African Religions and Student Engagement: Classroom Ethnography as Counternarrative

• In Event: 81.012 - Afro-Latinidades, Spiritualities, and Transformative Education: The Intersections of Afro-Indigenous Religious Practice and Educational Praxis

Abstract

Within the mainland United States context, Latinidad is framed around a Catholic identity (Dolan, 1994; Hoover, 2014; Kelly & Morgan, 2008). Thus, representations of diasporic-African spiritual based religions center around a Catholic idolatry of saints (Tweed, 1997; Bermudez & Bermudez, 2002). Afro-Latino individuals must subsequently develop a self-understanding through others’ conceptualization of their identities (Bailey, 2001). This paper is a classroom ethnographic study of the impact of embedding the teachings of non-western religions into a mixed-race high school social studies class. The purpose of the study is to identify whether the teaching of African religions increases student engagement across all racial groups. African religions have influenced many parts of not only world history but American History (Gonzalez, 2011; Rey 2008).

Through this semester long classroom ethnographic study, I engaged with students by presenting African religions in the contexts they occurred historically. Students learned about Vodou as a revolutionary tool during the Haitian Revolution (Daniel, 2005; Bellegarde-Smith, 2006). Through critical engagement with historical documents and class discussion, students learned that 1)vodou is not evil 2) the practice of vodou assisted Haiti in becoming the first free Black country and 3) the religion is rooted in the traditions of ancient African and Yoruba. As a result, the explicit teaching of the historical presence of these diasporic African religions caused students to have a better understanding of the role spirituality plays in identity development. In post-unit assessment data, 80% of students were able to identify the three reasons that Vodou was used: to heal, organize, and protect. Furthermore, 87% of students of Afro or Afro-Latinx heritage were able to make the same connections. Students were then asked to study Candomble in Brazil and engage with its impact during slave revolts (Raboteau, 2004). Not only are these religions not taught in schools but they are taught to be seen as negative and inherently evil (Townes, 2006; Menes, 2001; Horeis, 1975; Daniel, 2005).

From student interviews, I gathered that students of color have been taught to fear cultural and spiritual practices that helped their ancestors struggle against bondage. When interviewed, 92% of the Brazilian and Haitian students who have spiritual-based practices, described their religions as “Christian,” despite not strictly abiding by a Christian faith. One student shared, “There is a saying in Haiti that goes, ‘If you ask, maybe 1% of Haitian people will say they practice Vodou, but if you watch you will see that 100% of Haitian people practice Vodou.’”

After an explicit teaching and acknowledgment of these spirituality based practices, survey data indicated that students identified feeling more empowered to embrace their religious backgrounds and seek out personal connections to the history that had been systematically vilified by the mainstream classroom.

Author

• Juliette Rorie, Educators for Excellence