This volume brings together leading scholars and practitioners to address the theory and practice of African-centered education. The contributors provide (1) perspectives on the history, methods, successes and challenges of African-centered education, (2) discussions of the efforts that are being made to counter the miseducation of Black children, and (3) prescriptions for—and analyses of—the way forward for Black children and Black communities. The authors argue that Black children need an education that moves them toward leading and taking agency within their own communities. They address several areas that capture the essence of what African-centered education is, how it works, and why it is a critical imperative at this moment. Those areas include historical analyses of African-centered education; parental perspectives; strategies for working with Black children; African-centered culture, science and STEM; culturally responsive curriculum and instruction; and culturally responsive resources for teachers and school leaders.

What can teachers, administrators, families, and communities do to create schools that provide rich learning experiences for African American children? Based on a critical reinterpretation of several key educational frameworks, African-Centered Pedagogy is a practical guide to accomplished teaching. Murrell suggests integrating the historical, cultural, political, and developmental considerations of the African American experience into a unified system of instruction, bringing to light those practices that already exist and linking them to contemporary ideas and innovations that concern effective practice in African American communities. This is then applied through a case study analysis of a school seeking to incorporate the unified theory and embrace African-centered practice. Murrell argues that key educational frameworks—although currently ineffective with African American children—hold promise if reinterpreted.

Discussing the correlation between one's self-conception and one's academic performance, this book explains African centered rites and the rituals and ceremonies behind them.

African American Males in Education: Researching the Convergence of Race and Identity addresses a number of research gaps. This book emerges at a time when new social dynamics of race and other identities are shaping, but also shaped by, education. Educational settings consistently perpetuate racial and other forms of privilege among students, personnel, and other participants in education. For instance, differential access to social networks still visibly cluster by race, continuing the work of systemic privilege by promoting outcome inequalities in education and society. The issues defining the relationship between African American males and education remain complex. Although there has been substantial discussion about the plight of African American male participants and personnel in education, only modest attempts have been made to center analysis of identity and identity intersections in the discourse. Additionally, more attention to African American male teachers and faculty is needed in light of their unique cultural experiences in educational settings and expectations to mentor and/or socialize other African Americans, particularly males.

The Afrocentric School, a Blueprint is a handbook that guides the prospective educationist, parent, student, and reader to understand African cultural history from an Afrocentric theoretical perspective. Africa is placed in the center of the African experience from the ancient times until now. Who were we? This book endeavors to answer that question. This handbook humbly offers some ideas based on ancient African principles that relate to the critical role of teaching our children. Grounded in the love of African humanity-women, men, girls, and boys, this handbook counters anti-African and anti-Black beliefs that have been propounded over centuries. This work expresses the recognition that there exists a range of African cultural values, beliefs, and behaviors just as there is amongst the different peoples who conquered Africa. In this work, the cultural legacy and heritage of Africa is embraced with the aim of providing adequate knowledge to achieve a reawakening of the cultural memory. The handbook provides a foundational curriculum for children aged 3-15 years, and its standards are based upon expectations developed from a baseline study on child development and education. The curriculum can be particularly helpful for those interested in or who are already teaching children of African descent; it can appeal to those who have established Afrocentric schools, those who are endeavoring to do so, those who wish to amplify an existing curriculum, those who want to teach their children, or those who simply wish to expand their knowledge.

This book legitimizes the need for African-centered education at an early age in child development.