Studying and Imagining Mattering With Black Boys: Mutual Self-Discoveries for Collective Healing and Liberation

Abstract

Through our school-based research partnership, The Black Boy Mattering Project, we qualitatively explore how adolescent Black boys perceive their inferred significance or “mattering” in schools and society using one-on-one interviews, focus groups, and artistic experiences. However, our research is also collective “me-search” in many ways. Drawing from self-reflections from our racially and ethnically diverse research team, we use a critical reflective methodological approach to discuss how our discernment of Black boys’ mattering intertwines with our positionalities and spurs self-discoveries as researchers. In this article, we highlight how our mutually beneficial research study with adolescent boys fosters our healing from the pain of oppressive forces, inspires us to imagine beyond received realities for Black boys and ourselves, and allows us to make strides toward our own individual and collective liberation. Emergent lessons offer transferable potential to other collectives of diverse critical qualitative researchers who work toward mutual liberation with vulnerable populations.