster ideas and redesign or create new curriculum and instructional practices that integrate research-based culturally relevant drama education into lesson plans for middle schools. It is also imperative to use the foundation of CRAE during the curriculum design process. The CRAE framework highlights instructions for improving artistic expression and includes the importance of social justice to recognize the roots of internalized oppression. Social justice has a long history and has been described as an “equitable redistribution of resources” and as recognition of culture and identity for those who are marginalized and subjugated in society (Bell & Berry 2007, 21–25; Hanley et al., 2013). The CRAE framework is a foundation for drama class curriculum and pedagogy as it allows for the exploration of arts. As Hanley et al. (2013) explained, “social justice work is internal and external of self and the world to make meaning of the world. Research indicates that performing arts participation positively influences cognitive development, academic achievement, and school outcomes; however, CRAE moves beyond those basics and suggests that arts education influences social justice advocacy and allows students to challenge dominant narratives. The growth and development of the overall student body could be significant as a result of taking these courses. After being engaged in the redesigned coursework, the effects on all middle school students and their teachers would be an intriguing project for future research. DRAMATIC ARTS REDESIGN One area that could benefit from redesign in most middle schools in the United States is arts curriculum, particularly in urban school communities. When I speak of redesign, I mainly refer to requiring a dramatic arts elective that incorporates cultural relevance. This elective should be readily available, encouraged, and in fact, a serious scheduling option for all middle school students. However, to develop and extend my research interest, Black middle school girls should be strongly encouraged to take these unique drama classes. My research shows the benefits and the influence that culturally relevant drama practices have on the lives of urban middle school Black girls. This endeavor can be accomplished in ways as suggested below. Implementation:

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1.  Develop an instructional model for dramatic arts that focuses on cultural relevance aligned with the Black Feminist Thought epistemology for middle school Black girls. 2.  Design professional development, training courses, and programs on culturally relevant dramatic arts education lessons and pedagogy for middle school drama teachers and courses. 3.  Construct learning communities for local, regional, or national teacher collaboration to design culturally relevant drama teaching and instructional practices. This initiative is relevant by taking a strong stance on not hiding Black girls’ needs in a generalized and White dominant curriculum. We know that pushing Black girls to the periphery or hiding them under other races and gender categories is not acceptable within the curriculum. On the contrary, there would be immense benefits to Black middle school girls from engaging in a quality research-based CRAE drama curriculum model. The level of importance of these classes within an urban middle school should be high. One suggestion to show high importance is to strongly encourage urban middle school Black girls to take these classes, or even assign these special elective classes to the Black girls in sixth through eighth grades. Naturally, there may be some pushback from some of the Black girls who may not be interested in drama class or may believe that the cultural aspect of the class will not benefit them. They may think that the CRAE drama classes do not apply to their situations. Additionally, there is also the idea that urban Black girls may not take the classes if they border on provoking emotion or vulnerability, often emotions that Black girls mask to avoid feeling weak or less than. These are prime reasons why the CRAE drama classes are essential and needed. Often teenagers do not know what may support their development. Just as learning communities were suggested for the curriculum redesign that integrates drama with other content matter classes, they are needed for culturally relevant drama classes. In these cases, the learning communities should explore and construct courses to include the Black girls’ literacy framework along with the culturally relevant curriculum and instructional practices. The findings from this study suggest that educators who work with and support Black girls should also familiarize themselves with this data on drama and specific literacies development (foundational, digital, and Black girl’s literacies). This approach will provide teachers with a level of understanding concerning the effects of drama on foundational, digital, and Black girls’ literacies. This type of collaborative curriculum design enhances many facets of Black girl urban students, as we learned from Alice, Bobo, Neomi, and Nasa Jupiter. The positive results from the data collected encourage



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schools to adopt culturally relevant arts education, using drama as a conduit for enhanced curriculum, instruction, and pedagogy. CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE TEACHER SKILLSET Although Black boys remain at the center of research efforts and initiatives to improve their education and lives, Black girls continue to be invisible or feel like teachers and administrators treat them unfairly based on their intersectionality of gender and race (Watson 2016, 239–49). Consequently, teachers who teach in urban schools must have a skill set to work with all urban students, even if they are not drama teachers. They must understand and commit to equity, access, and recognize the environment where the student is being raised. On a deeper level, teachers need training, development, culturally relevant pedagogy, and a commitment to teaching urban students. In support of the redesigned pedagogy for teachers in urban schools, school systems must show a commitment to funding these training and professional development courses to change the trajectory of how classes are broadly designed and taught. The findings from this study suggest that educators who work with and support Black girls also familiarize themselves with this data on drama and specific literacies development. This will provide them with a level of understanding concerning the influence of drama on foundational, digital, and Black girls’ literacies. This work can be carried out through the implementation outlined below. Implementation: 1.  Initial sensitivity training for teachers to recognize and understand equity, access, and certain urban environments and home lives of their students. 2.  Specially designed professional development, training courses, and programs on culturally relevant dramatic arts education lessons for middle school drama teachers. 3.  Annual follow-up and retraining. WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED? The data collected and analyzed for this book helped facilitate new research in urban education and a pathway toward redesigning curriculum, pedagogy, and integrating culturally relevant dramatic art with other courses. We have learned impactful points throughout this book. We have learned: school systems must allocate funding—funding is used to design dramatic

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arts curriculum and arts-integrated core content curriculum; funding is used to create training modules and classes for teachers; and funding is used for implementation of the instructional models. It seems the common denominator is funding. We have not addressed funding throughout the entire book, but I must insert the need for funding these programs at this stage. FUNDING Funding is by far one of the driving forces for programs to be initiated in schools and school systems. Many school budgets have very little funding and resources allocated to the arts program, especially dramatic arts. When a school is considering the implementation of a drama program or drama initiatives, they usually have to seek outside funding to support the initiative. The first change would be for school systems and schools to allocate more funding within their budgets to intentionally support the art department, specifically the dramatic arts. Secondly, appreciatively, some external and private funders believe drama is an important aspect of students’ lives and offer grants toward student and school growth in drama and theater. I have listed just a few funders below but continue to search for more. The National Endowment for the Arts https:​//​www​.arts​.gov​/grants Educational Theater Association https:​//​schooltheatre​.org​/grants​-for​-schools​/ The Andrew Lloyd Webber Initiative https: ​ / / ​ a mericantheatrewing​ . org​ / program​ / the​ - andrew​ - lloyd​ - webber​ -initiative​/ With funding, I have provided detailed steps earlier in the chapter on how schools and educators can move toward supporting urban Black middle school girl students navigate foundational language practices, even on social media, as well as build confidence in their race and gender identities as they learn to advocate for social justice. In summary, we learned the following: 1.  Overall, drama is an art form that influences foundational, digital, and Black girls’ literacies for middle school Black girls in an urban school. 2.  Practicing drama has increased the interest of urban middle school Black girls in reading more and different literature. 3.  Practicing drama has improved the public speaking abilities of urban middle school Black girls.



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4.  Practicing drama has improved the vocabulary of urban middle school Black girls. 5.  Drama strategies help urban middle school Black girls navigate race and gender discrimination and oppression inside and outside of school. 6.  Urban middle school Black Girls can connect drama participation to advocacy for themselves and others while engaging on social media. 7.  Urban middle school Black girls feel more confident in who they are, what they say, and how they present themselves publicly due to practicing drama strategies. 8.  Practicing drama has aided urban middle school Black girls to value and respect the significance of Black girls and women. 9.  Urban middle school Black girls can express themselves in various situations as a result of practicing drama strategies. 10.  The role, cultural knowledge, pedagogy, race, and gender of the drama teacher are extremely important for urban middle school Black girls to feel seen and heard. It is advantageous to comprehend what we have learned from this book coupled with the actual analyzed data to create a vision for the next steps that could support urban middle school Black girls. Scholars, researchers, educators, funders, and school reformers can take particular account of the data, participant narratives, implementation of CRAE drama education, and other forms of examination of the content as they strive to enhance the lives of urban middle school Black girls. Notwithstanding, there is ample information for urban middle school Black girls and their parents to glean. Accounting for the data-proven drama strategies that Black girls can utilize will contribute significantly to how middle school Black girls may enhance their language, behaviors, confidence, advocacy, and overall Black girl identity. CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE FIELD OF EDUCATION Having such valuable data at my fingers leads not only to the need to implement the analyzed research for the betterment of urban middle school Black girls but also to extend the research as an effort to contribute to the field of education. The researched data from this study can be explored and extended on many fronts (e.g., dramatic arts influence on the literacies of all Black girls, dramatic arts influence on the literacies of all students, culturally relevant dramatic arts education curriculum, culturally relevant dramatic arts teacher development). There are multiple avenues where researchers, scientists, educators, school reformers, and funders can carry the torch. The

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number of Black girls who could genuinely benefit in education and in life by being recipients of new and innovative research and practice that actually enhances their lives is tremendous. Additionally, there is no deficiency in the pool of topics to research that can positively contribute to the education of Black girls. As I continue my vision of solution-focused research, the following areas that I am interested in examining are the need for identity development spaces through arts participation and gender and race advocacy spaces using the arts for Black girls. First, one must begin with a critical discussion about representation; then, we can focus on implementing culturally relevant arts. Educators and researchers should ask ourselves many critical questions. How can teachers understand the needs of Black girls if they do not understand Black girls? How must Black girls embrace and express who they are if their academic environments are not conducive? Here are ten questions that teachers, administrators, school reformers, parents, and even Black girls should be asking: 1.  Do school buildings and classrooms visually represent Black girls? 2.  Do the diversity of faculty and staff show representation of the Black girl population? 3.  Does the curriculum explore the cultural representation of Black girls? 4.  Are there higher-level educational opportunities available for Black girls in the schools? 5.  Are there leadership opportunities for Black girls in the schools? 6.  Are there sponsored affinity groups for Black girls to join as a safe place to be vulnerable? 7.  Are there school-driven advocacy groups for Black girls to participate in? 8.  Is there a designated school advocate for Black girls to consult with? 9.  Are there avenues at school for Black girls to display their literacies development and cultural confidence within the intersectionality of their race and gender without being overshadowed by all boys and White girls? 10.  Are teachers trained well to understand and work with Black girls? The questions above are simply a list of ten questions that can be asked when thinking critically about the representation of Black girls in urban middle schools and all schools. School spaces should be transformative, and educators must be intentional and deliberate in their teaching practices. This proves the need to exemplify the Black girls’ literacy framework and the Black Feminist Thought epistemology within the curriculum and instructional practices. Consequently, “the use of the Black girls’ literacies



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framework approach in the classroom exemplifies how educators can make changes to enhance the literacies of Black girls. This framework allows Black girls to draw on their critical literacies skills by reading and writing about their individual and collective experiences of being a Black girl in today’s context (Muhammad and Haddix 2016, 299–336; Sealey-Ruiz 2016, 290–98) exactly what the Black girls in my study experienced. Continuing research and practice toward the advancement of urban Black middle school girls will continue to contribute to the field of education. FUTURE AGENDA Another goal of mine is to replicate this study on a larger scale in other urban schools to see if there are any consistencies in the experiences of urban middle school Black girls or perspectives of Black woman drama teachers. Additionally, I recommend the following items to be further researched, developed, and implemented. 1.  Use the data-driven results to seek funding for enhanced drama programming that supports Black girls in urban middle schools. The use of the funding could entail combining resources of schools within systems to appropriately train staff within multiple urban schools to create and fully develop culturally relevant arts education drama programs, allowing more Black girls to benefit from them. 2.  Examine additional art forms (fiber arts, dance, painting) with foundational, digital, and Black girls’ literacies separately to provide a deeper dive into the benefits of broader arts education on the individual literacies for urban middle school Black girls. Be sure to incorporate cultural relevance within the pedagogy. This research will explore potential avenues to enhance how Black middle school girls succeed academically and navigate life. I hope that new research and practice will benefit a population of Black girl students that can develop in academic and social/emotional ways that prepare them for life. New Research Goals Should: 1.  Prepare educators on how to explore the representation of Black girls in schools and implement structures for success. 2.  Advance understanding of drama curriculum and instructional practices in urban middle schools, specifically focusing on Black girls.

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3.  Fill gaps in the literature on culturally relevant arts education pertaining to drama as the art form to integrate with core content classes like science, math, history, and social studies. SUMMARY This book examines the influence of drama participation on the foundational, digital, and Black girls’ literacies of middle school Black girls in an urban setting. Narrative data composed from interviews reveals that, while participating in dramatic arts classes at Stonybrook School, participants experienced a positive influence in their language, vocabulary, public speaking, and engagement on social media. The data derived from this study suggests that participating in drama classes at Stonybrook School helped middle school Black girls develop more positive gender and race identities. The Black girls also benefited from the positive interaction and instruction from their Black woman drama teacher and utilized practices that they learned from drama class in other areas of their lives. Overall, the girls in this study state that drama strategies, techniques, and activities influence their language, engagement on social media platforms, and their advocacy for being Black and girls. Additionally, the drama teacher, Ms. Gomez voiced that her perceptions of her Black middle school girls were positive prior to her students taking her drama classes, although she witnessed many significant results of how drama activities enhanced those Black girls’ language, identity, and social media engagement. Such findings indicate that drama education warrants more considerable attention from researchers, educators, education reformers, and funders committed to improving academic outcomes and personal life experiences for Black middle school girls in urban U.S. schools. Many schools are still lacking in culturally relevant arts education, particularly how it may impact specific literacies for Black middle school girls, as well as their identity and development through life. However, I am still hopeful that schools will take action within their physical environment and curriculum to integrate culturally relevant arts in consideration of the presence and voice of Black girls. As an artist, educator, and researcher, my goals include conducting additional studies about the arts’ influence on language, identity, and advocacy. Through research and practice, I will also explore the A in Science, Technology, Art, Engineering, and Math (S.T.E.A.M). S.T.E.A.M for Black girls from a cultural lens is sure to influence their academics, identity development, confidence, and advocacy. The content in this book is intended to support Black girls by using the arts as a conduit to enhance their education and social/emotional identity.



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CONCLUDING THOUGHTS Writing this book has been an honor and a privilege, but more importantly it provided a breadth of knowledge and personal growth. I learned so much about myself as I connected with Black teenage girls, following a similar path as I did when I was that age. I remember questioning where and how I fit in my life’s scenarios as a Black girl that grew up in an urban community and attended an urban middle school. I am thankful to be included in the conversations for this book. Hearing twenty-first-century perspectives on something that I have carried for four decades not only validated my own race, gender, and identity experiences but prepared me to continue to push the agenda forward as a researcher and educator for current and future urban middle school Black girls. I appreciate Alice, Bobo, Nasa Jupiter, Noemi, and Ms. Gomez trusting me enough to share hurtful, vulnerable present-day experiences. I hope they realize how much I respect their lived experiences and uphold and honor their stories. As we move forward, let us consider the importance of drama’s influence on the language and identity development of urban middle school Black girls. Let us also consider the power of practicing drama in social justice activities. Let us hope that educators and education reformers invest in and implement the changes discussed in this book. As a Black woman artist, educator, and activist, I have high hopes for the academic and social development of Black girls. I have accepted my mission of enhancing the lives of Black girls through the arts and education. In fact, I founded York Creative Education Group in response to the lack of culturally relevant arts education curriculum, lesson plans, workshops, and consulting. Here is where I will continue to fill the gaps in the literature through practice and research. I hope that you will join me.

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Index

activist art, 48 ADT, 5, 6, See Applied Drama and Theater Andrew Lloyd Webber Initiative, 100 Applied Drama, 5 Applied Drama and Theater (ADT), 5 arts education, 7, 8, 11, 17, 23, 45, 47, 51, 94 arts in education, 23 arts integration, 4, 5, 9, 17, 23, 35, 46, 47 BFT. See Black Feminist Thought Black Feminist Thought epistemology, 48, 51 Black Girls’ Literacy, 17, 20, 22 breathing exercises, 18 breathing technique, 73, 74 case study, 29 codeweaving, 42 coding, 42 CRAE. See Culturally Relevant Arts Education CRAE framework, 46, 87, 97. See also Culturally Relevant Arts Education Culturally Relevant Arts Education (CRAE), 7, 11

data literacy, 18 descriptive coding, 42 Digital literacy, 18, 21 Dorothy Heathcote, 3 dramatic arts (drama), 3, 4, 5, 19, 23, 88, 93, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 104 FG. See Focus Group Focus Group, 38 Forum Theater, 18 foundational literacy, 18, 20, 55, 69, 72, 81, 83 going into character, 67 improv. See improvisation improvisation, 6, 18, 24, 70, 91 In Vivo coding, 42 Mantle of Expert. See Dorothy Heathcote Mantle-of-Expert, 18 media literacy, 18 mime, 18 multiple literacies, 7 narration, 18 narrative approach, 41 National Endowment for the Arts, 100 113

114

Process Drama, 19, 71 qualitative interviews, 33 reflexivity, 43 research methodology, 27 social justice, 47, 97 storytelling, 19 subjectivity, 31 Taking a Walk in Someone Else’s Shoes, 19, 70, 85, 86

Index

thematic analysis, 42 top 10 literacies in education, 20 Transforming Teaching through Arts Integration, 4 Visual literacy, 19 writing prompt, 40 Wylie H. Bates Middle School. See Transforming Teaching through Arts Integration

About the Author

Portia M. York, PhD, is the CEO and creative educator of York Creative Education Group. She is also a certified fiber artist and adjunct professor who teaches fiber courses. She earned her PhD in curriculum and instruction at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. There, her studies centered on urban education, arts integration, and the focus of arts in STEM. Her interest in drama and theater prompted her to study the impact on literacies of Black girls, eventually writing The Influence of Dramatic Arts on Literacies for Black Girls in Middle School. Portia enjoys supporting schools, universities, youth organizations, and nonprofits with offering curriculum, lesson plans, and programs that incorporate learning by integrating the arts. She also offers unique workshops that explore merging crochet with topics of math, identity, and team building. She especially enjoys teaching students crochet techniques and the use of fiber art with a content-driven social justice nature. Portia lives in Charlotte with her husband and cat while enjoying her many interests like crocheting, theater, exercising, the outdoors, art, reading, the beach and the mountains, podcasting, and spending quality time with her three sons and friends. Contact: [email protected] Yorkcreativeeducation.com Portiamarieyork.com

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