Description
Book SynopsisThis book demonstrates the application of African Diaspora Literacy in K12 schools and teacher education programs. The book emerged from a four-week Fulbright-Hays Group Abroad project to Cameroon, West Africa, which was focused on African Diaspora Literacy. The project was guided by the African principle of Ubuntu (I am because we are). The 15-member team was comprised of eight faculty members (representing five universitiesBenedict College, Michigan State University, South Carolina State University, South University, and the University of South Carolina), one community member, two K12 administrators, and four K12 teachers from high need schools. The inclusion of such a diverse group of participants in the Kamtok project (e.g., professors, K12 teachers, community members) lent itself to producing rich data that captured both the intellectual scholarship and layperson's experience with equilateral consideration. The purpose of the project was to gain firsthand knowledge, artifacts, doc
Trade ReviewDecades ago Black liberationist Marcus Garvey challenged Black Americans to return to Africa to heal from the ongoing racialized violence and trauma they faced and continue to face in the United States. Johnson, Boutte, Smith, and Greene revive this urgent call through African Diaspora Literacy by challenging P-20 educators to situate Mother Africa as the birthplace of all knowledges and histories, which, they and eleven contributing authors argue, must be reflected in schools, pedagogies and practices, and extant curricula. Centering and drawing on African-centered knowledge bases is the balm so many Black children need to heal their individual and collective wounds and souls from the quotidian anti-Black violence they confront in schools. This book is a must read for ELA and language and literacy scholars, teachers, and teacher educators who believe that #BlackLivesMatter, and who desire to enact pedagogies of healing through African Diaspora literacy.
-- Nathaniel Bryan, assistant professor, College of Education, Health, and Society, Miami University
Table of ContentsPreface: What’s Africa to Me, Gwenda Greene
PART 1—CURRICULUM APPLICATIONS
Chapter 1: Goin’ Back to (Re)Claim What’s Mine: A Call for Diaspora Literacy in P-20 Spaces, Lamar L. Johnson
Chapter 2: Revitalization of Indigenous African Knowledges among People in the African Diaspora, Gloria Boutte, George Johnson, and Asangha Muki
Chapter 3: Exploring African Diaspora Literacy with Elementary Students, Saudah Collins, Martay Monroe, and Gloria Boutte
Chapter 4: Using African Diaspora Literacy to Teach Middle School Social Studies, Julia Dawson and Antoinette Gibson
PART 2—TEACHER EDUCATION
Chapter 5: Centering African Diaspora Literacy to Reinvent Educator Preparation, Damara Hightower
Chapter 6: A Call for “Work Woke” Educators: Actuating Diaspora Literacy to Raise Critical Consciousness, Gwenda Greene
Chapter 7: Telling Our Stories; Sharing Our Lives: Storytelling as the Heart of Resistance, Dywanna Smith
PART 3—INDIGENOUS AFRICAN KNOWLEDGE AND PERSPECTIVES
Chapter 8: African Spirituality: Implications for African Diaspora Education, Bonwong Bruno, Lambert Wirdze, Mary Lum
Chapter 9: Cameroon Pidgin English: An Overview and Implications for Instruction in Anglophone Cameroon Education, Rodrick Lando and Ntain Patience Chia
Chapter 10: Indigenous Holistic Healing: The Medicine Cabinet of African Diaspora Literacy, Kenric B. Ware and Marcelus U. Ajonina
PART 4—INSIGHTS AND REFLECTIONS
Chapter 11: Insights and Reflections: Thoughts on Transformation, Dywanna Smith
Appendices
About the Authors
