African Diaspora Literacy

The Heart of Transformation in K–12 Schools and Teacher Education

Edited by Lamar L. Johnson; Gloria Boutte Ph.D; Gwenda Greene and Dywanna Smith - Contributions by Saudah Collins; Ntain Patience Chia; Julia Dawson; Antoinette Gibson; Damara Hightower; Rodrick Lando; George Johnson; Martay Flanders Monroe; Asangha Ngufor Muki and Kenric Ware

This book demonstrates the application of African Diaspora Literacy in K–12 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 universities—Benedict College, Michigan State University, South Carolina State University, South University, and the University of South Carolina), one community member, two K–12 administrators, and four K–12 teachers from high need schools. The inclusion of such a diverse group of participants in the Kamtok project (e.g., professors, K–12 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, documents, experiences, and resources to be used in the development, implementation, and dissemination of curricula to be used in K–12 schools and university classrooms to more effectively prepare educators to teach African American students.

Focusing specifically on the language, history, politics, economics, religion, and cultural traditions of people in the African Diaspora (e.g, U.S., Africa, Caribbean, the Americas, Europe, Asia), this book illuminates critical information typically missing from K–12 schools and teacher education, and English curricula. Chapters are written by scholars from Cameroons as well as those from the U.S. The book represents a lovely compilation of application, theory, and research. The book explores how African Diaspora Literacy can be used to heal the endemic physical, symbolic, linguistic, curricula, pedagogical, and system violence that African American children and youth experience in schools and in society.

Lexington Books

Pages: 208 • Trim: 6¼ x 9½

978-1-4985-8395-4 • Hardback • November 2018 • $111.00 • (£85.00)

978-1-4985-8397-8 • Paperback • June 2021 • $44.99 • (£35.00)

978-1-4985-8396-1 • eBook • November 2018 • $42.50 • (£35.00)

Subjects: Education / Multicultural Education, Education / Curricula, Education / Teaching Methods & Materials / General

African Diaspora Literacy

The Heart of Transformation in K–12 Schools and Teacher Education

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

This book demonstrates the application of African Diaspora Literacy in K–12 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 universities—Benedict College, Michigan State University, South Carolina State University, South University, and the University of South Carolina), one community member, two K–12 administrators, and four K–12 teachers from high need schools. The inclusion of such a diverse group of participants in the Kamtok project (e.g., professors, K–12 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, documents, experiences, and resources to be used in the development, implementation, and dissemination of curricula to be used in K–12 schools and university classrooms to more effectively prepare educators to teach African American students.

Focusing specifically on the language, history, politics, economics, religion, and cultural traditions of people in the African Diaspora (e.g, U.S., Africa, Caribbean, the Americas, Europe, Asia), this book illuminates critical information typically missing from K–12 schools and teacher education, and English curricula. Chapters are written by scholars from Cameroons as well as those from the U.S. The book represents a lovely compilation of application, theory, and research. The book explores how African Diaspora Literacy can be used to heal the endemic physical, symbolic, linguistic, curricula, pedagogical, and system violence that African American children and youth experience in schools and in society.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 208 • Trim: 6¼ x 9½

978-1-4985-8395-4 • Hardback • November 2018 • $111.00 • (£85.00)

978-1-4985-8397-8 • Paperback • June 2021 • $44.99 • (£35.00)

978-1-4985-8396-1 • eBook • November 2018 • $42.50 • (£35.00)

Subjects: Education / Multicultural Education, Education / Curricula, Education / Teaching Methods & Materials / General

Author

Lamar L. Johnson is assistant professor of language and literacy for linguistic and racial diversity at Michigan State University.

Gloria Boutte is professor of instruction and teacher education at the University of South Carolina.

Gwenda R. Greene is associate professor of English at Benedict College.

Dywanna E. Smith holds a PhD in language and literacy from the University of South Carolina.

Table of Contents

Preface: 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

Reviews

Decades 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

Awards