Standards of Afrocentric Education for School Leaders and Teachers

Abstract

What is Afrocentric education (ACE)? What are the implications of ACE for school leaders and teachers? What is the relationship of ACE to multicultural education (MCE) and how does ACE differ from MCE? What are the standards that govern ACE’s philosophical foundation and practical application? This article provides a practical definition of ACE that can be understood by the community and the academy, the theoretical basis of ACE, its relationship to MCE, a synthesis of the research literature, and a framework of basic standards that educational leaders, teachers, and professors can employ for curriculum development, strategic planning, instructional leadership, instructional strategies, and transformation of school culture in PK-12 and higher education. This article also offers a definition of leadership and Afrocentric Educational Leadership to frame and inform future research.

“Hey, Black Child. Do You Know Who You Are?” Using African Diaspora Literacy to Humanize Blackness in Early Childhood Education

“…Akua (2020) asserts that by centering African identity and history in classrooms, a foundation can be established for building agency and self-determination. In Mukkaramah’s classroom, pedagogies supported students in developing and demonstrating their abilities, agency, and pride as we foregrounded African histories, Ma’at principles, and AAL while addressing required standards.…”

“Y’all Don’t Hear Me Though”: Insight on Culturally Responsive Teaching from Scholarship on African American Language

“…Unlike Heath's translations that serve to legitimize AAL and persuade an audience of outsiders, Lee's "re-voicing" of her students' analytical moves is intended to empower and encourage the speakers themselves. As Akua [40] notes, just like teachers in diverse classrooms, students whose cultural assets have not traditionally been acknowledged in learning spaces may need help recognizing their own assets and the connections between those assets and the content and ideas they are exploring in the curriculum. Further, Massó [41] calls upon practices like Lee's as a strategy educators can use to address the misconception that all student readers will experience and interpret any given text in the same way.…”

Toward Advancing African Scholarship through Afrocentric Leadership in Higher Education

“…Afrocentric-centered leadership is a scientific approach to African development that is founded on African history, culture, behavioral patterns, beliefs, and norms. It is not a carbon copy of Western leadership models [27]. Afrocentric leadership is, therefore, an African-centered approach on indigenous African cultures in order to harvest a variety of leadership principles, patterns, practices, institutions, ceremonies, and ideas for modern use [28].…”

“…Above these pointers, universities can be accessible to citizens and for public good. Afrocentric-centered leadership is geared toward breaking free from colonial and post-colonial thinking and recommit to an African value system, leading to calls for an "African Renaissance" inside the continent itself in recent years [27,[36][37][38]. These concepts have gained traction across the continent and have since been used to lead businesses and communities.…”

“…A reconnection with African "indigenous knowledge" that places an emphasis on interdependence and solidarity is required. However, given the hybridity argument, such an aspiration is intriguing and poses important issues regarding (a) how this Afro-centric knowledge can be (re)discovered, (b) how it can be captured and transmitted, and (c) the degree to which it will resonate with the lived experience of modern Africans on the continent and elsewhere [27,41].…”