03/13/2026
By Zakkiyya Witherspoon

The School of Education invites you to attend a doctoral dissertation defense by Zakkiyya Witherspoon “When We Play Our Way: A Culturally Grounded Intervention to Build Social Efficacy and Counteract Marginalization Among Black High School Girls."

Candidate: Zakkiyya Witherspoon
Degree: Doctoral- Ed.D. Leadership in Schooling
Defense Date: March 26, 2026
Time: 12:30 p.m.
Location: Via Zoom 
Thesis/Dissertation Title: When We Play Our Way: A Culturally Grounded Intervention to Build Social Efficacy and Counteract Marginalization Among Black High School Girls

Dissertation Committee

  • Chair: Linda Riley, Ed.D., Visiting Professor, School of Education, University of Massachusetts Lowell
  • Committee Member: Robai Werunga, Ph.D., Faculty, School of Education, University of Massachusetts Lowell

Abstract
Black girls navigating predominantly white educational institutions (PWIs) are not only challenged with academic demands, but they are burdened with the ongoing labor of code-switching, they wear the weight of adultification bias, and the quiet but persistent erasure of the identities that sustain them. These conditions are not just mere discomfort; they actively constrain the development of their social efficacy. This Dissertation-in-Practice takes that reality seriously, centering the core question: How does participation in a culturally grounded intervention influence the perceived social efficacy of Black girls in a predominantly white educational institution?

Grounded in Social Cognitive Theory, Black Feminist Theory, Critical Race Theory, and Critical Pedagogy, Manuscript One moves across macro, meso, and micro levels of the educational system to build an improvement theory rooted in both the scholarly literature and a local needs assessment at Crescent Academy. Manuscript Two documents a Plan–Do–Study–Act cycle examining the Clap Club, a six-week cultural empowerment intervention built around traditional hand-clapping games, with nine Black high school girls. Using a mixed-methods design that included pre- and post-administration of the Scale of Perceived Social Self-Efficacy, semi-structured interviews, observation notes, and reflective journals, the intervention surpassed its 10% improvement target: participants achieved a 30.6% mean increase in social efficacy scores, with all eight who completed both assessments showing positive growth. Six qualitative themes captured what the numbers couldn't fully hold, revealing shifts in identity affirmation, critical consciousness, and self-advocacy that were visible and real. Manuscript Three translates these findings into actionable recommendations: expanded culturally affirming programming, youth-led accountability structures, and the integration of critical consciousness development into school-wide practice.

Taken together, this work makes a straightforward argument, one that the data supports and that Black girls have long deserved to have institutionally affirmed: identity-affirming spaces are not supplemental. They are essential. And dismantling the conditions that marginalize Black girls in PWIs requires more than good intentions; it requires structural commitment.

Keywords: advocacy skill development, Black feminist theory, Black girls, clap club, counter-spaces, critical consciousness, cultural affirmation, hand-clapping games, improvement science, predominantly white institutions, social efficacy, social cognitive theory