By Makeda J. Graham
The over-representation of black children in official school exclusion data has evoked concern from black parents, their communities and has generated media and academic attention. There have been many explanations for the under achievement of black children in the British educational system. These explanations highlight cultural disadvantage and deficiency, institutional racism and the effects of the 1988 educational reforms on black masculinity. The legacy of racism in the educational system and the general dissatisfaction expressed by black professionals, parents and communities has prompted educational authorities to adopt anti-racist and multi-cultural approaches to education.
The defining contours of anti-racist and multicultural approaches to schooling have been widely debated and the validation of each perspective has directed strategies and policy implementation. The European need to maintain cultural domination to support it's intrinsic propensity towards inequality is reflected in the process of schooling. The anti-racist approaches and the present outlines of multicultural education has failed to effectively challenge the hegemonic nature of the Eurocentric knowledge base. The official school exclusion data during the past decade parallels of the 1960's, when high referral rates of black children to Educational Sub-normal Schools (ESN) were largely ignored by the authorities until Coard (1971), in his book, "How the West Indian Child is made Educationally Sub-Normal in the British School System "articulated the deficiencies in the educational system.
Coard expressed the concerns of black parents and exploded the myth of education for 'equality of opportunity' revealing the dynamics of racism implicit within the theories of deficiency and the treatment of black children. He argued that 'the one way to ensure no change in the social hierarchy and abundant unskilled labor is to adopt and adapt the educational system to meet the needs of the situation: to prepare our children for the society's future unskilled and ill-paid jobs. It is in this perspective that we can come to appreciate why so many of our black children are being dumped in ESN schools, secondary moderns, the lowest streams of the comprehensive schools, and 'Bussed and Banded' about the school system. The Rampton Report (1981), found 'no single cause' ...but 'rather a network of widely differing attitudes and expectations on the part of teachers and the education system as a whole, and on the part of West Indian parents which lead the West Indian child to have particular difficulties and face particular hurdles in achieving his or her full potential.' The report located the under achievement of black children within the cultural background of black families supporting the perceived 'pathology' model of the black family already entrenched within social science literature (English, 1974). Educational psychology maintained a 'blaming the victim' model in its research into the psychological development of the self-esteem and identity of the black child as an explanation for their under achievement (Milner 1991). Stone (1985), presented a critique of assertions derived from the perceived deficiency in the self-esteem of children of African descent. She contends that identity models are steeped within ethnocentric philosophical tradition that ignores African cultural explanations in the development of self esteem. Moreover self esteem is best understood in a culture that supports and sustains the individual and group. Self esteem is no way as powerful a determinant as "the social structure prevailing in a given society" (Stone 1985, p. 87.)
"WE HERE ABOUT (OUR ) HISTORY AS SLAVERY.
IT'S LIKE AFRICA NEVER EXISTED UNTIL THE WHITE MAN CAME AND CIVILIZED EVERYBODY"
The apparent structural racial inequalities within the educational system were relegated to the periphery, citing the real issue as the failure of black families to utilize the educational system and accept the 'correct' norms and values of society. The Rampton Report (1981) provoked criticism of it's 'blame the victim' m model and was followed by the Swann Report (1985) that provided extensive documentation of racism in schools. The report included interviews with black university students to ascertain their feelings about the schooling they received:
"We here about (our) history as slavery. It's like Africa never existed until the white man came and civilized everybody." I personally denied my blackness, because that is how I made it in the system." "I look back ... at the years that I have wasted... spending hours with things which are totally irrelevant to me and to what I want to do with my life as a black person...' (Swann Report (1985) identified racism in the educational system but perceived its characteristics as individual prejudice contending that the structure of education is in 'no way racist in intent,' (Department of Educational Science. 1985).
The report rejected the idea of institutional racism within education and preferred to accept the 'few bad apples' syndrome, this approach acknowledged the prejudice of individual teachers but believed that their attitudes and perceptions could be changed with in-service training. The report construed racism as having individualized rather than structural characteristics.
AFFIRMING SELF DETERMINATION /THE DEVELOPMENT OF SUPPLEMENTARY SCHOOLS
The consistent undermining of black children in state schooling provided the impetus for the emergence of black supplementary schools - Saturday schools. (Stone, 1985, Dove, 1995). Black parents were well aware of the power and influence of teachers in undermining their children's confidence and academic potential and skills. Black parents mobilized community resources and exercised control of their children's education in an effort to practice self-determination and instill African-centered orientation to knowledge. Black parents felt that racism within the educational system conspired to provide an environment that was hostile to their children's learning and was ultimately responsible for the under achievement and disaffection of their children. Dove (1995) in her study of black supplementary schools, asked parents to indicate why they sent their children to supplementary schools.
The main reasons were:
* To improve their children's academic performance;
* To receive more cultural learning;
* To receive more exposure to positive images of Africans;
* To access more support for children and parents
* To keep children off the streets and involved in something positive;
* To build children's confidence.
Parents believed that supplementary schools provided their children with a better education albeit on a part-time basis in contrast to full-time state schooling. Educational authorities responded by introducing multi-cultural and anti-racist approaches to schooling. I contend that both anti-racism and multi-culturalism have failed to address the fundamental nature of a Eurocentric knowledge base that continues to dominate. It take center stage as the superior structure of knowledge whilst insisting that it's orientation is mainstream, neutral and universal. My concern centers upon an African-centered world view as the foundation source of learning.
Black scholar, Woodson (1937) in his classic text, the 'Miseducation of the Negro' provided a treatise of the acculturalisation process that takes place within schooling, whereby black children are educated away from their traditions and culture and moreover the development of their self worth is impaired through the transmission of an ethnocentric knowledge base. Thus for black children there has been 'too much schooling (and) too little education' as (Shujaa, 1994) argues in European societies where unequal power relations exists, schooling aims to reproduce existing power relation through institutionalizing the socialization of children's minds and thought processes.
THE ANTI-RACIST AND MULTICULTURAL APPROACH TO EDUCATION
The anti-racist approach to education emerged as a reactive stance to address racial inequalities identified by black parents and teachers as a major factor in the under achievement and disaffection of black pupils. The anti-racist education movement propelled the debates about the "individualized" racism of some teachers to examine structural components of education as an institution and "make a connection between institutional discriminations and equalities of race, class and gender" (Mullard 1982). Anti-racism is an integral element in a total social and economic system and in all institutions" (Gill, Singh and Vance, 1987),
The theoretical perspectives of anti-racism were able to draw upon the experience of colonization and imperialism as the roots of racism and the propagation of racist ideology prevalent in wider society. The anti-racist education, because of it's very nature - against racism, is placed within the parameters of a reactive stance, one which is concerned with schooling getting it's house in order. The anti-racism model falls short of enhancing and maximizing the potential of black children rooted within the context of cultural and historical authenticity. The reforms to curriculum content are expedient but fails to challenge an ethnocentric knowledge base that insists that it not only is universal but the superior source of knowledge as the foundation for learning.
The Rampton Report (1981) assumed that the needs of black pupils could be met through a program of "multicultural" education. This approach to education would appease growing concerns from parents and parents and at the same time serve race relations in reducing any antagonism and create harmonious relationships between communities. Some of the outlines of multiculturalism are focused upon the curriculum and it's broad aims are:
* All children learn about their own cultures and histories and see them treated with equal respect.
* All children are equipped with necessary skills and information to have access to the culture of their own communication and of other countries.
* All children fully appreciate the important contributions which ethnic minorities made to this society.
The introduction of Steel bands into the curriculum as an African Caribbean cultural form was viewed by many black parents and teachers as a trivialization of their culture and history and further credence to the differential regard held by some teachers and educational institutions generally. "Multiculturalism enabled many schools to appear to be responding to our needs, while in reality it simply served as another form of subtle social control" (Bryan, Dadzie and Scafe, 1985 p. 80). The work of Kincheloe & Steinberg (1998) acknowledges that "many western countries deny the influences of their ethnic minorities inhabitants, while appropriating and naturalizing their contributions and making them their own. At the same time that the contributions of minority groups are absorbed by the dominant culture, the dominant culture presents itself as a distinctly "white social order into which minority groups are invited to adjust themselves through an assimilation into whiteness. Yet the price of admission to such a society is not only morally repugnant but historically inaccurate, since whites have set themselves up as arbiters of a culture already transformed by the contributions of it's oppressed groups."
Integration was perceived as the vehicle for equality of opportunity in education. John (1976) argues that integration was predicated upon society's terms in rejecting those areas of history and culture that may be perceived as not in accord with "normal" values and practices and more over, acceptance of the school ethos whose underlying task was to assimilate black pupils into the British way of life. John (1976) considers the contradictions inherent within the integrationist approach that propagates at best detriment to the well being of black pupils "to wish to integrate with that which alienates and destroys you, rendering you less than a person, is madness.
To accept the challenge to join in and change it from within when it refuses to accept that you are there in your fullness and refuses to acknowledge the results of interaction between you and it is double madness."
TOWARDS AN AFRICAN CENTERED MODEL OF EDUCATION
A further refinement of the integrationist model emerged as cultural pluralism - an essential part of a pluralistic model of society. The key feature of pluralism is that groups are not ranked hierarchically within society but are relatively equal in power, or at least no one group is so powerful that it can dominate the others. The universal nature of pluralism proposes cultural diversity not only where diverse components are respected and valued to support harmonious coexistence but requires structural changes to support it's overall development. In recent years, the challenge has been directed to growing demands for pluralism not only between groups but world-views.
The African-centered world-view supports a universal pluralistic view of society that acknowledges the multiplicity of world cultures and their contribution to the betterment of humanity side by side of equal value without hegemony. Asante, (quoted
"AFROCENTRIC EDUCATION ENRICHES AND HUMANIZES OUR WORLD.
IT IS NOT ABOUT CULTURAL SEPARATION OR RACIAL CHAUVINISM."
in Hill, 1995, p4), for example, a leading exponent of Africentricity, argues "when we center each ethnic group in their own historical and cultural experiences, we expand our knowledge of and appreciation of the human experiences. Afrocentric education enriches and humanizes our world. It is not about cultural separation or racial chauvinism. This perspective seeks no advantage, no self aggrandizement, no hegemony in it's relation to others, thus it humanizes our world by fostering mutual dignity and respect." The term "African-centered world-view" or Afrocentric/Africentric world-view" has been used to describe the cultural values of people of African origin and African descent throughout the world. The African-centered perspective which embraces the Pan-African construct of the unity and oneness of African people on the continent of Africa and descendants throughout the world postulates that African ideals and values must be at the center of any analysis involving African (black) peoples.
Mbiti, (1970) asserts that, although there are cultural variations among African people on the continent of Africa, there are underlying commonalities and affinities in the thought systems of all African peoples. The African centered philosophy is a holistic system based upon values and ways of living which are reinforced through rituals, music, dance, storytelling, proverbs, metaphors and the promoting of family: rites of passage, naming ceremonies, child rearing, birth, death, elderhood and values of governance. A few of the main principles that underpin the African-centred world-view are the interconnectedness of all things and the spiritual nature of human beings.
RITES OF PASSAGE:
Educating through an African-centered orientation to knowledge as the foundation of learning.
One of the most enduring integral features of traditional African societies that binds an African text of life's purposes has been the "journey" - a process of transition that begins with birth through to death and beyond. The process of transition is rooted in a cultural structure that supports philosophical maxims that the ultimate aim of education is to become at "one with God." Hilliard (1996 p.138) confirms that "the path to the development of God-like qualities was through the development of virtue."
A person was seen being essentially spiritual whose essence was housed in a finite body. It was the spirit that had an eternal existence. The capacity of a person to become godlike was determined by the degree to which the person was able to overcome certain natural impediments of the body, these were character flaws." The educational and socialization of young people was nurtured and monitored by the collective efforts of the family, educational and religious institutions with the framework of the child's community. Hill (1992) suggests the child's optimal development was based upon understanding and appreciation of self, community, co-operation, purpose, creativity and spirituality cultivated through the process of transition into adulthood known as rites of passage. Historically, rites of passage did not exist as a separate entity - it was woven into the fabric of society. Rites of passage are a universal concept that is found in many cultures throughout the world. In traditional African societies education was the responsibility of the parents during the early stages of life. Initiation generally took place between the ages of 6 to 16 years of age when elders took a major role in educating the young, affirming the adage "wisdom embraces knowledge." Children learn the rules of society, self respect and respect for others. Community life reflected stability and responsibility synthesized through the rights of passage process. The nearest modern version of ancient socialization process is formal and institutionalize education. Both ancient and modern socialization processes compromise common characteristics (Hill 1992), they are compulsory; they attempt to teach discipline and the basics of proper behavior; express and communicate the world-view and central value systems of culture and verify a young person for participation in wider society. Hill, (1992 p. 64) denotes the differences between old and new rites as follows:
* The old rites were religious; the new rites are usually secular.
* The old rites ran by sun and seasonal time (outdoor and active); the new rites operate by clock and calendar (usually sedentary and pursued behind closed doors)
* The old rites centered on concrete experiences; the new rites rely heavily on words and abstractions.
* The old rites provided physical risks and danger; the new rites substitute organized sports, which combine moderate challenge and minimal risks.
* The old rites were dramatic, intense, forceful and fast; the new rites are slow, strung out, and often vague about the ultimate destination.
* The old rites resulted engendered awe; the new rites commonly produce detachment and boredom.
* The old rites resulted in an immediate and unmistakable status change; the new rites provide no such direct deliverance into adult roles and status.
* The old rites were over at a determined place and at a determined time, witnessed by the community as a whole; the new rites can go on indefinitely and be served (dropping out and being pushed out), perhaps never resulting in general community recognition.
CONCLUSION
The schooling system has failed many Black children and amidst under achievement and growing disaffection manifested in school exclusion data, it is apparent that schools do not satisfactorily fulfill the cultural requirements of a true rites of passage. Black children are aware that they share with their parents an African heritage which is largely undervalued and marginalized. State schooling inevitably supports and seeks to replicate the established social order. However, rites of passage grounded within an African value system enables communities to express self-determination and integrity in the development of institutional practices that nurture and support culturally specific socialization and education to counter the ever increasing marginalisation and mis-education of many black children and young people.
An African-centred model of education offers an opportunity to practice education for life, laying the foundation to understand and define their humanity outside of the constructs of Eurocentricity.
By Makeda J. Graham, MA. CQSWQ in Social Work
Makeda is currently pursuing a Ph. D. in Social Work at the University of Hertfordshire.
The unedited version of this article will be appearing in the book titled, The British Educational Revolution. Politics and Status in The Education of Black Children. Within the chapter, Black Children and School Exclusion, edited by Dr. Richard Majors & Joe Jellos. Falmer Press. Publication Date; June 1999.
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