The Three Rs: An Intergenerational Exploration of Black Womanhood in Education & Dance

Abstract

This dissertation study combines narrative storytelling, self-study, Black feminist methods, and arts-based educational research (ABER) to consider how three generations of my maternal lineage have experienced the phenomenon of Black womanhood throughout our lives, education, teaching careers, and art. Importantly, this study also pilots an extension of current arts-based research methods called Empathetic Embodiment (EE). EE as a qualitative data analysis method I developed out of necessity given the importance of race, family, movement, and embodiment to this project. EE’s distinguishing feature is how the method enables researchers to better attend to the lived, embodied, and affective experiences participants share by integrating kinesthetic, cognitive, and even spiritual approaches to data analysis. It provides a structured way for researchers to empathize with participants and thus code traditional qualitative data with more fidelity and nuance.This study represents the first use of the EE method in an official research capacity and considers the following primary research question: “How can Empathetic Embodiment make sense of the ways dance, education, and Blackness are braided through my maternal lineage?” Narrative “snapshots” (Gloria-Ladson Billings, 2009, pg.31) of my maternal grandmother, mother, and myself are presented alongside detailed descriptions of both the theory and practice of EE. Ultimately, our stories demonstrate some of the ways arts education, specifically, and Black experiences of teaching and learning more broadly, fit into Black women’s expression and development of themselves.