Narratives of a black lesbian woman on her school trajectory and identity construction: Reflections on race, sexuality, and education

Abstract

This article aims to analyze how the educational trajectory of a Black lesbian woman influenced the processes of identity construction, considering the relationships between education, race, gender, and sexuality. The research is justified by the need to increase the visibility of Black lesbian women's experiences in the educational field, considering the processes of silencing, racialization, and the normalization of sexuality that permeate their educational and professional trajectories. In this sense, the study is guided by the following research question: how did the educational and professional trajectory of a Black woman influence the process of constructing and recognizing her lesbian identity, considering the relationships between education, race, gender, and sexuality? This is a study grounded in the (auto)biographical approach, using autobiographical narrative as a methodological procedure and Conceição Evaristo's concept of escrevivência as an epistemological perspective. The analysis engages with the works of Maria da Conceição Passeggi (2016), Guacira Lopes Louro (2018), Nilma Lino Gomes (2019), bell hooks (2017), Patricia Hill Collins (2019), and Audre Lorde (2019). The narratives show that the school functioned as a space for the production of identities through silencing, gender norms, racialization, and the invisibilization of sexual dissidences. The results indicate that these processes were also present in the researcher's teaching practice, revealing the continuity of mechanisms of control over Black and lesbian bodies within educational spaces. It is concluded that autobiographical narrative, articulated with escrevivência, constitutes an important strategy for producing knowledge about the experiences of Black lesbian women in education, contributing to the strengthening of an anti-racist, LGBTQIAPN+-inclusive perspective committed to diversity.