Current research suggests that it is imperative for researchers and educators to pay more attention to the needs of African American adolescent girls and how their race and gender affect schooling (Fordham, 1993; Morris, 2007). The purpose of this study was to highlight the lived experiences of two African American adolescent girls when they used the African American women\u27s speech practice, Talking with an Attitude (TWA), with their teachers. Using phenomenology and Afrocentric feminist epistemology as methodological and theoretical approaches, interviews were used to collect and analyze data that revealed the nature of their lived experiences. Van Manen\u27s description of selective highlighting of statements that point to themes was used as a means of analysis. The findings indicate that the girls reappropriated the use of TWA to resist what they perceived to be hostility and disrespect on the part of their teachers. (Contains 2 footnotes.
