Seeing Black Girls in Their Glory: Cultivating Spaces that Facilitate Black Girls' Psychological Safety

Black girls are regularly exposed to physical, emotional, and psychological violence in schools. Spaces intentionally created for and by Black girls can offer them psychological safety, where they can feel comfortable being their authentic selves. In the current qualitative study, we explore Black adolescent girls' sense of psychological safety using individual, semi-structured interviews with 16 girls (Mage = 17.36 years) who participated in Black Girl Magic Crew (BGM), an after-school program in the southeastern United States. This program was created for and with Black girls and focused on their identity development, mental health, and academic preparation. Drawing on the psychological framework of radical healing and Black feminism in qualitative inquiry, we depict the practices and curricular elements that enabled the girls to feel psychologically safe in BGM. Findings demonstrated that within BGM, participants (a) were validated, (b) seen in their glory, and (c) freely expressed themselves. The authors discuss the implications of study findings for Black girls' psychological safety and co-creating Black girl spaces that prioritize liberation and healing.