Cultural relevancy in the academic environment: An African-American perspective on teaching English in urban secondary schools and colleges.

Abstract

The American pedagogical system has been ineffective in teaching African-American people because the system is based in a Eurocentric philosophical and theoretical framework. American schools and colleges tend to be largely teacher-focused, analytical, and devaluing of a more relational and group-oriented pedagogy. In order for this system to be changed, it must view each student as the means and the ends of the educational process, must view each student as a subject rather than an object of the world, must respect each student's collective historical experiences, must encourage each student's participation in the development of the world and must view each student as self-reliant, yet mutually interdependent. These views are expressed by such scholars as Dr. Criegs Beverly of Wayne State University School of Social Work; Dr. Asa Hilliard of Georgia State University's College of Education; Dr. Janice Hale-Benson of Clevel and State University's Psychology Department; Dr. Na'im Akbar of Florida State University's Psychology Department and Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu, educational consultant in Chicago, Illinois. Each of these educators has researched and published on behavioral differences based in culture. All seem to agree that learning styles are different between African-American and Euro-American people and that neither style is superior to the other, merely different. In English classes, African-American students are met with racism on conscious and unconscious levels because of differences in language patterns. Black English Vernacular (BEV) is seen as an inferior form of speaking and writing with no structure of its own. This view also causes some educators to view students who speak and write in this fashion as intellectually inferior. This dissertation based on the textual research, personal interviews, conference participation and classroom experience offers a more facilitative approach to teaching African-Americans in an urban environment.