RBG Blakademics Definitions,Learning Domains and Basic Tenets of the Centered School

Some things to consider:

1. "African Centered" is a thought (philosophy) not continent or appearance.
2. African Centered is a "how process."
3. Cultural heritage provides the lenses by which we view and the foundation on which we interpret the world.

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BEST DEFINITION OF AFRICAN CENTERED EDUCATION MY RESEARCH HAS TURNED UP:

African Centered Education is a system of sequentially planned educational opportunities provided for African heritage children, youth and young adults to develop the necessary and required skills to participate in the global marketplace with specific interest on the upliftment and empowerment of their African-American communities and the total development and growth of the African continent. -
Dr. E. Curtis Alexander

*African Centered/ Afrocentric/ Africentric/ Afrocentricity/ Africentricity

Wade W. Nobles

"Afrocentric, Africentric, or Afirican Centered" are interchangeable terms representing the concept which categorizes a quality of thought and practice which is rooted in the cultural image and interest of African people and which represents and reflects the life experiences, history and traditions of African people as the center of analyses. It is therein, the intellectual and philosophical foundation which African people should create their own scientific criterion for authenticating human reality."

Steve Biko (1978)

Obviously the African culture has had to sustain severe blows and many have been battered nearly out of shape by the belligerent cultures it collided with, yet in essence even today one can easily find the fundamental aspects of the pure African culture in the present day African One of the most fundamental aspects of our culture is the importance we attach to Man A man-centered society The capacity we have for talking to each other-not for the sake of arriving at a particular conclusion but merely to enjoy the communication for its own sake We regard our living together not as an unfortunate mishap warranting endless competition among us but as a deliberate act of God to make us a community of brothers and sisters jointly involved in the quest for a composite answer to the varied problems of life Any suffering we experience was made much more real by song and rhythm. There is no doubt that the so called 'Negro Spirituals' sung by black slaves in the States as they tiled under oppression were indicative of their African heritage African society had the village community as its basis This obviously was a requirement to suite the needs of a community-based and man-centered society. Africans do not recognize any cleavage between the natural and supernatural. They experience a situation rather than face a problem More as a response of the total personality to the situation that the result of some mental exercise We thanked God through our ancestors before we drank beer, married, worked etc. We would obviously find it artificial to create special occasions for worship. God was always in communication with us and therefore merited attention everywhere and anywhere ( p. 41-45)."

Molefi Asante (1987)

Afrocentricity [African centered] as the placing of African ideals at the center of any analysis that involves African culture and behavior. (p. 6)

I suggest three fundamental Afrocentric themes of transcendent discourse: (1) human relations, (2) humans' relationship to the supernatural, and (3) humans' relationships to their own being. (p. 168)

Paul Hill Jr.'s interpretations

Currently there are many misconceptions about the African Centered Paradigm. Most of its critics have not read the literature. It is primarily an orientation on how one views data, involving location, place and perspective (Asante, 1993). On a more personal level it provides the African American a window to view the world by becoming a transforming agent affording new attitudes, behaviors, beliefs and values. This transforming agent is the only reality for African people (Asante, 1989). African Centeredness is nothing more than what is congruent to the interpretive life of an African person. It is his richly "textured
standing place" (Asante, 1993).

African Centered study is not a matter of color. It looks at any information involving African people and raises questions that allows Africans to be subjects of historical experiences rather than objects on the fringes of another's experience. For example, an Afrocentric view of African conditions during enslavement would view the people not as "slaves" but as "Africans." This view assures a different mental orientation providing a new perspective and attitude closer to the reality of the people (Asante, 1993).

When we center each ethnic group in their own historical and cultural experiences, we expand our knowledge of and appreciation of the human experience. Afrocentric education and its advancement enrich and humanize our world. It is not about cultural separation or racial chauvinism. The African Centered
scholar recognizes that an Afrocentric view is not the only view. This perspective seeks no advantage, no self-aggrandizement, no hegemony in its relation to others (Asante,1993), thus it humanizes our world by fostering mutual dignity and respect.

Maulana Karenga (1994)

Afrocentricity can be defined as a quality of thought and practice rooted in the cultural image and human interest of African people [and their descendants]. To be rooted in the cultural image of African people is to be anchored in the views and values of African people as well as in the practice which emanates from and gives rise to these views and values. (p. 36)

A. Wade Boykin (1986)

Traditional West African culture is centered around: 1) Spirituality, 2) Harmony, 3) Movement, 4) Energy, 5) Affect, 6) Communalism, 7) Expressive Individualism, 8) Oral Tradition, and 9) Social Time Perspective.

Lathardus Goggins II (1996)

To be African centered is to construct and use frames of reference, cultural filters and behaviors that are consistent with the philosophies and heritage of African cultures in order to advance the interest of people of African descent. (p. 18)

Kean College Africana Studies

The African centered perspective rests on the premise that it is valid to position Africa as a geographical and cultural starting base in the study of peoples of
African descent (Keto 1989). The objective therefore is to view the world from the perspective of the people studied. The Afro-centric comprehensive model for the teaching and learning of knowledge about African peoples makes possible an understanding of, and appreciation for the social, institutional, cultural and intellectual patterns of African people.

Pan Africanism

Kwame Anthony Appiah

In its most straightforward version, Pan-Africanism is the political project calling for the unification of all Africans into a single African state, to which those in the African diaspora can return. In its vaguer, more cultural, forms, Pan-Africanism has pursued literary and artistic projects that bring together people in Africa and her diaspora.

Black Nationalism

James Clyde Sellman

Black Nationalism, also known as black separatism, is a complex set of beliefs emphasizing the need for the cultural, political, and economic separation of African Americans from white society. Comparatively few African Americans have embraced thoroughgoing separatist philosophies. In his classic study Negro Thought in America, 1880-1915, August Meier noted that the general black attitude has been one of "essential ambivalence." On the other hand, nationalist assumptions inform the daily actions and choices of many African Americans.

Over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries, Black Nationalists have agreed upon two defining principles: black pride and racial separatism. Black Nationalism calls for black pride and seeks a unity that is racially based rather than one grounded in a specific African culture or ethnicity. Those espousing nationalist or separatist philosophies have envisioned nationalism in quite different ways. For some, Black Nationalism demanded a territorial base; for others, it required only separate institutions within American society. Some have perceived nationalism in strictly secular terms; others, as an extension of their religious beliefs. Black Nationalists also differ in the degree to which they identify with Africa and African culture.

political and social movement prominent in the 1960s and early '70s in the United States among some African Americans. The movement, which can be traced back to Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association of the 1920s, sought to acquire economic power and to infuse among blacks a sense of community and group feeling. Many adherents to black nationalism assumed the eventual creation of a separate black nation by African Americans. As an alternative to being assimilated by the American nation, which is predominantly white, black nationalists sought to maintain and promote their separate identity as a people of black ancestry. With such slogans as "black power" and "black is beautiful," they also sought to inculcate a sense of pride among blacks.

Mwalimu Julius Nyerere

"Our educational system has to foster the social goals of living together, for the common good. It has to prepare our young people to play a dynamic and constructive part in the development of a society in which all members share in the good or bad fortune of a group, and in which progress is measured in terms of well-being, not prestige builders, cars or other such things, whether privately or publicly-owned. Our education must therefore inculcate a sense of commitment to the total community, and help the pupils to accept the values appropriate to our kind of future, not those appropriate to our colonial past."

(Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, former president of Tanzania, Africa)

See: julius nyerere, lifelong learning and informal education

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Academic Domains

Africentric education is defined as the means by which Afrikan culture including the knowledge, attitudes, values and skills needed to maintain and perpetuate it throughout the nationbuilding process -- is developed and advanced through practices. Its aim, therefore, is to build commitment and competency within present and future generations to support the struggle for liberation and nationhood. We define nationbuilding as the conscious and focused application of our people's collective resources, energies, and knowledge to the task of liberating and developing the psychic and physical space that we identify as ours. Nationbuilding encompasses both the reconstruction of Afrikan culture and the development of a progressive and sovereign state structure consistent with that culture.

knowledge

Knowledge includes acknowledging Afrikan spirituality as a essential aspect of our uniqueness as a people and makes it an instrument of our liberation. This knowledge focuses on the "knowledge and history of historical truths; through comparison; hypothesizing and testing through debate, trial, and application; through analysis and synthesis; through creative and critical thinking; through problem resolution processes; and through final evaluation and decision making."

attitudes

This attitude emphasizes that Afrikan identity is embedded in the continuity of Afrikan cultural history and the Afrikan cultural history represents a distinct reality continually evolving from the experiences of all Afrikan people wherever they are and have been on the planet across time and generations. It embraces the traditional wisdom that "children are the reward of life" and it is, therefore, an expression of our unconditional love for them. In order to best serve Afrikan children our methods must reflect the best understandings that we have of how they develop and learn biologically, spiritually and culturally.

values

These ensure that the historic role and function of the customs, traditions, rituals and ceremonies -- that have protected and preserved our culture; facilitated our spiritual expression; ensured harmony in our social relations; prepared our people to meet their responsibilities as adult member of our culture; and sustained the continuity of Afrikan life over successive generation -- are understood and made relevant to the challenges that confront us in our time.

skills

Afrikan centered education can only be systematically facilitated by people who themselves are consciously engaged in the process of Afrikan center personal transformation. Afrikan centered education is a process dependent upon human perception and interpretation (Thus, it follows that a curriculum cannot be Afrikan centered independent of our capacity to perceive and interpret it in an Afrikan centered manner).

nationbuilding

Afrikan centered education facilitates participation in the affairs of nations and defining (or redefining) reality on our own terms, in our own time and in our own interests. This prepares Afrikans "for self-reliance, nation maintenance, and nation management in ever regard." Afrikan centered education emphasizes the fundamental relationship between the strength of our families and the strength of our nation

THE BASIC TENETS OF THE CENTERED SCHOOL

By: Molefi Kete Asante, 1993

1. At the centered school the student’s culture must be taken into account in every subject and at every grade level. Where there is multiplicity of cultures then the teacher must seek to demonstrate during the school term that she or he has an interest in centering the students of many cultures in the subject.

2. A centered school seeks to create lessons, scopes, and sequences that reflect an authentic voice concept. Centering shall be the centerpiece of the classroom process and it shall be pursued by seeking all ways to attach the student to history concepts, mythology, science, mathematics, nature, motifs, and personalities that pervade the lessons.

3. A centered school operates on the principle of scientific generation where the school principal is a generator for the building and the teacher is a generator for the classroom. A generator is one who energized those who are directly connected to him or her. Thus, the principal in a centered school must energize the faculty and the teacher must energize the students.

4. A centered school is a positive school where the environment itself reflects the centeredness of the students. The school is clean, it is brightly painted, it is environmentally centered to reflect the student population, and it is filled with color images, posters, and slogans of achievement. Each classroom is an invitation to learning.

5. A centered classroom is a laboratory for creative discussion, discourse, debate and critical thinking. The idea is to make every significant concept live by discussion. In such a classroom the teacher corrects false information and irrational views with a sensitivity that embraces discussion.

6. A centered school’s discipline is based on respect for knowledge in both the bringer of knowledge and the seeker of knowledge. This means that the students are taught to respect themselves, the search for knowledge, the teacher and the other students. But discipline is based on knowledge and the willingness of the teacher to listen to and to accept questions from every student. The good teacher is always able to say, “I do not know the answer at this time.”

7. A centered school celebrates the culture of the students. Teachers feel comfortable wearing the fashions of the student’s cultures, presenting speakers and performers from the culture, and infusing their lessons with illustrations from the culture. A student in such a school understands the historical role his or her people have played in world events.

8. A centered school involves the parents in the process of centering the students. However, it may be necessary to center the parents before they understand how to center their children. At public meetings, possibly held at the school, the principal or designee should review the ideas behind the centered school. A brief history of the Afrocentric school concept, with its applicability to centered schools, might be necessary.

9. A centered school is high achieving school where principal, teachers, and students meet regularly (at least once a month) to re-pledge themselves to academic and professional excellence. A high achieving school always has an academic and a cultural goal. The academic goal is to succeed in being the best school possible on the basis of the credentials of the students. In addition, the high achieving school seeks to undergird all subjects with the cultural component.

10. A centered school asks the question, Who are my students: In answering this question the centered school seeks to apply principles of learning styles, relational attributes, personality, and aesthetic sense to the issues of achievement, discipline, and environment.

Project Monkz Ft. Maulana Ghana Hip Hop "Never Again"

"Lest We Forget, Never Again" Knowledge of Self is Key!!!

Never Again:

Education = Training & Skills + Knowledge of Self