Looking Back & Fetching: Diasporan Perspectives & Impacts

• In Event: Diasporic Sankofán desires: Looking back to Africa to unforget Black histories and (re)imagine Black futures

Abstract

This work, grounded in personal and professional exploration of diasporic identity, uses experiential learning and international travel as tools for reflection, connection, and transformation. It reimagines education and research as pathways to equity, healing, and cultural awareness. Central is the commitment to ethical, reciprocal partnerships between African and African American scholars that honor shared histories. It challenges deficit perspectives in teacher education by centering cultural consciousness, ancestral wisdom, and liberation-based pedagogies in higher education.

Our theoretical framework is grounded in diasporic identity and the Akan principle of Sankofà. As two Black women teaching in predominantly white institutions, we draw on decolonial, anti-deficit, and culturally sustaining pedagogies to challenge dominant narratives and center Black experiences, particularly in teacher education and global engagement. We also incorporate Critical Global Citizenship Education and Education for Sustainable Development to situate our work in global, justice-oriented contexts.

Narrative inquiry and autoethnography guide our methodological approach. Narrative inquiry informs how we gather and construct our stories through oral, written, and visual means (Trahar, 2009), but more importantly, it shapes our understanding of how, why, and for whom we tell these stories (Riessman & Speedy, 2007). Our narratives are not merely accounts about the past, but emerge as knowledges from the past, reaffirming our commitment to the Sankofà principle and the intergenerational threads that inform our pedagogies. Autoethnography deepens this engagement by centering personal connection and cultural consciousness (Ellis & Bochner, 2000). It enables reflexivity and self-awareness, allowing us to engage emotion, memory, and spirituality as valid and vital ways of knowing.

Our data sources include personal reflections and field notes collected during our international travel to Ghana, visits to educational institutions, and sustained conversations with Ghanaian partners. These experiences, grounded in intercultural exchange and experiential learning, provided rich, context-specific insights. In addition, feedback and reflections from doctoral students and preservice teachers further inform our understanding.

Education abroad offers both spiritual and scholarly returns, “an invitation to (re)remember” and reimagine identity and purpose. As Michele reflected, Cape Coast Castle was “a living classroom…where learning is experiential, emotional, and intergenerational,” challenging visitors to confront history and self. These experiences underscore the need for global engagement rooted in “cultural grounding,” not extraction. Crystal shared, “In Ghana, I didn’t have to explain my existence…I could just be,” revealing how liberation and belonging abroad can transform pedagogy. Together, these journeys show how ethical, reflective travel reshapes how educators teach, lead, and connect across borders.

Sankofà is not just symbolic—it’s actionable. This work blends autoethnography and pedagogy to explore diasporic identity, ancestral return, and embodied learning. Travel became both method and bridge between heart and mind, reshaping what counts as knowledge in Ghana. We engaged in dialogue—unlearning, listening, and relearning from elders, educators, and the land. Our experience affirms: how we come to know is as vital as what we know.

Authors

• Crystal G Simmons, University of North Carolina - Wilmington

• Michele A. Parker, University of North Carolina - Wilmington