Creating Crescent: Using Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) and Public Media to Promote Epistemic Agency among Black Girls in South Carolina

Item

Title

Creating Crescent: Using Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) and Public Media to Promote Epistemic Agency among Black Girls in South Carolina

Abstract/Description

This study uses womanist methodology and youth participatory action research (YPAR), centering the ways of knowing of Black girls, with a focus on epistemic agency, to engage Black girls in the production of educational media. Such a study is necessary because Black girls are underrepresented in educational media, overrepresented in cases of school discipline, and overrepresented in reports of physical violence in schools. As public media is recognized as a transformative intervention in improving learning outcomes for children, addressing the underrepresentation of Black girlhood therein creates opportunities to address these intersecting issues and create humanizing educational media for all students. To achieve these ends, I, a scholar practitioner and local leader in public media, engage a group of Black girl high school students participating in Upward Bound, in creating standard-aligned learning media that is appealing to and effective among youth audiences. Collectively, we worked together through the preproduction, production, postproduction phases to create and build a world around Crescent, an animated Black girl character representing Black girlhood in South Carolina.

This study is significant in its methodology and results. It offers critical insight into the use of digital platforms, creative tools, and equipment in creating a harmonious and productive multi-modal environment for problem solving and creativity. It also offers insight into the educative experiences of the Black girl co-creators and the ways in which these experiences inform their perspectives and worldviews. Study outcomes show that when operationalized in service of teaching others and personal growth, the experiences and perspectives of Black girls produce vibrant, rich, multi-layered educational content.

Author/creator

Bowman, Salandra

Date

2021

Institution

University of South Carolina

Committee

Shah, Payal

Brown, Kara

Brown, Ruth Nicole

Bryan, Michelle

Resource type

en Research/Scholarly Media

Resource status/form

en Thesis/Dissertation

Scholarship genre

en Empirical

Keywords

Black girls

educational media

epistemic agency

public media

womanism

youth participatory action research

IRE Approach/Concept

Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR)

Primary national context

United States

Language

English

Open access/full-text available

en Yes

Peer reviewed

en No

ISBN

9798802767276

URL

Official Dissertation Webpage (via ProQuest Dissertations)

Open Access Dissertation (University of South Carolina Scholar Commons)

Citation

Bowman, S. (2021). Creating Crescent: Using Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) and Public Media to Promote Epistemic Agency among Black Girls in South Carolina [Ed.D., University of South Carolina]. https://www.proquest.com/dissertations/docview/2672137807/abstract/B8F006AC8B446CBPQ/17

Place

United States -- South Carolina

Rights

Database copyright ProQuest LLC; ProQuest does not claim copyright in the individual underlying works.

Type

Ed.D.

Item sets

IRE Theses and Dissertations

Dissertation

20220707 IRE Dissertations

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