Overview of Deculturalization then:

Slaves were not allowed to read

Segregated schools (English Language)

Unequal funding

Booker T. Washington- Industrial Education- Agriculture, habits to work

Even after freedom was given to them, even after segregation was ruled unconstitutional, Black people still had to right for freedom

 

Man drinking at a water cooler in the street car terminal in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, July 1939. Russell Lee, photographer. (Sign: "Reserved for Colored")

Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division. LC-USZ62-80126

http://afroamhistory.about.com/od/jimcrowlaw1/ig/Racial-Segregation-Signs/index.01.htm

 

                                                                                                                                    

An integrated classroom at Anacostia High School in Washington, D.C., Sept. 10, 1957.

Library of Congress, U.S. News & World Report Magazine Photograph Collection. 

http://afroamhistory.about.com/od/schoolintegration/ig/School-Integration/Washington--D-C-.htm

 

 

Evidence of Deculturalization in the present: 

Going to School- The African~American Experience

Edited by Kofi Lomotey

 

• Deculturalization is the failure to acknowledge the existence of culture. In this case, Afro-Americans believe that there is still deculturalization going on in schools today. Afro-Americans and other people of color are “locked” in public school systems. Studies show that Afro-Americans do poorly in schools and that their drop out rates are high due to deculturalization.

 

• Afro-Americans ask, “Why should we continue to try to do well, when there are so many odds working against us?”

 

 

• Educators have started to realize that in order to do well in school, the sociocultural world must be opened. All students have different backgrounds, cultures, experiences and these all affect the way a student behaves, speaks, and thinks. A teacher should be willing to get to know each student because the teacher can adapt strategies and lessons for their students based on their needs. The student will then actually have the chance to do well in school. If Afro-American’s cultures, experiences, and backgrounds were recognized, the students would do better in school.

 

•  “Children from non-European, lower socioeconomic-status cultural groups are at a disadvantage in the schools because the American educational system has evolved out of a European philosophical, theoretical, and pedagogical context” (Haki, Rashid, 1981).

 

Research says that teachers should begin teaching multicultural curriculum. The teachers should understand that their students come from different cultural backgrounds and they should be accepting of that.

1. By teaching multiculturalism, the teacher will promote achievement through out the class. Once the teacher has addressed the different cultures in the classroom the teacher will gain respect from the students and they will work on the classroom assignments and other related materials. Also, like stated before, the teacher should understand the student’s background to create appropriate curriculum.

2. The teacher’s attitude should be accepting as well as positive when it comes to teaching multiculturalism. If they have a negative attitude toward different cultures or teaching multiculturalism the student will catch on to this and adapt to the same way of thinking. If the teacher models an accepting behavior and willingness to teach about different cultures the students will be more accepting of other people and of the idea of learning about different cultures.

 

More things working against Afro-Americans:

1. Textbooks are bias learning materials. 

            -Example: White humans are always in textbooks to show the Digestive System

2. Their culture doesn’t get enough recognition. Sometimes African American experiences/cultures are only introduced during Black History Month.

3. Language works against Afro-Americans because people think the English language is superior.

-Example: “da man” vs “the man” (culturally the “th” sounds like a “d”)

 

In the book Black Children: Their Roots, Culture, and Learning Styles by Hale-Benson in 1986, it describes programs that put an emphasis on teaching children cognitive skills while strengthening their self-esteem and identity as Afro-Americans. They learn:

-         Africa heritage

-         African crafts

-         Stories by Afro-American writers

-         Music by Afro-American musicians

-         Heroes in Black history (Ex: Martin Luther King, Jr.)

Overall these students will also gain pride in being an Afro-American.

 

Black Independent Schools are examples of programs that Hale-Benson is referring to. There are actually a few schools that are Africentric based that are located in the United States, Pennsylvania has the majority of them. Toronto, Canada  just decided to approve their first Black Independent School. Here are three videos related to the decision and talking about the pros and cons of a Black Independent School:

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbU43QKvHE4

Toronto's First Black Independent School Approved

 

Toronto's Africentric School: Is it Needed? Is it Wanted?

 

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2009/09/04/africentric-school.html

Toronto's 1st Africentric School Set to Open

 

 

http://www.cibi.org

Website of The Council of Independent Black Institutions (CIBI)

 

http://www.ijobashule.org/

Website of an Afrakan centered school

 

From the article, African American students are thriving in Afro-centric schools:

• "Our point simply is we can view the world through the perspective of the people of Africa. Africa is the mother of civilization." "People call these schools racist as a tactic to keep the status quo, but the status quo doesn't teach the whole diverse story," said [Anthony Daniels]. "People can say public school curriculum is multicultural, but it's not - it's a melting pot where cultures get lost. We like the idea of a cultural salad bowl instead, where every ingredient keeps its flavor."

 

• “The goal of an African-centered school is to create a black community of positive adult role models; a kind of urban village that feels like family, say educators, where children are guided to look past the negative caricatures of blacks in pop culture and see their future as players in the wider world. Then, and only then, are black children ready to learn, says Taki Raton, founder of the African-centered Blyden-Delany Academy in Milwaukee.”

 

• “More than 77 per cent of our students achieve at or above normal on Illinois state tests," [Carol Lee of Northwestern University, founder of the Betty Shabazz charter school in Chicago] said. "We've had grads go on to Princeton, Stanford and in international relations at The Hague.”

http://jacksonville.com/interact/blog/stanley_scott/2009-05-06/african_american_students_are_thriving_in_afro-centric_school

 

The Discriminatory Impact of Course Scheduling on Minorities (in the Peabody Journal of Education, V. 66, Issue 4)

• Discrepancies were found in course offerings. In a Journalism I class there was an 18% of minority enrollment, while Journalism II and III had 5%. The journal article states that courses are meant for the dominant race (white people) to succeed and to root out the minorities. However there were 50-100% of minorities enrolled in classes that would support the fast food industry. A lot of African Americans were enrolled in courses such as, Black History, but there were only one of those courses.

 

• Prerequisites and only allowing students to take certain classes due of their GPA is another way a school can root out minority students.

 

• A student in a low class system has trouble keeping up with middle or upper class based curriculum.

 

• A minority student can sense what the school is trying to do to them. They feel that the schools are pushing them in a certain way, towards more traditional roles, instead of their real desires.

 

Example of case in 2001:

Martha Sandoval vs. James Alexander (made drivers test in Alabama in only English)

Title VI, Section 601 provides that no person shall, "on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under" a federally funded program.

http://www4.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/99-1908.ZO.html

 

 

Keeping On Keeping On: OCR and

Complaints of Racial Discrimination 50Years After Brown by Mica Pollock

• “Complainants typically explain that they have resorted to OCR [Office for Civil Rights] because they have not been able to remedy the problem within their local school systems. Parents come to OCR convinced that principals, middle-level administrators, and district superintendents have ignored their requests to help their children. Teachers come to OCR feeling rebuffed by principals and personnel directors. College students come to OCR feeling trivialized by university staff and administrators. Community outreach workers come to OCR saying that they feel impotent in the face of districts’ internal politics.”

 

• Example: Black males are judged for starting a fight.

 

• Example of a family member of a child complaining about the school system: A Black girl was hurt during recess at school. The nurse didn’t call the ambulance because the nurse didn’t think the little girl was hurt that badly. A white girl was hurt before and the nurse called the ambulance.

 

Other Resources:

 

 

 http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/articles/2-us-schools-are-more-segregated-today-than-in-the-1950s-source/

US Schools are More Segregated Today than in the 1950s     

 

 

 

Teacher Resources:

 

http://www.lessonplanspage.com/BlackHistoryMonth.htm

 

http://www.teachervision.fen.com/black-history-month/teacher-resources/6602.html

 

http://www.education-world.com/a_special/black_history.shtml  

 

Article: Identifying the attitudes and traits of teachers with an at-risk student population in a multi-cultural urban high school By Raymond L. Calabrese,

Sherry Goodvin, and Rae Niles