Embracing Ubuntu and Sankofa as (Re)pedagogical acts of Decolonization in the Language and Literacy Education of African Immigrants in the US

• In Event: Reclaiming our Languages as Strengths: Freedom Dreaming

Abstract

In this paper, I invite literacy educators to think about the use of Ubuntu and Sankofa in (re)pedagogizing literacy instruction. I centre Sankofa as an epistemology in the literacy classroom to historically reflect on the context of education, language expectations, and writing instruction by unlearning its flawed history of xeno-corporeality, whiteness, and discrimination. Through Ubuntu, I advocate for prioritizing Elders’ cultural knowledge, Sankutu circles, healing and, transnational travel in the literacy education of African immigrants

Author

• Gabriel Opare, University of Maryland College Park