Historical and Transatlantic perspectives on Antiracist Teaching

• In Event: Teacher Activism As Resistance

Proposal

Historical and Transatlantic perspectives on Anti-racist Teaching in the US and Senegal – an example of a graduate course that explores and unpacks the historical social construction of Transatlantic racism and its implications for antiracist and decolonial education

How do the legacies of slavery and colonialism shape contexts within which anti-racist teaching is deemed to be necessary?

Anti-racist educators from the American University School of Education in Washington, DC USA travelled to Senegal in July 2023 to engage with progressive educators and social development workers on this question. The AU School of Education prepares teachers and school leaders to work in US public school districts, and one of its core values is Anti-racism and Social justice. AU SOE is also home to a unique MA program in International training and education (ITEP) that focuses on international education and nonformal education for social justice. The AU group was hosted and guided by the training staff of Tostan International, a renowned Senegalese human rights, community development and nonformal education program that challenges the neo-colonial education and development paradigm. https://tostan.org

Prior to travel, the AU group undertook a detailed six century Transatlantic historical study of slavery, colonialism, racial segregation, oppression and post-independence dependency in the US and West Africa. The group then embarked upon a ten-day program in Senegal of discussions and encounters with a range of Senegalese scholars, education experts, community leaders and cultural informants, exploring the Senegalese historical and contemporary experience and situation. Working in cooperative learning groups and debriefing with their Tostan colleagues, the AU educators developed findings and recommendations for anti-racist teaching in the US and Senegal guided by several key questions:

How might progressive educators benefit from an exchange of Transatlantic perspectives on slavery, colonialism, civil rights and development struggle, and empowering education?

How does a deeper understanding of the historical record of slavery, colonialism and the evolution of subsequent forms of racial oppression in the US and Senegal expand anti-racist educators’ awareness and inform more nuanced practice in the 21st Century?

How do US post-slavery and Jim Crow anti-racist approaches, and Senegalese post-colonial 21st Century culturally-relevant approaches align, differ and complement each other?

What recommendations might be generated through such a cross-national exchange?

This program is consistent with a number of themes outlined in the call for proposals, including:
• Subtheme1 – Histories of Protest
Has the nature, form and politics of education protests changed over time in different parts of the world? What have been the enduring legacies of protests through and for education?
• Subtheme 3 – Theories, Methodologies and Protest
How can we understand contestation, resistance, struggle, defiance, and compliance in education work?
• Subtheme 4 – Pedagogies and Protest
What pedagogies might our education institutions and sets of classrooms embrace that enable the development of capacities to act? How do different social movements learn from each other across regional and national contexts?
The principal author of this paper, the director of the American University School of Education’s Antiracist School Administration and Leadership program, was the lead instructor of this course. The co-author of the paper, a Scholar in Residence in the International Training and Education program at AU’s School of Education, was co-instructor of the course.

Authors

• Terence Ngwa, American University - School of Education

• Michael Gibbons, American University