I Am Complicated, and So Is My Blackness: A Trifecta Exploration of Educational Spaces and Identity Development

Abstract

Myriads of research studies have been written over the past 20 years highlighting the racial gap and disparities in educational opportunities and outcomes between Black and White students, but as revealed in a review of the literature, more studies need to be conducted that examine the intersection of race, space/place, and racial identity development. Using critical race theory as a framework, this study comprised of three separate, but related essays that explore the function of educational spaces in which Black Americans navigate, grow, and develop as it intersects with race, space/place, and identity development. Essay one is a critical narrative literature review that was conducted to examine how researchers addressed the concept of intersectionality using critical race theory, racial space theory, and Black identity development in current literature. Essay two was an autoethnographic essay about my personal educational journey through the stages of Black identity development using CRT and intersectionality as a lens to examine my experience. Using CRT as a framework, essay three was a phenomenological mixed-methods study that captured the lived experiences of professionals across space/place using Neely and Samura’s racial space theory (2011), racial identity development was explored utilizing interview responses, Cross’s Nigrescence stages (1991, 1978, 1971), and Helm and Parham’s Black racial identity attitude scale (1996, 1990).