2019/11/20 by Tisha Lewis Ellison, Bradley Robinson, Tairan Qiu · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Literacy, Media, and Education #Gender and Technology in Education #Child Development and Digital Technology
paper · pdf · doi:10.1177/0741088319880511
openalex publication_date 2019/11/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/04
This article examines how three African American girls, ages 10 to 18, used journaling and interviews to better understand science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) as part of their literate identities. Drawing on prior work about literate identities, the authors introduce the concept of literate intersectional identities, which describes how participants’ diverse histories, literacies, and identities traverse categories, communities, genres, and modes of meaning within the context of a STEAM workshop. The authors employed open and thematic coding to analyze the girls’ journal entries in an effort to answer a question: In what ways do African American girls’ journal writings and interviews about STEM reflect and influence their literate identities in a digital app coding workshop? Findings reveal how their writings about race, access, and the underrepresentation of women of color in STEM helped them make sense of their self-assurance, self-awareness, and agency as girls of color interested in STEM careers.