Black Girlhood and Identity in Canadian Elementary Schools: A Feminist Perspective on Voice, Agency, and Visibility

This volume uses interviews and narratives data from self-identified Black women reflecting on their childhood in the Canadian public school system, to explore voice and agency, girlhood, and identity in Canada’s elementary schools. Exploring themes of race, gender, identity, friendship, dreams, authority, and success, the author showcases diversity in Black Canadian feminism and gives voice and agency to Black female stories that have traditionally been absent amongst the literary canon of education. An intimate and compelling scholarly exploration, it contributes to conversations around transforming the Black girl narrative in public education and will appeal to researchers, faculty, and post-graduate students with interests in race and ethnicity in education, gender studies, and multicultural education.

Natasha Burford is a Vice Principal for the Toronto District School Board and a Sessional Lecturer for the University of Toronto, St. George campus. She has been teaching at the TDSB for 18 years. She is married and has three children and lives in Toronto.