EDUCATION, COMMUNITY AND RACIAL-ETHNIC RELATIONS: EXPERIENCES IN THE UNITED STATES AND MALI

Revista Eletrônica de Educação

Endereço:
Via Washington Luis km 235
São Carlos / SP
13565-905
Site: http://www.reveduc.ufscar.br
Telefone: (16) 3351-8356
ISSN: 19827199
Editor Chefe: Aline Maria de Medeiros Rodrigues Reali
Início Publicação: 31/08/2007
Periodicidade: Quadrimestral
Área de Estudo: Educação

EDUCATION, COMMUNITY AND RACIAL-ETHNIC RELATIONS: EXPERIENCES IN THE UNITED STATES AND MALI

Ano: 2012 | Volume: 6 | Número: 2
Autores: J. E. King
Autor Correspondente: J. E. King | [email protected]

Palavras-chave: Black Education; Emancipatory pedagogy; Critical Black consciousness; Racial-ethnic identity.

Resumos Cadastrados

Resumo Inglês:

Black students, as a group, are underserved by neoliberal policies and poorly
resourced urban schools and Black Americans are over-represented in privatized
prisons. This article challenges cultural deficit thinking and theorizing about Black
children’s language and culture, which have been so pervasive in the U.S.
Research discussed in this article interrupts this discourse of Black inferiority and
highlights the importance of students developing a critical Black consciousness,
which can contribute to their academic and cultural excellence. Emancipatory
pedagogy for human freedom, which supports students’ positive sense of
themselves and their racial-ethnic group, is also discussed. Emancipatory teaching
for critical Black consciousness and human freedom means recovering history,
memory and identity, so students understand the state of Black America from a
critical, historical perspective. Education for this kind of consciousness requires
connecting students to their family, community history and to their ancestors. Five
principles of emancipatory pedagogy are presented that can guide teacher
preparation, curriculum, text development, and standards-based instruction and
support positive racial-ethnic relationships. These are: conscientization, critique of
ideology/critique of racism as ideology, cultural agency/resistance to oppression,
dialectical epistemology and teaching through cultural arts. The example of the
Songhoy Club, a pedagogical laboratory for heritage teaching for students and
doctoral students and engaging parents, demonstrates how teaching Songhoy
language and culture connects students with their African heritage, “from the Nile
to the Niger to the Neighborhood.” Teaching this heritage is very important given
that northern Mali is occupied by Islamic extremists who have destroyed historic
cultural artifacts in Timbuktu.