Aoki Lecture Explores Outcomes Among Black Girls in California Schools
The Aoki Center on Critical Race and Nation Studies this week continued its Interdisciplinary Speaker Series with a lecture, "Promotive and Inhibitive Outcomes Among Black Girls in California Schools: A Civil Rights Data Collection Exploratory Study," presented by Professor Faheemah Mustafaa, Kiara Jones and Tadria Cardenas Rico.
Black girls are often disproportionately disciplined and underexposed to academic opportunities (e.g., gifted education) that support their holistic well-being. Using the Civil Rights Data Collection, we examine proportionality and disproportionality in promotive and inhibitive outcomes among Black girls in schools and districts throughout California. Through preliminary exploratory analyses, we consider outcomes among Black girls covered under IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act), and examine disparities based on school district-level socioeconomics. We discuss implications for policy and practice, and the importance of equity research in California at the intersection of race, gender, ability status, and socioeconomics.
Dr. Faheemah N. Mustafaa joined the School of Education as an assistant professor in 2019. She is also a member of the Human Development Graduate Group, and faculty research affiliate with the Center for Poverty & Inequality Research. Prior to joining the School of Education faculty, she was a postdoctoral researcher in Social-Personality Psychology at University of California, Berkeley, and in Teaching and Learning at Vanderbilt University. Dr. Mustafaa earned her Ph.D. in the Combined Program in Education and Psychology, and M.A. in Higher Education, both from the University of Michigan.
Her interdisciplinary research primarily focuses on: (1) understanding and supporting the academic performance and holistic well-being of Black/African American and other youth with historically marginalized identities; and (2) studying the identity-related beliefs and pedagogies of K-12 and postsecondary educators.
Currently, Dr. Mustafaa is Co-Principal Investigator on a $2.4 million three-year National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to study the experiences of Black girls and college women participating in a robotics and engineering program. She is also currently writing on Black K-12 educators’ racial identity attitudes and practice; the experiences of school-based community building among Black girls in the Bay Area; and equity praxis in postsecondary teaching and learning.