Chapter 16: African American Girls and the Kaleidoscope of Identity: Reflections of Contextual Strategies to Promote Positive Identity Development
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Published:2016
Ayana Allen, 2016. "African American Girls and the Kaleidoscope of Identity: Reflections of Contextual Strategies to Promote Positive Identity Development", Cultivating Achievement, Respect, and Empowerment (CARE) for African American Girls in PreK- 12 Settings: Implications for Access, Equity and Achievement, Patricia J. Larke, Webb-Hasan Gwendolyn, Jemimah L. Young
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The identity development of school age African American girls is formulated in a myriad of contexts and daily life experiences. This chapter will discuss frameworks of identity development that are relative to African American girls as well as the historical, sociopolitical, and contemporary contexts by which identity is developed and negotiated. The environmental context of schools often serves as construction sites where identity, self-concept, and self-perceptions are created. Hence, this chapter serves to posit recommendations for families, schools, and communities to nurture the positive identity development of African American girls.
As babies we’re born blank sheets of paper. Not a single mark. As we grow older, lines form, then colors and patterns. Before long that paper is all sorts of brilliant. Like a kaleidoscope, no two exactly alike.—Shannon Wiersbitzky (2014)
