Black Girls’ Development of Sociocritical AI Literacies Through Critique and Design

This article presents a study investigating how Black middle school girls engaged in a design curriculum to develop sociocritical artificial intelligence (AI) literacies: the capacity to interrogate, critique, and reimagine AI systems while integrating one’s own sociocultural practices. Grounded in critical race technology theory and Black feminist thought, the study foregrounds Black girls’ lived experiences and epistemologies. Over eight weeks, students engaged in learning activities that combined technical skill development with sociopolitical critique. Using epistemic network analysis, we identified distinct discourse patterns across three activity phases: Interact and Critique, Critique and Reimagine, and Reimagine and Build. Findings reveal that students not only acquired technical knowledge of machine learning but also exercised agency, emotion, and creativity in resisting deficit narratives and designing technologies aligned with their identities and communities. This work advances a vision for AI education that is emotionally affirming and justice driven.