The Afrocentric Praxis of Teaching for Freedom

Backpack of Whiteness: Releasing the Weight to Free Myself and My Students

“…Finally, my work draws heavily on King and Swartz (2016) and their discussion of the African culturally informed principle of inclusion which looks at previously marginalized Peoples as "substantive participants, not as objects or token figures" (p. 31) and eldering as one way that learners can experience inclusion as an emancipatory pedagogy. Eldering requires a view of learning/ teaching partnerships as those in which knowledge, power, and authority are a shared, basic expectation of PDCRT dyads.…”

“…Perhaps the most powerful element of my teaching, freed from my previous dependence on whiteness as the root of all knowledge, is my explicit exploration of African worldviews with elementary school students. I drew from King and Swartz's (2016) emphasis on the communal nature of teaching and African worldview to help my students understand that "the good of all determines the good of each [and that when we] seek the good of the community, we also seek our own good" (Gyekye, 1987, p. 20). Figure 3 depicts elements of an African worldview that my students and I explored as they came to understand Afrocentric ways of thinking that represent a worldview that predates the Eurocratic center governing every institution in which we live and play.…”

Transnational Friendships and Fluid Boundaries in Early Childhood Classrooms: The Possibilities of (Un)Productive Play in Teacher–Researcher Collaborations for Equity

“…Transnational feminisms and the Afrocentric concepts of collective responsibility and shared agency (King & Swartz, 2015) are inextricably linked, undergirded by the centrality of indigenous knowledges. Decentering whiteness and learning from the practices and narratives of people of Color are instructive and integral in forming and sustaining teaching and research partnerships.…”

“…The teachers did not adhere to the coteaching model the researchers designed and, in turn, the researchers did not intervene to support the teachers. In both cases, reciprocal and dialogic exchange of knowledge, expertise, and conceptualization was missing (King & Swartz, 2015). Herrenkohl et al (2010) offer a different approach based on their 10-year teacher-researcher collaboration.…”

We May Well Become Accomplices

“…Perhaps this is what Linda Darling-Hammond meant by democratic education that provides "access to social understanding" and the capacity for "participating in a pluralistic community" (p. 6). However, in the passage that follows, a more explicit focus that connects students' cultural heritage to learning (King, 2006a;King & Swartz, 2016) would illuminate this subtle but significant contradiction about which there remains considerable debate among educators but that also remains an important challenge for education for democratic life with racial dignity:…”