Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

This participatory study brought together teachers, community educators, and scholars to engage in a decolonial examination of how Black youth and their expressions of joy are perceived in STEM classrooms. The following outlines the participatory group’s methodological decisions, highlighting how participatory approaches can serve as a model for establishing more equitable research practices within STEM education. ‘Embodied noticing’ is introduced and framed as a critical method of investigation where participants reflected and reported on their mental and physical responses to discussions about anti-Blackness, whiteness, and joy. This reflection was vital for uncovering the nuanced ways these topics manifest in their bodies. The study’s approach underscores the importance of integrating reflective practices in research to better understand and articulate the complexities of navigating racial dynamics in participatory research.

Keywords

embodied noticing decolonial methodology participatory research Black joy mathematics education STEM education

Introduction

The format of the presented methodology and findings is more narrative in structure to create more of a conversation about the importance of methodological diversity and to provide examples of decolonizing methodological practices in mathematics education research. Creating a dialogue about ways to inclusively value multiple forms of knowledge pushes against colonial forms of research that privilege more dominant and frequently used structures. The following narrative is framed through the work of decolonial scholars and Black feminists who center diverse voices and perspectives. It is my hope that setting this intention invites readers to consider different forms of rigor and engagement with knowledge production. Additionally, the aim is to intentionally include emotion and the knowledge and wisdom held by the body in the research dissemination process. Embodied noticing and Black Joy are featured as essential aspects of the research conducted by a group of mostly BIPOC women. It is my hope that these aspects of our research emerge clearly in the narrative and commentary that follow, addressing the research question: How do decolonial, embodied methodologies support educators in noticing and centering Black joy within STEM classrooms?

Framing Black Joy as Method and Inquiry

Black youth and their expressions of joy are frequently misunderstood and misinterpreted, especially in white-dominated spaces like STEM classrooms, where white standards of behavior shape perceptions of who is considered a ‘good’ or ‘acceptable’ student. This study deliberately centered joy, and specifically Black joy in response to calls for more research on positive racialized emotions (Bonilla-Silva, 2019; Dunn & Love, 2020; Griffiths, 2012; Tichavakunda, 2021). Drawing on the work of Love (2019), Black joy was framed in this study as essential to the work we wanted to do around anti-racism. The choice to center joy was also made to provide counternarrative to prevalent deficit narratives (Ibourk et al., 2022) regarding Black youth. In addition to Black joy, race and Blackness were centered in the context of STEM learning to challenge color-blind, apolitical perspectives of STEM (Gutstein, 2006).

The study was initially created to investigate the impact of anti-Blackness within mathematics classrooms, but then transitioned into being a study centered around Black joy. This is in line with work from Quashie (2021), whose work considers Blackness and the act of just being as separate from systems that typically lump it in with whiteness due to the ways that Blackness is surveilled and policed. In addition to framing joy in discussions of how Black youth navigate and experience STEM spaces, this participatory group sought to create space for joy in research and investigation. The Black Joy Group was not only made up of a wealth of expertise and experience in thinking broadly about Black youth and equity, but also a wealth of rich talents and interests involving members’ artistic pursuits that had been underutilized in previous research that they were part of. The opportunity to co-design an affirming methodology that showcased the beauty and potential of creativity was an intentional choice to place joy in and throughout this research.

Setting Methodological Intentions

Engaging in decolonial research and methodology decenters white dominant practices while centering approaches that bring participants to the forefront of the research and the research process (Anzaldúa, 1987, 1999; Patel, 2015). Decolonizing practices in research have sought to include more Indigenous ways of knowing and doing that make meaning through more holistic explanations. Indigenous Research (Chilisa, 2019; Wilson, 2001) also makes prevalent more community-based and participatory ways of knowledge sharing and production (Anzaldúa, 1987; Lincoln & González y González, 2008; Paris & Alim, 2017). Research methodologies are one area that scholars have identified as an entry point into thinking more critically about the why of their methodological choices. Caelli et al. (2003) critique what they call ‘generic research’ that lacks intentionality in methodology and design. The scholars call attention to the fact that investigators often know what they have done in their research, but not why they have done it, missing opportunities to think more critically and equitably about their positionalities, their roles within research, and how they impact the positionality and roles of their participants.

For example, methodological diversity in mathematics education research has been cited as a way to better understand issues of equity (Atweh & Brady, 2009; Raudenbush, 2005). Raudenbush (2005) discusses the merits of methodological diversity, arguing that although randomized controlled trials are effective, an integration of various methods provides more insight into how educational interventions can support diverse learners. Similarly, Atweh and Brady (2009) highlight the potential of participatory frameworks to support equitable research that aims to prioritize participant meaning-making and participant contribution.

While these examples call for a more critical and inclusive approach to research, it is also important to note that some calls for more equity-based research do not explicitly center equity and inclusion in their investigative processes (Bullock, 2013; Stinson & Bullock, 2015). Stinson and Bullock (2015) highlight a journey through mathematics education research which prioritizes quantitative investigation in a move towards more qualitative investigation with more participatory methodologies to look at the social influences of how students are learning and using mathematics. Spielman (2012) also calls for more social perspectives of mathematics education research, though with a focus on people and the social aspects of mathematics rather than the mathematics itself. A shift towards a more sociological approach to mathematics education research through participatory methodologies addresses another contradiction involving equity. Scholars have long problematized ‘for all’ signaling like that of NCTM (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (hereinafter NCTM)) which asks researchers to be more intentional in targeting their investigations, particularly towards minoritized populations, while also not placing similar expectations of equity to include those minoritized populations in the research and design itself (Bullock, 2013; Gutiérrez, 2009; Martin, 2003, 2015; Ong et al., 2011). To address the misalignment between primary investigators and their participants, Bullock (2013) asks researchers to be more intentional in choosing more inclusive methodologies that provide opportunities for more interdisciplinary work. In doing so, researchers may gain more insight into the why behind their choices, and also find a more equitable and participatory throughline between methodology, epistemology, and methods.

In a similar shift towards more equitable practices and methodologies, scholars have aimed to privilege conducting research with participatory groups from more holistic perspectives that combine multiple knowledge systems. In their co-research partnership to address inequities in First Nations peoples’ health, Haynes et al. (2022) aim to disrupt colonial narratives by “merging different knowledge systems through well-articulated and respectful consideration” (Haynes et al., 2022, p. 6). Looking outside of dominant epistemologies creates a more genuine participatory community aimed at inflicting less harm than research that has negatively impacted minoritized groups. Similarly, research has shifted to decenter white, dominant research practices that have traditionally harmed minoritized groups. Affirming methodologies are privileged by Nakhid et al. (2022) through Indigenous ways of being and knowing within Caribbean communities. In this work, the scholars position themselves away from dominant practices by taking “a more liberatory approach of centering and valuing the lived cultures of racialized and minoritized students” (Nakhid et al., 2022, p. 78). Through their affirming approach, the participants also have the opportunity to build reciprocity and trust between researchers and participants within the participatory group.

Modeling Equitable Research Practices Through Co-Design

Historically, colonial conceptualizations of education research have centered individual researchers and their perspectives to better understand the learning experiences of students (Probst, 2016; Stanton, 2013; Thambinathan & Kinsella, 2021). Collaboration through participatory models of research can bring together the experience, wisdom, and knowledge of the primary researcher with that of their participants, whose unique perspectives bring additional insights and lenses for understanding how whiteness and racism pervade the educational spaces that Black and Brown youth navigate.

Building on research around Black youth’s relationship with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (hereinafter STEM), a recent participatory study brought together teachers, community educators, and scholars to better understand how Black youth and their joy are perceived in STEM classrooms (Davis, 2014; Howard et al., 2012), while also challenging traditional models of research and design processes. The participatory group, mostly comprised of women of color, sought to theorize Black joy as it relates to STEM and Black youth, and how their joy is noticed, interpreted, and felt. To this end, centering the embodied noticings and experiences of the collaborators in this research was part of an intentional and political choice to contribute to the vast literature on Black STEM experiences from less dominant investigative perspectives. The collaborators of this research sought to create joyous and soul-nourishing research through artistic methods of investigation. In this article, I unpack how and why certain methodological decisions were taken in the study, and how these approaches may serve as a model for more equitable research practices in STEM education research.

Disrupting Colonial Logics in STEM Education Research

This work is grounded in decolonial and participatory frameworks that challenge colonial logics pervasive in STEM education research. By utilizing a decolonial perspective, this research aims to push against traditional means of knowledge production and dissemination that have historically been prioritized over Black and Indigenous ways of knowing and being. Black feminist thought, critical race theory, and participatory research inform the decolonial structure of the methodology used in the study and the way in which those findings are represented here. Further, this work draws on Black feminist epistemologies that center embodied knowledge, reflection, and the value of collective lived experiences (Ridgeway, 2019). By employing these perspectives, the study encourages genuine critical inquiry and engagement with the findings by centering Blackness as Theory (Sharpe, 2012). Positioning the people in this study and their perspectives privileges more holistic ways of understanding lived experiences and the relationship between those experiences and the people who experience them. Better understanding the connection between the body, emotions, and self as it relates to Black joy and STEM led us to utilize methods such as body mapping, collaging, and journaling to foreground non-dominant forms of knowledge production.

By bringing together these different knowledge bases and ways of understanding, the work in this study aligns with Indigenous research methodologies that focus on collective approaches to research and understanding. This fits within the greater narrative of decolonial frameworks that resist the individualistic history of research that has centered the primary investigator.

Intentional and Inclusive Methodological Design

Responding to calls to look outside of traditional disciplines and methods to inform mathematics education (Bullock, 2013), the design of this research was intentionally inclusive of holistic qualitative methods. Because the identities of the members of this group fell across multiple lines of race, roles, and experience, it was important to build this work together and make mutual decisions about how we wanted to address the questions that we had about Black youth and their experiences in STEM. To do this, it was important to foreground the building of trust as an intention.

Vakil et al. (2016) discuss their experiences working with participatory groups and the inherent tensions and power dynamics involved in joint work. They describe the processes of establishing and maintaining trust across lines of difference, or what they call politicized trust, as necessitating “ongoing building and cultivation of mutual trust and racial solidarity” (p. 199). The authors describe instances of resistance or disinterest from collaborators who no longer wanted to take part in the project or refer to the project as not something belonging to them. Unearthing tensions around belonging that can stem from race, gender, or other lines of power (Hand, 2012; Louie, 2018) is important in the pursuit of sustaining solidarity and engagement (Vakil & de Royston, 2019; Vakil et al., 2016).

Knowing that this would be emotional work, and, at times, difficult work, especially when recalling and naming past and current tensions and harm, members of this group established trust through setting intentions through norms, and through sharing their truths. The group’s first two meetings focused mostly on the intentionality of the research and also on establishing goals that we would like to accomplish during our time together. During these conversations, participants were asked why they felt called to this work, what participants were hoping to achieve, and how they would like to go about achieving it. Having no concrete answers yet about the ultimate goals of the research, the study started as open, but with the understanding that we would foreground joy as a way to avoid contributing to deficit perspectives about Black and Brown youth and STEM.

Leveraging Noticing and Interpreting Black Joy

Dominant narratives about Black youth and STEM often lack nuance that reflects their identities, their experiences, and their contributions (Battey & Leyva, 2016; Gholson, 2016; Gutiérrez, 2017; Martin, 2009; Spencer & Hand, 2015). Deficit narratives shape the perception of Black youth and their joy. These narratives may also play a role in how Black youth perceive themselves (Gholson & Robinson, 2019). The aim of this study is to help teachers and students reimagine STEM through a lens that centers and affirms Black joy. Additionally, the study builds on my own interests in how we foster a love for STEM and all its possibilities, particularly for Black youth and their joy. Given that not as many Black students feel connected to STEM in ways that lead them to identify with it or pursue it as a career (Gardner, 2017; Gholson & Martin, 2014; Nasir, 2002; Nasir & Hand, 2008; Wade-Jaimes et al., 2021), I wanted to better understand Black learner’s perspectives on where they fit into the narrative of STEM. The following analysis draws on Black Feminist Mathematics Pedagogies (BlackFMP) that position Black girls’ creativity, intellect, and joy as central to their learning (Joseph, 2021)The work around Black joy that this research centers began with a research project designed to bring together high school mathematics teachers who had been identified as attending to equity in their classrooms. Through that work, some of those participants wanted to continue thinking deeply about equity and noticing, and so were invited to help think through noticing and how it pertains to Black joy and STEM classrooms. The learning of the members of the participatory group took place through the use of creative mediums to depict and articulate the nuanced relationship between STEM, Blackness, joy, and the self.

Study Background and Context

This research was conducted over two years. The findings are produced from Phase 1 of a larger participatory investigation into Black joy and STEM. The group of women who made up the participants in Phase One of the study were recruited through previous connections to prior research on equitable mathematics and mathematics teacher noticing. Prior to forming this group, the participants had been working in a study around mathematics teacher noticing and expressed a desire to dig deeper into the investigation while also specifically investigating anti-Blackness, which eventually became a more asset-based study that centers Black joy. Over the two-year period that the group worked together via Zoom, the bi-monthly meetings served as a space for the women to exchange knowledge and conceptualize Black joy in STEM. The data sources included recorded meeting transcripts, journaling, a collaborative information session, and participant artifacts such as body maps and collages. The creative methods utilized by the group of women allowed them to create richer depictions of their internal feelings and experiences that they had not had the opportunity to give verbally in interviews and focus groups.

The analysis of the data was framed through the lens of embodied noticing, which highlights the physical, emotional, and mental involvement of participants’ experiences. The data was analyzed using a reflexive thematic approach that centered the voices and emotions of the participants (Behar, 1996). This process was modeled after Vakil et al. (2016), who foregrounded trust and politicized stress within collaborative spaces as a necessary and vital part of the participatory process. Additionally, analysis is framed by Neal-Jackson (2018), who centers participants’ knowledge and perspective over individual researchers. The research and its analysis were intentional in creating space for non-traditional methodologies and methods that center holistic expression. It was the intention of framing the study holistically that the findings open a conversation about how mathematics education research involving BIPOC participants can continue to be humanized (Joseph et al., 2019).

Much of what participants did, in the beginning, was centered around providing testimonio (Haig-Brown, 2003; Villenas, 2019), sharing our histories, our positionalities, and bearing witness to the unseen of working with Black youth, or experiences we ourselves had as youths. There were various ways in which we shared this information with each other that mirrored more traditional means of knowledge sharing, such as facilitation. One way that Jayla, a Black scholar, helped expand the group’s understanding of how students are navigating Whiteness was through her work and the origination of Black Finesse, which she presented as a possible framework through which we could be looking at the ways that students are making decisions in STEM spaces and to what end. Another participant, Jin-joo, wanted to invite the group to think more broadly about how to extricate Black joy from Whiteness and let it exist on its own. To do this, Jin-joo and I co-presented and leaned into more artistically creative means of expression through collaging to conceptualize Black joy.

Co-presentation was a central part of sharing our ideas and expertise with one another, creating a space where members of the participatory group moved between being positioned as teachers and learners. This was vital in making sure we continuously incorporated the knowledge and ideas from participants that were key in pushing our conceptualizations of Black joy in more critical directions. All of the women in this group have participated in research or have experience conducting research around critical perspectives. Each of them is an equity expert in their own right. It was important to highlight the incredible wealth of knowledge and experiences at our disposal to deeply investigate our questions about STEM and joy.

Co-Researchers

For this study, I collaborated with a participatory group of mathematics educators, community educators, and scholars for two years. The participatory group met bimonthly via Zoom, where we aimed to notice and understand Black joy, what constrains it, and how we support Black youth in expressing Black joy in mathematics classrooms. The group was made up of a Black woman and an Asian American woman who joined the study as community educators. These two women had backgrounds and valuable expertise in working with Black youth through nonprofit educational programs. The group also included two Black mathematics educators, one of whom taught middle school and the other high school; both had previously participated in research on equitable mathematics instruction. Also involved were a white scholar and a Latine scholar, both with expertise in equitable mathematics research. Finally, the group included me, a Black former elementary educator and, at the time of the study, a doctoral student.

Phase one of the study focused on this group of women, who drew on decolonial methodology to understand how discussions around Black joy and the systemic challenges that constrain it shape our STEM identities and land on the body. Phase two of the study involved students from the two mathematics teachers’ classrooms. These middle school and high school students created collages that represented the relationship between themselves, STEM, and joy. This article focuses on the methodological process and practices of phase one.

Positionality

As a Black, queer woman, I knew before engaging with this research that my own first-hand experiences in public schools first as a Black girl doing STEM, and as now as a Black woman participating in higher education STEM spaces, would provide an important and yet rarely emphasized peripheral perspective (Hooks, 2015) about STEM narratives and and the ways that they can be reauthored. As a former classroom teacher who, as a child, had been an ascribed ‘problem’ (Howard, 2013; Lynn et al., 2010) in math and science classrooms, and a ‘low achiever’ who also held the ascribed label of being ‘gifted’, my feelings about STEM and my place within it have not been easy or straightforward. My positionality informed the way I engaged with this work just as it did for the teachers, community educators, and scholars who also contributed greatly to this research. Other members of this participatory group included two Black mathematics teachers, an Asian-American scholar who has worked closely with Black youth as a community educator, a Black scholar and a community educator, a Latine scholar, and a white scholar, all of whom hold multiple identities such as being partners, mothers, daughters, and most importantly former youth that were learners and doers of STEM. Together, we theorized that learning, doing, and bearing witness to youth experiencing STEM is an embodied experience that both weighs on us and uplifts us. It was important to us to center our embodied noticings in this work.

Findings

The results are organized into three themes: (1) experience-affirming practices, represented by personal anecdotes from the group members detailing the importance of participating in the research as co-designers of the investigative space; (2) embodied noticing, represented by body maps and journal entries that describe internalized emotions and sensations; and (3) depictions of Black joy and resistance, represented by collages that reflect the multifaceted nature of how participants think about and experience Black joy. These themes emerged from the participatory group’s reflections and creative artifacts. Through various mediums, participants were able to connect their identities, lived experiences, and their conceptualizations of Black joy and STEM.

Experience-Affirming Practices

The experience-affirming approach taken in this qualitative research aims to decenter “quantitative studies that do not readily reveal the meaning-making and world views of participants in their own words” (Neal-Jackson, 2018, p. 512), or studies that primarily utilize semi-structured interviews, which have become the standard across qualitative work (Lamont & Swidler, 2014). The methodological choices in this study sought to privilege the thoughts, emotions, and sensations in the body that may be challenging to articulate and adequately convey. The participants in this group participated in and conducted research in ways that they previously had not. In a closing interview, Jin-Joo, a community educator and graduate student, said she appreciated the creative side of the project and really looked forward to coming to the meetings, stating, “it was the first time I was allowed to use that part of myself [the artistic side] in thinking about big concepts with everyone,” (Int_6/24/2022_Jin-joo). Similarly, Leah, a scholar, expressed her appreciation for getting to think through ideas together when “research tends to privilege our mind so much” (Mtg_02/05/2021_Leah).

One of the most important instances of the group shaping design was through Leah’s research with embodied noticing (Mendoza et al., 2021). From her previous collaborative work on high school mathematics teacher noticing, Leah helped bring embodied noticing to the forefront of discussions about joy and STEM in order to locate how the work we were doing was landing on participants mentally, physically, and emotionally. Participants shared stories and personal experiences, and expressed the emotional nuance that comes with holding intersectional minoritized identities while trying to find their place within STEM. Many of their stories carried the tension and joy attached to those experiences that were and still are felt within the body. Eliciting these embodied noticings became the driving force for thinking about this work broadly.

Embodied Noticing

Looking to scholars who challenge what primary sources of data should entail, the participatory group relied mostly on three activities that informed the ways we talked about and theorized Black joy in STEM classrooms. Embodied noticing, body mapping, and collaging allowed participants to more visually depict internalized experiences. Additionally, these activities encouraged participants to lean into and make tangible the messiness of conceptualizing overlapping concepts, ideas, and noticings in their bodies and minds.

Modeled after work on embodied noticing by Mendoza et al. (2021), this mode of investigation asked participants to tune in to where different conversations and ideas land on them both externally and internally. Embodied noticing can be characterized as awareness of the self and all that the body takes on through experiences such as feeling tension, anger, shame, joy, or guilt. In an effort to capture these often internalized sensations, members of the participatory group were routinely invited to stop and check in with themselves to think about how and where conversations about race, Whiteness, and joy were most noticeable in their bodies.

One example of this comes from an early meeting where participants were discussing surveillance and the ways that it operates in schools to enforce compliance of white standards of behavior and being (Lee, 2004; Sleeter, 1993), but also, to ensure the safety of Black youth in their schools that disproportionately retain an increased officer presence (Nijjar, 2020; Nolan, 2011); officers who are often part of the community in various roles and capacities such as sports coaches and family members. Surveillance, especially surveillance of Black and Brown students, is increasingly a sensitive topic given the more frequent and more violent instances where the surveillance of Black and Brown people has led to physical and symbolic violence (Jett, 2016; Martin et al., 2019), and sometimes death (Chaney & Robertson, 2013; Ray et al., 2017). Asked to consider the question ‘How do we recognize that schools can create harm and also create spaces of healing?’, participants were encouraged to stop and check in with each other to understand how the topic was affecting them. In the drawing below, Valerie shows a stick-figure representation of herself, diagramming the different places on her body where she is noticing tensions, such as in the brain and stomach.

In her drawing (Image 1), Valerie notices a feeling of dissociation in her mind of “not knowing how to live in and with understanding of trauma imposed” on Black youth through surveillance. Additionally, she notices a tightening in the stomach where the harm done to Black and Brown youth through surveillance is also being felt. For Valerie, a white scholar, conversations about surveillance in the schools of Black youth are an embodied experience, allowing her to express a nuanced perspective of needing to be complicit with the surveillance in order to ensure student safety, while also being aware of harm as a by-product of that safety. Through her drawing, she is able to express both visually and through writing the multiple internalized sensations she is noticing; sensations that could not have been simultaneously expressed had she been asked about her perceptions of Black youth and surveillance in a verbal interview.

Image 1.

Valerie’s Body Map

Noticing in the body is also documented by Leah, the participant uses journaling as a way to identify and understand the competing sentiments coming up for her during the conversation about surveillance and what it means in her body. In her journal, Leah writes:

“What if it was the inbetweenness? [...] I surveil, I am surveilled. I cause harm through the rules that I buy into, with and without reflection. What does that mean in my body? All of it? It means I need to feel and honor all of it.” (Mtg_02_09_21_Leah_Journal)

Through her writing, Leah names the messiness or the inbetweenness of surveillance. Writing from the perspective of a Latine scholar, she writes about the tension of surveilling and also of being surveilled. Leah chose to use words rather than drawing to convey her internal grappling with the topic; however, through her journaling, she is stopping to assess the tension she feels and understand it. She asks, “What does that mean in my body? All of it?”, answering the questions by choosing to acknowledge and honor the tension as essential for meaning-making.

Body Mapping

A second activity utilized by the participatory group is body mapping. In this activity, participants paired their embodied noticings with other thoughts and observations connected to their bodies. In early conceptualizations of Black joy and STEM, body mapping established the body as a source for meaning-making. Looking again at Valerie’s drawing (Image 1), she includes more than the internal sensations she is noticing in her body at the time. In her drawing, she also includes ideas about external parts of her body and how they are involved in the conversation about surveillance. On her body map, Valerie draws lines pointing to her mouth, her hands, and her able body. The labels she includes tell how these external parts of her body can be utilized toward promoting changes in Black youth’s surveillance.

In this example, body mapping is being utilized to create a visual depiction of Valerie’s embodied noticing. The second purpose of the body map is to manifest action towards some of the internal tension that Valerie is experiencing (i.e., “dissociation” and “tightening in my stomach”). During our conversations, participants acknowledged that the surveilling of Black and Brown bodies has been extensively documented (Brunson & Weitzer, 2009; Gibson et al., 2014). Rather than contributing to this literature by theorizing about racism and standards of Whiteness that perpetuate the surveillance of Black and Brown bodies, conversations were about joy and how students may manifest joy even in the face of adversity, such as routine surveillance. However, Valerie includes in her body map that although we were not explicitly discussing solutions to surveillance, it was still something she was considering and thinking about in terms of her body as a white scholar. She indicates that her mouth can be used “to fight for youth” or advocate for them in situations where her voice may be prioritized over theirs. She also indicates that her hands contain power that can be used to “fight for teachers”. In the group’s conversations, the Black mathematics teachers discussed similar tensions that they feel as figures of authority who also have to participate in surveillance to an extent. While also understanding the harm it may cause. In Valerie’s body map, including teachers as people that she can support and advocate for is another way that she thinks through systemic issues and her role in perpetuating or challenging them from an embodied perspective.

Another participant, Jayla, worked on a body map (Image 2) illustrating the way conversations about Blackness, Black Finesse, and Whiteness prevalent in traditional schooling landed on her body during a meeting. In her example below, Jayla draws lines to her heart, her head, and her body in general, labeling these areas as feeling emotions and sensations coming up.

Image 2.

Jayla’s Body Map

Jayla’s body map was drawn after a presentation that she led about Black Finesse, or what Jayla describes as “the ways in which Black folks exert flair knack and what I call psychological negotiations in and out of white context and not always for the consumption of others”. As we conceptualized Black joy and what that looks like apart from Whiteness, Jayla wanted to provide a new lens for thinking through these ideas through Black Finesse. Her drawing shows how she conceptualizes Black Finesse in an embodied approach, starting first with a lot of the ideas being felt in her heart and mind, which she connects with a line writing “heart and mind connected with Black Finesse. For Jayla, Black Finesse is deeply personal work as it is her own scholarship connected to her heart as soulwork. It meant a lot to her and also to the participatory group for her to share it. Another observation that Jayla documents through her body map is her body ‘breathing differently’. The affirming work that Jayla presented had a similar effect on other participants, like Leah and Jin-Joo, who also reported feeling “a calmness in the body” and like they were able to “breathe and take in the information differently” as Jayla spoke. Here, Jayla includes this noticing in her body map closer to her heart and extending down through her body like one big breath.

Other noticings captured through Jayla’s body map are a lot of the emotions that she felt in her heart. One of these instances stems from a story told by Cindy involving racism and known Ku Klux Klan (KKK) members who also hold positions within law enforcement in her community. Jayla’s body map indicates that she felt that story mostly in her heart. Additionally, she shows Black Finesse as being connected to her children and students, and also just allowing her as a Black woman to just be as also landing on her heart. The benefit of visually seeing how these conversations landed on Jayla, is seeing most of them land in the chest and at once. It’s important to consider how one or more emotions, both positive and negative, are able to be held at once within the body. Unfortunately, it is important to consider how much of that sensation is not verbally conveyed by people in situations where they are making psychological negotiations through Black Finesse, or contributing to conversations that weigh heavily, particularly within minoritized bodies.

Collaging

The third and final example of thinking more broadly about qualitative methods to represent participants’ experiences is collaging. Grounded in queer theories that prioritize creative expressions such as painting, drawing, mixed media, and comics (Fawaz, 2017; Salvato, 2018), collaging was utilized to further elicit the ways that participants were thinking about the discussions we were having from a variety of perspectives (Butler-Kisber, 2008). Because of the overlapping identities of the participants, such as being educators, scholars, parents, and STEM learners, it was important to continue thinking broadly about ways to represent what and how participants were thinking and feeling as we engaged in this work with Black youth. The group’s theorization of the relationship between Black youth, Black joy, and STEM included Black youths’ navigation of the pervasive Whiteness in STEM and STEM space, but also participants’ own experiences navigating the same terrain. To bridge these two lines of thought and experience, collaging was a way to visually depict and bring together the individual concepts that key in the theorization of Black joy and STEM to be considered as a whole and across participants. Meetings for this participatory group took place over Zoom. The collages that were created were created digitally. Although participants could have chosen to collage with materials they had on hand, online media gave them more access to depictions of emotions and concepts that they may have been limited in representing on their own through drawing and the combining of materials.

One collage depicting Black joy comes from Melissa, who uses six photos to represent the way Black joy feels and looks to her as a Black woman. In the example below, Melissa combines photos and cartoons of Black people, art, a comic square, and black and white still photography to create a collage of what it means to notice, have, and show Black joy (Image 3).

Image 3.

Melissa’s Collage

Starting from the top left frame, the collage features a Black woman with natural hair laughing, a Black woman with natural hair standing with her arms outstretched in front of an open outdoor landscape, sunlight peeking through a window of a darkened room, a cartoon holding her chest, a statue by Paige Bailey titled Expansion that shows yellow light peaking through the outer cracks of a woman, and last a comic book character holding onto a large bag struggling under its weight. Her collage shows moments of freedom and joy paired with moments of tension and burden. In meetings with the participatory group, the conversation often focused on the Nuance of the concepts we were theorizing. It became common to reference this contradictory feeling of positivity with harm as both/and nuance. Melissa’s collage visually depicts the both/ands of expressing Black joy amid factors that also work to constrain Black joy, such as surveillance.

Although Melissa chose to depict the contradictory feelings of noticing, having, and showing Black joy, Jayla’s collage (Image 4) depicts a lighter experience regarding Black joy. In her collage below, Jayla represents Black joy in nine frames depicting Black people just being.

Image 4.

Jayla’s Collage

Starting from the top left of the collage, Jayla chose a photo of a Black woman wearing bright yellow clothing and makeup, a Black woman drinking coffee in front of a window, a Black man listening to music, a Black child outside, another Black child outside playing, a photo of a Black woman and Asian woman posing, a Black man outside, a Black woman smiling outside, and last a Black man laughing.

Recognizing that Black people are not a monolith, Jayla’s representation of light joy differs from Melissa’s in that it focuses on more positive depictions of Black joy and Black people. As previously mentioned, many of the conversations that took place during our theorization of Black joy did focus on trauma and harm of Black people, particularly Black youth. However, it was also the goal of the participatory group to intentionally prioritize joy due to the fetishization of Black pain, particularly as represented in research and media. Examples of this come from the television show Abbott Elementary, which has garnered praise and accolades for its positive, everyday depictions of Black people and Black joy and a school in context. All the while, ignoring increasing public calls for the storyline to tackle more painful topics such as school shootings and racism. Although harm and trauma are not separate from the Black experience, also important to remember that it is not the only part of the experience. It is important to consider from these collages and visual representations of Black joy from two Black women’s perspectives that Black joy is not singularly defined and is nuanced even within people who identify similarly.

Discussion

Due to the racist, anti-Black history of STEM, the participatory nature of this study allowed its members to establish trust that was needed in order to talk about the deeply personal work involved in theorizing Black joy in a STEM context. Trust was also instrumental in allowing the participants to co-design and co-construct this research from a decolonial perspective. Collaboration across methods and activities chosen to conceptualize the relationship between Black youth, Black joy, and STEM allowed each participant to engage in the research as a participant and also as an investigator. Also significant in the design of this study was the exploratory factor and fun that came from being able to collaborate and bring in activities that we hoped would elicit deeper understandings of the connection between mind and body. The participatory group often stopped to take inventory of the effectiveness of methods being utilized to outwardly convey what was being internally felt. Meetings where we discussed methods were also used to propose other methods of investigation that might go deeper than surface-level understanding. This is how embodied noticing and Black Finesse, two of the most salient elements in this participatory work, became so foundational.

A common theme that came out of this work was an understanding of the new wants of wanting to see students excel and being successful in STEM in ways that have been defined by colonial perspectives, while also having a desire for students to be able to experience STEM as they want to and to define joy and success with it in ways that are meaningful to them. Part of this nuance is also understanding that both of these exist together. In future research exploring Black and Brown youth experiences and positive emotions regarding STEM, scholars should continue to utilize decolonial methodologies and methods that seek to understand the full spectrum of what youth think and feel.

Often, Black and Brown students’ thoughts, ideas, and perspectives go deeper than surveys can elicit. The challenge with traditional methods, such as a survey, is that researchers need to anticipate and think ahead of how students may respond for their survey to elicit the kind of data they hope to analyze. There is a level of uncertainty with providing participants with a blank canvas to fill (or not to fill), but it does provide participants with the chance to share experiences that scholars may not have considered when crafting questions and prompts ahead of time. As researchers, we should be looking towards more affirming, embodied methods of having participants express sentiments about what we are studying. What is happening for participants internally during participatory work has not been as widely interrogated as what participants are thinking and how they relate those thoughts through traditional methods of data collection. Additionally, STEM education research should aim to include methods that ask participants to express how they feel, what they feel, and where they feel it to create a more holistic understanding of their experiences and emotions.

Implications

At the center of this research was a desire to better understand what Black youth are feeling and experiencing as they move through STEM spaces, which historically have not welcomed them or made it easy to persist within the space. Also, foregrounded in this study was the desire to look outside of previous traditional qualitative approaches to answering these questions. It was the goal of the participants in the study to take into account the ways that resistance, persistence, and existing as a Black or Brown person in STEM spaces take a toll not only emotionally, but also in the way that these experiences physically manifest within the body. Through the methods of embodied noticing, body mapping, and collaging, participants were able to give a rare glimpse of internalized feelings, emotions, and sensations that may be missed in traditional qualitative methods such as interviews and focus groups. The participants were able to take in information differently because they had co-designed the research in ways that felt meaningful and effective for their preferred means of expression.

Conclusion

Although this study builds on decolonial methodology for qualitative research, a limitation of this approach is that it is a case study reporting experiences from one group of participants. Although people experience a wide range of emotions that they may internalize, the participants in this study had previous experience with using language to describe embodied noticing that allowed them to apply the skill to conversations involving sensitive topics such as race. Another limitation of this study is that the participants are all adult, female-identified people. The second phase of the study included insights from Black youth about joy and their experiences in STEM classrooms through collaging and surveys; however, students’ uniquely internalized feelings were not directly investigated. This is an area that future research around Black youth and STEM should aim to learn more about so that we better understand the ways that STEM classrooms land on the bodies of Black and Brown youth.

Footnotes

ORCID iD

Michelle Frierson

Funding

The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1661164. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to containing information that could compromise the privacy of research participants.*

References

Anzaldúa

(1987). Borderlands la frontera: The new mestiza (2nd ed.). Aunt Lute Books.

Anzaldúa

(1999). Chapter 22: Putting coyolxauhqui together: A creative process. Counterpoints, 90, 241–261. https://www.jstor.org/stable/42975823

Atweh

Brady

(2009). Socially response-able mathematics education: Implications of an ethical approach. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 5(3), 267–276. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/75278

Battey

Leyva

L. A.

(2016). A framework for understanding whiteness in mathematics education. Journal of Urban Mathematics Education, 9(2), 49–80. https://doi.org/10.21423/jume-v9i2a294

Behar

(1996). The vulnerable observer. In The vulnerable observer: Anthropology that breaks your heart (pp. 1–33). Beacon Press.

Bonilla-Silva

(2019). Feeling race: Theorizing the racial economy of emotions. American Sociological Review, 84(1), 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122418816958

Brunson

R. K.

Weitzer

(2009). Police relations with Black and White youths in different urban neighborhoods. Urban Affairs Review, 44(6), 858–885. https://doi.org/10.1177/1078087408326973

Bullock

E. C.

(2013). Conducting “good” equity research in mathematics education: A question of methodology. Journal of Mathematics Education at Teachers College, 3(2), Article 752. https://doi.org/10.7916/jmetc.v3i2.752

Butler-Kisber

(2008). Collage as inquiry. In Knowles

J. G.

Cole

A. L.

(Eds.), (pp. 265–276). SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781452226545.n22

10.

Caelli

Ray

Mill

(2003). ‘Clear as Mud’: Toward greater clarity in generic qualitative research. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 2(2), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1177/160940690300200201

11.

Chaney

Robertson

R. V.

(2013). Racism and police brutality in America. Journal of African American Studies, 17(4), 480–505. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12111-013-9246-5

12.

Chilisa

(2019). Indigenous research methodologies. Sage Publications.

13.

Davis

(2014). The mathematical experiences of Black males in a predominantly Black urban middle school and community. International Journal of Education in Mathematics, Science and Technology, 2(3), 206–222. https://doi.org/10.18404/ijemst.55341

14.

Dunn

Love

B. L.

(2020). Antiracist language arts pedagogy is incomplete without Black joy. Research in the Teaching of English, 55(2), 190–192. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27116899

15.

Fawaz

(2017). Stripped to the bone: Sequencing queerness in the comic strip work of Joe Brainard and David Wojnarowicz. ASAP/Journal, 2(2), 335–367. https://doi.org/10.1353/asa.2017.0035

16.

Gardner

(2017). Supporting Black and brown females’ STEM identity construction through mathematics teacher noticing: A mixed methods study (Doctoral dissertation. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Amherst). ScholarWorks@UMass. https://doi.org/10.7275/10009192.0

17.

Gholson

M. L.

(2016). Clean corners and algebra: A critical examination of the constructed invisibility of Black girls and women in mathematics. The Journal of Negro Education, 85(3), 290–301. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/802815

18.

Gholson

M. L.

Martin

D. B.

(2014). Smart girls, Black girls, mean girls, and bullies: At the intersection of identities and the mediating role of young girls’ social network in mathematics communities of practice. Journal of Education, 194(1), 19–33. https://doi.org/10.1177/002205741419400105

19.

Gholson

M. L.

Robinson

D. D.

(2019). Restoring mathematics identities of Black learners: A curricular approach. Theory Into Practice, 58(4), 347–358. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2019.1626620

20.

Gibson

P. A.

Wilson

Haight

Kayama

Marshall

J. M.

(2014). The role of race in the out-of-school suspensions of Black students: The perspectives of students with suspensions, their parents and educators. Children and Youth Services Review, 47(3), 274–282. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2014.09.020

21.

Griffiths

(2012). Why joy in education is an issue for socially just policies. Journal of Education Policy, 27(5), 655–670. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2012.710019

22.

Gutiérrez

(2009). Embracing the inherent tensions in teaching mathematics from an equity stance. Democracy education, 18(3), 9–16. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ856292

23.

Gutiérrez

(2017). Why mathematics (education) was late to the backlash party: The need for a revolution. Journal of Urban Mathematics Education, 10(2), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.21423/jume-v10i2a347

24.

Gutstein

(2006). Reading and writing the world with mathematics: Toward a pedagogy for social justice. Routledge.

25.

Haig-Brown

(2003). Creating spaces: Testimonio, impossible knowledge, and academe. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 16(3), 415–433. https://doi.org/10.1080/0951839032000086763

26.

Hand

(2012). Seeing culture and power in mathematical learning: Toward a model of equitable instruction. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 80(1-2), 233–247. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-012-9387-9

27.

Haynes

Marawili

Mitchell

Walker

Katzenellenbogen

Bessarab

(2022). “Weaving a Mat That We Can All Sit On”: Qualitative research approaches for productive dialogue in the intercultural space. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(6), Article 3654. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19063654

28.

Hooks

(2015). Feminist theory: From margin to center/bell hooks. Routledge.

29.

Howard

T. C.

(2013). How does it feel to be a problem? Black Male students, schools, and learning in enhancing the knowledge base to disrupt deficit frameworks. Review of Research in Education, 37(1), 54–86. (Original work published 2013). https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732X12462985

30.

Howard

T. C.

Flennaugh

T. K.

Terry

C. L.

(2012). Black males, social imagery, and the disruption of pathological identities: Implications for research and teaching. Educational Foundations, 26(1–2), 85–102. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ968819&utm_source=chatgpt.com

31.

Ibourk

Hughes

Mathis

(2022). “It is what it is”: Using storied-identity and intersectionality lenses to understand the trajectory of a young Black woman’s science and math identities. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 59(7), 1099–1133. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21753

32.

Jett

C. C.

(2016). Ivy league bound: A case study of a brilliant African American male mathematics major. Spectrum: A Journal on Black Men, 4(2), 83–97. https://doi.org/10.2979/spectrum.4.2.05

33.

Joseph

N. M.

(2021). Black Feminist Mathematics Pedagogies (BlackFMP): A curricular confrontation to gendered antiblackness in the US mathematics education system. Curriculum Inquiry, 51(1), 75–97. https://doi.org/10.1080/03626784.2020.1813002

34.

Joseph

N. M.

Hailu

M. F.

Matthews

J. S.

(2019). Normalizing Black girls’ humanity in mathematics classrooms. Harvard Educational Review, 89(1), 132–155. https://doi.org/10.17763/1943-5045-89.1.132

35.

Lamont

Swidler

(2014). Methodological pluralism and the possibilities and limits of interviewing. Qualitative Sociology, 37(2), 153–171. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-014-9274-z

36.

Lee

S. J.

(2004). Up against whiteness: Students of color in our schools. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 35(1), 121–125. https://doi.org/10.1525/aeq.2004.35.1.121. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3651336

37.

Lincoln

Y. S.

González y González

E. M.

(2008). The search for emerging decolonizing methodologies in qualitative research: Further strategies for liberatory and democratic inquiry. Qualitative Inquiry, 14(5), 784–805. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800408318304

38.

Louie

(2018). Culture and ideology in mathematics teacher noticing. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 97(1), 55–69. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-017-9775-2

39.

Love

B. L.

(2019). We want to do more than survive: Abolitionist teaching and the pursuit of educational freedom. Beacon Press.

40.

Lynn

Bacon

J. N.

Totten

T. L.

Bridges

T. L.

Jennings

(2010). Examining teachers’ beliefs about African American Male students in a low-performing high school in an African American school district. Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education, 112(1), 289–330. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146811011200106

41.

Martin

D. B.

(2003). Hidden assumptions and unaddressed questions in mathematics for all rhetoric. Mathematics Educator, 13(2), 7–21. https://doi.org/10.63301/tme.v13i2.1856

42.

Martin

D. B.

(2009). Researching race in mathematics education. Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education, 111(2), 295–338. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146810911100208

43.

Martin

D. B.

(2015). Hidden assumptions and unaddressed questions in mathematics for all rhetoric. Mathematics Educator, 13(2), Article 1856. https://doi.org/10.63301/tme.v13i2.1856

44.

Martin

D. B.

Price

P. G.

Moore

(2019). Refusing systemic violence against Black children: Toward a Black liberatory mathematics education. In Davis

Jett

C. C.

(Eds.), Critical race theory in mathematics education (pp. 32–55). Routledge.

45.

Mendoza

Hand

van Es

E. A.

Hoos

Frierson

(2021). The ability to lay yourself bare: Centering rupture, inherited conversations, and vulnerability in professional development. Professional Development in Education, 47(2–3), 243–256. https://doi.org/10.1080/19415257.2021.1891955

46.

Nakhid

Nakhid-Chatoor

Santana

A. F.

Wilson-Scott

(Eds.). (2022). Affirming methodologies: Research and education in the Caribbean (p. 78). Taylor & Francis.

47.

Nasir

N. S.

(2002). Identity, goals, and learning: Mathematics in cultural practice. Mathematical Thinking and Learning, 4(2–3), 213–247. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327833MTL04023_6

48.

Nasir

N. S.

Hand

(2008). From the court to the classroom: Opportunities for engagement, learning, and identity in basketball and classroom mathematics. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 17(2), 143–179. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508400801986108

49.

Neal-Jackson

(2018). A meta-ethnographic review of the experiences of African American girls and young women in K–12 education. Review of Educational Research, 88(4), 508–546. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543187607

50.

Nijjar

J. S.

(2020). Police–school partnerships and the war on Black youth. Critical Social Policy, 41(3), 491–501. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261018320964655

51.

Nolan

(2011). Police in the hallways: Discipline in an urban high school. University of Minnesota Press.

52.

Ong

Wright

Espinosa

Orfield

(2011). Inside the double bind: A synthesis of empirical research on undergraduate and graduate women of color in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Harvard Educational Review, 81(2), 172–209. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.81.2.t022245n7x4752v2

53.

Paris

Alim

H. S.

(Eds.). (2017). Culturally sustaining pedagogies: Teaching and learning for justice in a changing world. Teachers College Press.

54.

Patel

(2015). Decolonizing educational research: From ownership to answerability. Routledge.

55.

Probst

(2016). Both/and: Researcher as participant in qualitative inquiry. Qualitative Research Journal, 16(2). https://doi.org/10.1108/QRJ-06-2015-0038

56.

Quashie

K. E.

, & ProQuest (Firm). (2021). Black aliveness, or a poetics of being/Kevin Quashie. Duke University Press.

57.

Raudenbush

S. W.

(2005). Learning from attempts to improve schooling: The contribution of methodological diversity. Educational Researcher, 34(5), 25–31. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X034005025

58.

Ray

Brown

Fraistat

Summers

(2017). Ferguson and the death of Michael Brown on Twitter: #BlackLivesMatter, #TCOT, and the evolution of collective identities. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 40(11), 1797–1813. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2017.1335422

59.

Ridgeway

M. L.

(2019). Deprogramming deficit: A narrative of a developing Black critical STEM education researcher. Communications on Stochastic Analysis, 18(1), Article 11. https://doi.org/10.31390/taboo.18.1.11

60.

Salvato

(2018). Queer structure, animated form, and really Rosie. Camera Obscura: Feminism, Culture, and Media Studies, 33(2), 139–159. https://doi.org/10.1215/02705346-6923142

61.

Sharpe

(2012). Response to Jared Sexton’s: “Ante-Anti-Blackness Afterthoughts”. Lateral. Journal of the Cultural Studies Association, 1.

62.

Sleeter

C. E.

(1993). How white teachers construct race. Race, identity and representation in education (pp. 157–171). Routledge.

63.

Spencer

J. A.

Hand

V. M.

(2015). The racialization of mathematics education. In L. D. Drakeford (Ed.), The race controversy in American education (pp. 237–258). Praeger/Bloomsbury.

64.

Spielman

L. J.

(2012). Equity in mathematics education: Unions and intersections of feminist and social justice literature. In Forgasz

Rivera

(Eds.), Towards equity in mathematics education. Advances in mathematics education (pp. 39–56). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27702-3_5

65.

Stanton

C. R.

(2013). Crossing methodological borders: Decolonizing community-based participatory research. Qualitative Inquiry, 20(5), 573–583. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800413505541

66.

Stinson

D. W.

Bullock

E. C.

(2015). Critical postmodern methodology in mathematics education research: Promoting another way of thinking and looking. Philosophy of Mathematics Education Journal [25th Anniversary issue], (29), 1–18. https://socialsciences.exeter.ac.uk/education/research/centres/stem/publications/pmej/pome29/index.htm

67.

Thambinathan

Kinsella

E. A.

(2021). Decolonizing methodologies in qualitative research: Creating spaces for transformative praxis. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 20(1), 16094069211014766. https://doi.org/10.1177/16094069211014766

68.

Tichavakunda

A. A.

(2021). Black joy on white campuses: Exploring Black students’ recreation and celebration at a historically white institution. The Review of Higher Education, 44(3), 297–324. https://doi.org/10.1353/rhe.2021.0003

69.

Vakil

de Royston

M. M.

(2019). Exploring politicized trust in a racially diverse computer science classroom. Race, Ethnicity and Education, 22(4), 545–567. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2019.1592846

70.

Vakil

McKinney

Royston

Suad Nasir

N. I.

Kirshner

(2016). Rethinking race and power in design-based research: Reflections from the field. Cognition and Instruction, 34(3), 194–209. https://doi.org/10.1080/07370008.2016.1169817

71.

Villenas

S. A.

(2019). Pedagogies of being with: Witnessing, testimonio, and critical love in everyday social movement. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 32(2), 151–166. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2018.1533148

72.

Wade-Jaimes

King

N. S.

Schwartz

(2021). “You could like science and not be a science person”: Black girls’ negotiation of space and identity in science. Science Education, 105(5), 855–879. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21664

73.

Wilson

(2001). What is an indigenous research methodology? Canadian Journal of Native Education, 25(2), 175–179. https://ojs.library.ubc.ca/index.php/CJNE/article/view/196968?utm_source=chatgpt.com

“What Does That Mean In My Body? All of It?”: Decolonizing Methodology Through An Embodied Noticing Approach

Abstract

Keywords

Introduction

Framing Black Joy as Method and Inquiry

Setting Methodological Intentions

Modeling Equitable Research Practices Through Co-Design

Disrupting Colonial Logics in STEM Education Research

Intentional and Inclusive Methodological Design

Leveraging Noticing and Interpreting Black Joy

Study Background and Context

Co-Researchers

Positionality

Findings

Experience-Affirming Practices

Embodied Noticing

Body Mapping

Collaging

Discussion

Implications

Conclusion

Footnotes

ORCID iD

Funding

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

Data Availability Statement

References