UCLA

Efforts towards urban school reform regularly overlook the complex socio-cultural contexts in which Black female students are situated and the ways in which their subordination is regularly perpetuated in schools. The propagation of urban misogyny in youth popular culture and corresponding reductive media narratives that position young Black women as hypersexual, aggressive, and anti-intellectual profoundly influence the evolving identities of these youth. This reality--coupled with the unremitting urging by policymakers for educators to align curriculum with standardized tests--has created classroom contexts that disregard the educational needs and cultural subjectivities of these youth. Drawing from a Black feminist framework, this study involves analyzing Black feminist pedagogical practices employed for two years during the author's recent research as an English teacher at a public South Los Angeles high school. Specifically, a qualitative methodology is utilized to explore the immediate and long-term impact of a Black feminist curriculum on African-American female students' orientation towards school

and the development of their racial/ethnic and gender identities. This research offers concrete examples of pedagogical processes that engender self-actualization and an authentic craving for cultural and intellectual empowerment among young Black women. Implications for classroom

pedagogy, and teacher education are explored.