A Photovoice Project Exploring How Black Girls Navigate Education and Uncertainty at Home in COVID-19 (RPA Pilot / Seed Project)

This Photovoice research project aims to elucidate the multiple ways in which Black adolescent girls, ages 14-18, navigate the intrusion of adulthood to support their parents and families with adultlike tasks at home while navigating the uncertainty of school and world events. In concert with the Lexington Housing Authority, we are interested in examining how Black adolescent girls thrive academically while simultaneously caring for family members during uncertain economic and political times amid a global pandemic. We seek to employ Photovoice as a research engagement tool with a double aim: (1) to explore and interrogate the school and home community, and (2) to learn how to advocate for the community’s collective needs. The goal is to exhaust the Photovoice process to co-develop an action plan wherein university researchers and co-researchers use study findings to apply for more significant funding sources to enhance individual and community well-being, academic trajectories, and social and economic mobility of our intended research demographic. This study gives particular attention to Black adolescent girls who reside in public housing, and we pose the following research questions: How and in what ways do Black adolescent girls manage school and home tasks during a global pandemic? And how might co-researchers use Photovoice to mobilize action for Black girls and community well-being?