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African-Centered Education

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Philosophy

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The premise behind Afrocentric education is the notion that human beings can be subjugated and made servile by limiting their consciousness of themselves and by imposing certain selective aspects of alien knowledge on others.[1] To control a peoples culture is to control their tools of self-determination in relationship to others. [2] To a larger extent, to be conscious is to be alive and to be human, therefore, consciousness of self and education of self are worthwhile endeavors. Afrocentrists claim that what educates one group of people does not necessarily educates and empowers another group of people.


  • Decolonizing the African Mind

Afrocentric education has as one of its tenets, decolonizing the African mind. The central objective in decolonizing the African mind is to overthrow the authority in which alien traditions exercise over the African.[3] In order to achieve this, Eurocentric ideology must be dismantled from everyday African life. This is not to say that the African is to reject foreign tradition, but she or he is to deny its authoritative control in the culture of the African, and denounce allegiance to this authoritative control. Decolonizing the African mind seeks to mentally liberate Africans. Economic and political control can never be complete or effective without mental control. It is then clear that an Afrocentric education is essential based on the idea of mental liberation.

Education

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Looking at education from a holistic point of view to examine what constitutes an effective education, the word “education” derives from the Latin verb "educare" meaning to "draw or bring out". Therefore education was understood to be a process of harnessing the inner potential that was yet unexpressed. It was imperative to equip the youth with an awareness of their identity. Transmission of skills and habits often is the beginning of an education process but this incorporates the overall


The term "miseducation" was coined by Dr. Carter G. Woodson to describe the process of systematically depriving African Americans of their knowledge of self. Dr. Woodson believed that miseducation was the root of the problems of the masses of the African American community and that if the masses of the African American community were given the correct knowledge and education from the beginning, they would not be in the situation that they find themselves today. Miseducation is when a people are given an alien identity. Dr. Woodson argues in his book, The Mis-Education of the Negro, that African Americans often valorize European culture to the detriment of their own culture.

A school based on African values, it is believed, would eliminate the patterns of rejection and alienation that engulf so many African American school children, especially males. The movement for African-centered education is based on the assumption that a school immersed in African traditions, rituals, values, and symbols will provide a learning environment that is more congruent with the lifestyles and values of African American families.

  • Problems with education

The problem as seen concerning formal education is that it utilizes systems that take most people of African ancestry away from themselves in relation to who they are and their contributions to society. In essence, the African perceives the world through the eyes of another and unconsciously learns to see himself as not a significant part of the world in which she or he is apart of. Afrocentric education is characterized by a need to deconstruct a non-mutually beneficial educational system and to construct a world that Africans need according to their own vision and strategies. An Afrocentric education does not necessarily wish to isolate Africans from a Eurocentric education system but wishes to assert the autonomy of Africans and declare a state of independent as it pertains to the way in which Africans are educated.

Afrocentrists claims that so long as their is a cultural hegonemy or imposition of one ethnic heritage over another, then the educational process can only be effective when it encompasses the cultural uniqueness of the learners.


  • Identity

The primary function of education is to provide an identity of an individual. Using this point of view Afrocentrists claim that African centered education is necessary to produce the desire identity if its students.

Notes

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  1. ^ Woodson, Dr. Carter G. (1933). The Mis-Education of the Negro. Khalifah's Booksellers & Associates.
  2. ^ Akbar, Dr. Na'im.(1998)
  3. ^ Chinweizu (1987). Decolonizing the African Mind. Sundoor Press.)


References

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  • Woodson, Dr. Carter G. (1933). The Mis-Education of the Negro. Khalifah's Booksellers & Associates.
  • Akbar, Dr. Na'im. (1998). Know Thyself. Mind Productions & Associates.
  • Chinweizu (1987). Decolonizing the African Mind. Sundoor Press.
  • Pollard Diane S., et al(2000). African-Centered Schooling in Theory and Practice. Bergin & Garvey.

Further reading

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  • Kondo, Zak. Black Students Guide to Positive Education.
  • Goggins II, Lathardus. African Centered Rites of Passage and Education.
  • Gill, Walter. Issues in African American Education.
  • Cartwright, Madeline. For the Children.
  • Zaslavsky, Claudia. Africa Counts.
  • Hilliard III, Asa G. SBA: The Reawakening of the African Mind.
  • Hilliard III, Asa G. Maroons Within Us.
  • Hilliard III, Asa G., et al. Young, Gifted and Black.
  • Hilliard III, Asa G., Payton-Stewart, Lucretia, Williams, Larry Obadele. Infusion of African and African American Content in the School Curriculum.
  • Palmer, Anyim. The Failure of Public Education in the Black Community.
  • Foluke, Gyasi A. The Crisis and Challenge of Black Mis-Education in America.
  • DuBois, W.E.B. and Aptheker, Herbert. The Education of Black People.
  • Lomotey, Kofi. Going to School: the African American Experience.
  • Akoto, Kwame Agyei. Nationbuilding: Theory and practice in Afrikan-centered education.
  • Shujaa, Mwalimu J. Too Much Schooling, Too Little Education.
  • Lometey, Kofi. Sailing Against the Wind: African Americans and Women in U.S. Education.
  • Richard Majors. Educating Our Black Children: New Directions and Radical Approaches.
  • Hale, Janice E. Unbank the Fire: Visions for the Education of African American Children.
  • Watkins, William H. The White Architects of Black Education: Ideology and Power in America, 1865-1954
  • Denbo, Sheryl. Improving Schools for African American Students: A Reader for Educational Leaders.
  • Ani, Marimba.Yurugu: An African-Centered Critique of European Cultural Thought and Behavior.
  • Murrell Jr., Peter C. African-Centered Pedagogy:Developing Schools of Achievement for African American Children.
  • Ford, Donna Y. Reversing Underachievement Among Gifted Black Students.
  • Ratteray, Joan D. Center Shift: An African-Centered Approach for the Multi-Cultural Curriculum.
  • Tatum, Beverly Daniel. Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria.
  • Gentry, Atron A. Learning to Survive: Black Youth Look for Education and Hope.
  • Kafele, Baruti K. A Black Parent’s Handbook to Educating Your Children (Outside of the Classroom)
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See also

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