Leveraging technology: how Black girls enact critical digital literacies for social change

ABSTRACT

This study examines critical digital literacy practices among 390 Black girls, ages 13–17. Through a data sharing initiative with a community organization, we conducted a qualitative analysis of 3120 narrative responses describing their views of technology. Grounded in Black feminist epistemologies, our study found that the girls reconciled their views of technology with their existing standpoints and desires for social change. Our findings highlight how Black girls leverage technologies to account for their ways of knowing and existing in the world, including using technology to author activist identities and express feelings of agency. Our findings challenge researchers and educators to expand their understanding of critical digital literacy in ways that honor Black girls’ complex experiences and existing practices.

KEYWORDS:

• Literacy
• digital literacy
• critical literacy
• identity
• feminism
• Black girls
• technology

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors

Patricia Garcia is an Assistant Professor in the School of Information at the University of Michigan. Her research examines how sociocultural factors influence the formation of STEM identities among girls from underrepresented racial and ethnic backgrounds in computing. She develops sustainable models for promoting culturally responsive computing programs in libraries.

Cecilia Fernández is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Information at the University of Michigan. Her research examines the educational and personal experiences of students from non-dominant communities within STEM environments. She aims to create transformational change in STEM education by developing practices that are socially just.

Holly Okonkwo is an Assistant Professor of cultural anthropology at Purdue University. Her research explores the situated knowledge production of women of the African diaspora and the material and cultural practices of scientific knowledge production, learning and innovation, with special interests in computing and engineering

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under grant [number 1651653].