Just Africanize It

• In Event: (Our)Story: African Diaspora Literacy as a Healing and Restorative Antidote to Anti-Blackness

Abstract

Teachers are often held by constraints of state-mandated standards, pacing guides, curriculum programs, and other requirements leaving some to feel that their agency is missing and as if they cannot incorporate pedagogical and content strategies such as African Diaspora Literacy. Highlighting the work of a network of P-12 teachers, this paper provides examples of teachers engaging in ADL in their classroom. The [author identifiable] has a cadre of teachers who ensure students’ academic and cultural success through various pedagogical tools that are culturally relevant and sustaining to their students. Guided by the motto, ”Believe in the Power and Possibility of Black Children,” these teachers, Black and White, engage their students in critically conscious, academically rich instruction that has been proven successful for Black and non-Black students (Boutte, 2022). These teachers share their experiences where they learn and unlearn histories and navigate that simultaneously while teaching their students in an act of collective learning (Jackson, 2023).
Starting in early childhood, these teachers engage students in ADL, uncovering untold stories, using language and culture to understand topics, and centering Black perspectives. Their work is guided by King’s (2005) 10 Principles for Black Education and Socialization and Boykin’s (1994) Dimensions of African Culture. For example, I share a lesson in my second-grade class where I engaged students in the song These Three Words by Stevie Wonder. In this lesson described further in Boutte (2022), I tapped into the orality, rhythm, song, and community as we sang the song grooving along, and then analyzed the lyrics to find high-frequency words, adjectives, and nouns.
Acknowledging that ADL is more than content, teachers use African Diaspora Literacy to establish and maintain community in their classroom using African value systems like Adinkra symbols (Jackson et al., 2021). These teachers introduce the value systems in different ways according to their grade level but infuse these values in classroom management strategies and, subsequently, in content. Adinkra symbols provides a connection and vehicle to self-identifying personal and collective values beyond other character education programs and principles. For instance, Akoma which is identical to the heart, adds layers to the general meaning of love. Akoma means a bond of people working together for the betterment of the soul. An assurance that you are not alone and although we are different, I will not leave you. We both belong.
Acknowledging all classrooms are not exclusively Black, Jackson et al. (2021) asserts, “We have found that using Adinkra symbols helps students from all ethnicities learn about African people and values; that is, they become more literate about the African Diaspora—which we have indicated has been undervalued and studied in schools” (p. 3). This is an example of what Rudine Sims-Bishop (1990) calls a window or sliding glass door; an opportunity for students to engage with cultures other than their own.
The song I shared with my students and the use of Adinkra symbols are just brief examples of ADL in classrooms. This paper provides more examples across K-12 classrooms and content areas, helping teachers enrich their lessons with ADL.

Author

• Janice Baines, University of South Carolina