The Afrocentric Praxis of Teaching for Freedom explains and illustrates how an African worldview, as a platform for culture-based teaching and learning, helps educators to retrieve African heritage and cultural knowledge which have been historically discounted and decoupled from teaching and learning. The book has three objectives: To exemplify how each of the emancipatory pedagogies it delineates and demonstrates is supported by African worldview concepts and parallel knowledge, general understandings, values, and claims that are produced by that worldview To make African Diasporan cultural connections visible in the curriculum through numerous examples of cultural continuities––seen in the actions of Diasporan groups and individuals––that consistently exhibit an African worldview or cultural framework To provide teachers with content drawn from Africa’s legacy to humanity as a model for locating all students––and the cultures and groups they represent––as subjects in the curriculum and pedagogy of schooling This book expands the Afrocentric praxis presented in the authors’ "Re-membering" History in Teacher and Student Learning by combining "re-membered" (democratized) historical content with emancipatory pedagogies that are connected to an African cultural platform.

What kind of social studies knowledge can stimulate a critical and ethical dialog with the past and present? "Re-Membering" History in Student and Teacher Learning answers this question by explaining and illustrating a process of historical recovery that merges Afrocentric theory and principles of culturally informed curricular practice to reconnect multiple knowledge bases and experiences. In the case studies presented, K-12 practitioners, teacher educators, preservice teachers, and parents use this praxis to produce and then study the use of democratized student texts; they step outside of reproducing standard school experiences to engage in conscious inquiry about their shared present as a continuance of a shared past. This volume exemplifies not only why instructional materials—including most so-called multicultural materials—obstruct democratized knowledge, but also takes the next step to construct and then study how "re-membered" student texts can be used. Case study findings reveal improved student outcomes, enhanced relationships between teachers and families and teachers and students, and a closer connection for children and adults to their heritage.

This volume presents the findings and recommendations of the American Educational Research Association's (AERA) Commission on Research in Black Education (CORIBE) and offers new directions for research and practice. By commissioning an independent group of scholars of diverse perspectives and voices to investigate major issues hindering the education of Black people in the U.S., other Diaspora contexts, and Africa, the AERA sought to place issues of Black education and research practice in the forefront of the agenda of the scholarly community. An unprecedented critical challenge to orthodox thinking, this book makes an epistemological break with mainstream scholarship. Contributors present research on proven solutions--best practices--that prepare Black students and others to achieve at high levels of academic excellence and to be agents of their own socioeconomic and cultural transformation. These analyses and empirical findings also link the crisis in Black education to embedded ideological biases in research and the system of thought that often justifies the abject state of Black education. Written for both a scholarly and a general audience, this book demonstrates a transformative role for research and a positive role for culture in learning, in the academy, and in community and cross-national contexts. Volume editor Joyce E. King is the Benjamin E. Mays Endowed Chair of Urban Teaching, Learning and Leadership at Georgia State University and was chair of CORIBE. Additional Resources Black Education [CD-ROM] Research and Best Practices 1999-2001 Edited by Joyce E. King Georgia State University Informed by diverse perspectives and voices of leading researchers, teacher educators and classroom teachers, this rich, interactive CD-ROM contains an archive of the empirical findings, recommendations, and best practices assembled by the Commission on Research in Black Education. Dynamic multi-media presentations document concrete examples of transformative practice that prepare Black students and others to achieve academic and cultural excellence. This CD-ROM was produced with a grant from the SOROS Foundation, Open Society Institute. 0-8058-5564-5 [CD-ROM] / 2005 / Free Upon Request A Detroit Conversation [Video] Edited by Joyce E. King Georgia State University In this 20-minute video-documentary a diverse panel of educators--teachers, administrators, professors, a "reform" Board member, and parent and community activists--engage in a "no holds barred" conversation about testing, teacher preparation, and what is and is not working in Detroit schools, including a school for pregnant and parenting teens and Timbuktu Academy. Concrete suggestions for research and practice are offered. 0-8058-5625-0 [Video] / 2005 / $10.00 A Charge to Keep [Video] The Findings and Recommendations of te AERA Commission on Research in Black Education Edited by Joyce E. King Georgia State University This 50-minute video documents the findings and recommendations of the Commission on Research in Black Education (CORIBE), including exemplary educational approaches that CORIBE identified, cameo commentaries by Lisa Delpit, Gloria Ladson-Billings, Kathy Au, Donna Gollnick, Adelaide L. Sanford, Asa Hilliard, Edmund Gordon and others, and an extended interview with Sylvia Wynter. 0-8058-5626-9 [Video] / 2005 / $10.00

A dynamic leader and visionary teacher/scholar, Joyce E. King has made important contributions to the knowledge base on preparing teachers for diversity, culturally connected teaching and learning, and inclusive transformative leadership for change, often in creative partnership with communities. Dr. King is internationally recognized for her innovative interdisciplinary scholarship, teaching practice, and leadership. Her concept of "dysconscious racism" continues to influence research and practice in education and sociology in the U.S. and in other countries. This volume weaves together ten of her most influential writings and four invited reflections from prominent scholars on the major themes the work addresses. In the World Library of Educationalists, international scholars themselves compile career-long collections of what they judge to be their finest pieces—extracts from books, key articles, salient research findings, major theoretical and/or practical contributions—so the world can read them in a single manageable volume. Readers will be able to follow the themes and strands of their work and see their contribution to the development of a field.

Moving beyond the content integration approach of multicultural education, this text powerfully advocates for the importance of curriculum built upon authentic knowledge construction informed by the Black intellectual tradition and an African episteme. By retrieving, examining, and reconnecting the continuity of African Diasporan heritage with school knowledge, this volume aims to repair the rupture that has silenced this cultural memory in standard historiography in general and in PK-12 curriculum content and pedagogy in particular. This ethically informed curriculum approach not only allows students of African ancestry to understand where they fit in the world but also makes the accomplishments and teachings of our collective ancestors available for the benefit of all. King and Swartz provide readers with a process for making overt and explicit the values, actions, thoughts, and behaviors reflected in an African episteme that serves as the foundation for African Diasporan sociohistorical phenomenon/events. With such knowledge, teachers can conceptualize curriculum and shape instruction that locates people in all cultures as subjects with agency whose actions embody their ongoing cultural legacy.

This volume brings together leading scholars and practitioners to address the theory and practice of African-centered education. The contributors provide (1) perspectives on the history, methods, successes and challenges of African-centered education, (2) discussions of the efforts that are being made to counter the miseducation of Black children, and (3) prescriptions for—and analyses of—the way forward for Black children and Black communities. The authors argue that Black children need an education that moves them toward leading and taking agency within their own communities. They address several areas that capture the essence of what African-centered education is, how it works, and why it is a critical imperative at this moment. Those areas include historical analyses of African-centered education; parental perspectives; strategies for working with Black children; African-centered culture, science and STEM; culturally responsive curriculum and instruction; and culturally responsive resources for teachers and school leaders.

This straightforward and reader-friendly text provides strategies for P-12 educators who are interested in ensuring the cultural and academic excellence of African American students. It presents a careful balance of published scholarship, a framework for culturally relevant teaching, and research-based cases of teachers who excel at teaching Black children. Examples from multi-ethnic teachers across P-12 grades and content areas (e.g., ELA, science, mathematics, social studies, arts) are presented so that others can extrapolate in their respective educational settings. This book explains Black culture, anti-Black racism, African Diaspora Literacy, African American Language, and pro-Black and actionable steps that educators can adopt and implement. Examples of culturally relevant family and community involvement are provided. As with the previous edition, readers will appreciate a multitude of resources. After reading this book, educators will view educating African American students as exhilarating and rewarding and Black students will flourish.