A Hidden Curriculum: How Black Educators Used Popular Rhetoric to Rationalize a Movement

• In Event: Fairmont Roundtable Session Six
  In Roundtable Session: Countering Colonial Subjectivities in Curriculum Studies: Analyzing Power and Ideologies Across Borders and Territories (Table 3)

Abstract

Black educators in the U.S. Jim Crow South weaponized Progressivist rhetoric to rationalize development of curricula related to democracy and academic growth. This study employs historical records from Black educators’ professional publications like The Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools for Negroes and the American Teachers Association to describe the curricular choices used to support Black students’ civic education and academic development. The presentation will also discuss strategies and rhetoric used by these professionals to support ideas of racial uplift, self-determination, and democracy hidden within their curricular design and by their professional networking. Through the interrogation of these historic practices, we hope to inform current curricula design to support students in an increasingly anti-democratic environment.

Authors

• Tiffany D. Pogue, Albany State University
  Presenting Author

• Sheryl Jones Croft, Kennesaw State University
  Presenting Author