African-Centered Education: Theory and Practice

Description: A 2021 AESA Critics' Choice Award Winner
A 2021 SPE Outstanding Book Award Winner

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.

Brief description: Kmt G. Shockley is Associate Professor in the Howard University School of Education. His research interests include transformative African-Centered Education and Educational Policy and Leadership. He is known for having been featured in the film Hidden Colors and for his film on the Maroons, which is entitled For Humanity: Culture Community & Maroonage.

Review Quotes: "The essays in this important volume reflect the rich and generative variousness of African-centered pedagogy. The diversity of methodologies and practices presented, while understandably not including all the variations in the corpus of Afrocentric educational initiatives, nevertheless delineate in useful and insightful ways some of its most essential contours and content. The authors' varied modes of engagement and interpretations provide, not only ample ground for critical dialogue and debate about educational theory and practice from an African-centered vantage point, but also open and widen the way for further research in this vital area. These assets make African-Centered Education: Theory and Practice useful, not only as a reader, but also as a textbook for those seeking a critical and comprehensive treatment of the subject."--Dr. Maulana Karenga, Professor and Chair, Department of Africana Studies, California State University, Long Beach Senior Fellow, Molefi Kete Asante Institute