Abstract
Academic tracking segregates students based on perceived ability. Because of the nation’s exclusionary history, Black students are often unfairly judged and disproportionately placed in lower tracks. By viewing academic tracking through Patricia Hill Collins’s concept of the “ matrix of domination, ” this study brings attention to normalized deep-seated biases and structural discriminatory practices. Yet amidst this complex web of oppression is the potential for education to be a political weapon that equips students to oppose and disrupt hegemonic state-sanctioned violence. This study makes the case that tracking Black girls is oppressive by drawing on Black feminist thought, research literature, and the experiences of the Black women authors through Black girl autoethnography. To free Black pupils from the oppression of tracking systems in state education, we propose that schools implement detracking and teachers embrace an abolitionist pedagogy, drawing on the ancestry of Black Americans.
Recommended Citation
Edosomwan, K., & Crawford, A. (2025). Breaking the Chains: Tracking Through the Lens of Black Feminist Thought. Black Educology Mixtape "Journal", 3(1). Retrieved from https://repository.usfca.edu/be/vol3/iss1/6