Infusion of Afrocentric Content into the School Curriculum

Abstract

African American children are the proxy for what ails American education in general. And so, as we fashion solutions which help African American children, we fashion solutions which help all children.-Honorable Augustus F. Hawkins 1 This article is a discussion of significant incidents and issues that pertain to recent efforts to infuse Afrocentric content into the U.S. public school curriculum. 2 The focus here is on developments within the past decade, as highlighted by a case study of the School District of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Two distinct historical developments among African American people inform what can be called a movement for Afrocentric content infusion. The first is the late 1960s mass call by parents and community leaders for more control over their schools. The second development is the popularization of the Afrocentric idea and the embracing of African culture by African Americans. In addition, the seemingly increasing severity of social problems confronting African American youths is an alarming development that has lent urgency to this movement. Carpenter-Huffman, Hall, and Sumner (1974) provide a useful method by which any attempt to introduce a school reform can be evaluated. This method is used here applied to the Afrocentric curriculum movement. An examination of the efforts to infuse Afrocentric content into the curriculum of Philadelphia's public 462

Cultural Vibrancy: Exploring the Preferences of African American Children Toward Culturally Relevant and Non-Culturally Relevant Lessons

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“…The achievement gap of African American students and the limited academic improvements has led many scholars to examine more closely the culturally relevancy of the curriculum as an avenue toward increasing achievement and school connectedness for African American children (Asante 1992;Banks 2001;Gay 2000;Giddings 2001;Hale 2001;Ladson-Billings 2000Lynch 2006;Thompson 2004;Webster 2002). This study examined African American student's preferences for culturally relevant or non-culturally relevant lessons in an effort to further examine the importance of culturally relevant curriculum on African American student achievement.…”

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“…Since traditional elementary social studies textbooks have been embedded within the educational system for centuries and African American students have been required to learn the history of Blacks from a Eurocentric lens (Cobham and Parker, 2007), it is exigent that African American students learn Black history year-round, rendering it an integral part of the learning process (Giddings, 2001). Epstein and King (2012) explain that when youth learn their historical past, it empowers them to build upon that knowledge to become productive advocates for Black equality.…”

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“…As we proceed, we are aware that a variety of interpretations of Africancentered education exist and that these are incorporated in schools in different ways (Akoto 1992;Asante 1991;Binder 2000;Giddings 2001;Lee 1994). Nevertheless, we attempt to supply a fairly conventional, or normative, reading of ACP in describing the curricular choices, learning goals, teaching strategies, and performance assessment of practitioners in African-centered schools.…”