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(Bad) Girls: Black Girls' and School Administrators' Perceptions of Re-Entry after Exclusionary Discipline through a Womanist Approach to Narrative Inquiry

Edwards, Erica B.
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Abstract

Black girls are over-represented among suspended, expelled, or arrested youth (Blake 2011; Perry & Morris, 2017) and are punished more harshly for the same misbehaviors other girls and non-Black boys commit. Still, their experiences are under-explored in the literature. Recognizing that school to confinement processes are multiple and complex (Morris, 2016; American Bar Association, 2016), this study focused on school re-entry after exclusionary discipline to understand the on-going role schools play in Black girls’ disciplinary experience. Rather than addressing why and how Black girls enter the school/prison nexus, this study worked to understand the effects of a (bad) girl reputation in the long-term. Using narrative inquiry through a womanist worldview, the school re-entry experiences of five Black girls were collected and compared to the perspectives of five school leaders. Thematic analysis showed the stigmatizing effects of a (bad) reputation, their sense of personal resignation in a (bad) girl performance, and certain “null” experiences that had no effect on their educational well-being. These results are in contradistinction to the perceptions of the administrators who described their interventions as caring. They also shared their reluctance to use and considerable power to resist exclusionary discipline. The tension between perceptions suggests that further work in research, policy, and practice will ensure the creation of safe and engaged learning communities for Black girls who show behavioral difference. This study adds to the literature documenting the harmful effects of exclusionary discipline and thus, calls for the need to abolish the practice.

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Date
2017-12-14
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Publisher
Research Projects
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Keywords
Black girls, Urban administrators, Exclusionary discipline, School re-entry, School/Prison nexus, School-to-confinement processes
Citation
Edwards, Erica B.. "(Bad) Girls: Black Girls' and School Administrators' Perceptions of Re-Entry after Exclusionary Discipline through a Womanist Approach to Narrative Inquiry." Georgia State University, 2017. https://doi.org/10.57709/11226996
Embargo Lift Date
2017-12-11
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