Annette Henry

Missing: Black Self-Representations in Canadian Educational Research

Black educational theory and practice have not been a priority in mainstream Canadian education. I discuss some epistemological issues underpinning alternative conceptualiza- tions of education of children of African descent. My starting point for the construction of such conceptualizations is the agency and subjectivity of Black women educators, a constant yet overlooked critical presence in the education of Black children. Having sketched some tensions and possibilities in African-centred and Black feminist discourses, I conclude that these standpoint epistemologies are useful tools to forge new and more relevant theory and practice, but that they must be re-shaped to the pedagogical realities of Black teachers and students in Canada. L’education des Noirs, dans ses aspects theorique ou pratique, n’est pas une priorite dans l’education canadienne. L’auteure discute de certaines questions epistemologiques qui sous-tendent des approches educatives differentes pour les enfants de descendance afri- caine. Le premier element servant a l’elaboration de ces approches est le role et la sub- jectivite des educatrices de race noire, une presence constante et pourtant oubliee dans l’education des enfants noirs. Apres un survol de certaines des tensions et possibilites dans les discours axes sur l’Afrique et les propos des feministes noires, l’auteure conclut que ces epistemologies sont des outils utiles pour forger de nouvelles theories et pratiques plus pertinentes, mais qu’elles doivent etre repensees en fonction des realites pedagogi- ques des enseignants et des eleves noirs au Canada.

‘Invisible’ and ‘Womanish’: Black girls negotiating their lives in an African‐centered school in the USA

Abstract The author examines a cluster of themes in the school lives of 10‐ and 11‐year‐old African‐American girls in an independent African‐centered school in Illinois, USA. Through conversation and student writings, the author illustrates that these girls position themselves in multiple and contradictory ways. In the co‐educational classroom, they seemed passive, even invisible. Yet in conversation outside of class, they were wilful, audacious, ‘womanish’ girls who attempted to bring about change in their social environment regarding continued male peer harassment. The author discusses four themes from her data: (1) school as a site of gendered/sexual politics; (2) the contradictory and multiple consciousness of the girls; (3) the necessity of a separate space for girls to work through issues of concern; and (4) the tenuousness of feminist research in a Black nationalist school. The author concludes with some questions for (Black) feminists to consider regarding the needs of Black girls in schools.

‘There’s salt‐water in our blood’: the ‘Middle Passage’ epistemology of two Black mothers regarding the spiritual education of their daughters

The author examines the discourses and practices of two Black women educators regarding the spiritual education of their daughters. Their daughters attended an independent African‐centered community school in a large Midwestern city. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted as part of a larger ethnographic study exploring the education of Black girls in two ethnocultural settings. The participants’ parental pedagogies critiqued mainstream educational practices as well as revealing the creative improvisations lived at the intersections of dominant and non‐dominant cultures. The author argues that Black mothers’ pedagogies reflect to a ‘Middle Passage’ consciousness. The author also exhorts more critical analyses of often disregarded discourse as a way to work toward transforming Black education.

‘We especially welcome applications from members of visible minority groups’: reflections on race, gender and life at three universities

This autoethnographic account documents and analyses university life as a racialised woman who has worked in both Canadian and American universities. The theoretical framework draws from critical perspectives on race, black feminisms and narrative and autoethnographic research methodologies. The study involves a range of data sources that provide sociohistorical and sociopolitical contexts in which to ground the Personal: academic writings on race and gender, university reports, email correspondence, relevant newsmedia artifacts, as well as personal written accounts, conversations with colleagues and life experiences. This article critiques the pervasive institutional practices of white and male privilege and gendered racism. It offers some suggestions to reshape disciplinary knowledge, curricula and the workplace for black and marginalised women faculty. It is hoped that the results and conclusions contribute to our understandings of life as it is lived in the margins of race and gender, and in this way, contribute to understanding black women’s experiences in North American universities.

Literacy, Black Self-Representation, and Cultural Practice in an Elementary Classroom: Implications for Teaching Children of African-Caribbean Heritage.

This study examines literacy strategies used by Black teachers who aimed to create an environment in which African‐Canadian pupils could develop literacy skills as well as learn their social histories and personal identities as children of African heritage. The study site, located in a low‐income area of Ontario, Canada, was a school with a student population that was 80% Black. The data for the study were drawn from interviews with teachers about their pedagogy and from participant observations in their classrooms. Based on the findings, some implications for teacher education as well as for culturally supportive pedagogies for children of African heritage are considered.

The Problematics of Multiculturalism in a Post-Racial America

I am an Anti-multicultualist. I use the term unapologetically, and with intention. I borrow it from Sylvia Wynter, Professor Emerita of Black Studies and Spanish and Portuguese Studies at Stanford University. Wynter uttered this phrase in the introduction to a 1990 presentation at Santa Clara University, based upon her book “Do not call us negroes: How multicultural books perpetuate racism. This book was the outcome of a 90-page open letter to the State of California in 1990 in protest against the uncritical adoption of a social studies textbook series by Houfflton Mifflin; the textbooks were riddled with erroneous and stereotypical images of racial and cultural groups (Wynter, 1990). This “anti-multiculturalist” stance raises questions about the possibilities and limitations of multicultural education in the United States of America. Although there are a range of ways of understanding multicultural education, for the most part, it has not worked for certain groups in the USA, namely indigenous peoples, Black Americans, and Chicanos. Indeed more globally, indigenous peoples, multiracial, multiethnic, and multinational nation-states include groups whose very existence, cosmology, and very ways of being challenge the prevailing multicultural discourses.

Thoughts on Black Women in the Workplace: A Space Not Intended for Us.

Using five of her own journal entries, the author tells a collective story. Through this form, she raises some issues that are both in the theoretical literature and in the everyday work lives of Black women.

Diasporic reasoning, affect, memory and cultural politics: An interview with Avtar Brah

This interview explores the intellectual contours of Stuart Halls work through the insights of Professor Avtar Brah, Emerita, Birkbeck College, whose feminist post-colonial voice has shaped generations of scholarship on diaspora thinking, achieving public intellectual status. Her Cartographies of Diaspora (1996) received international acclaim, challenging nationalist feminisms to engage diasporic cultural politics. The longest standing member of the Feminist Review editorial collective, Brahs intertwining of feminist theorisation with transformative pedagogies is well known. It is rare that feminists of colour or diasporic feminists are celebrated as ‘public intellectuals’, even when they are exceptionally accomplished in multiple spheres of intellectual life. Thus, we have chosen to interview Professor Avtar Brah, whose transnationally recognised work both owes a debt to and extends Halls work in some surprising directions. Our interview explores some questions together as a ‘we’ and others individually to respect and highlight our own respective theoretical, socio-political and transnational experiences. This approach to interviewing acknowledges our different voices, as well as our affinities through this collaboration.

Nostalgia for What Cannot Be: An Interpretive and Social Biography of Stuart Hall's Early Years in Jamaica and England, 1932-1959.

Much has been written about Stuart Halls intellectual and theoretical contributions especially after the mid-1960s. This interpretive and social biography places Stuart Halls life from 1932 to 1959 in a socio-historical context, beginning with his childhood in Jamaica and his early years in England. I draw on Halls own biographical reflections during the last years of his life and his writings about secondary schools and working-class youth from his insights as a teacher in South London, as well as his writings on identity and diaspora, as he reflects on the early years later in his life. By examining this less celebrated time, I hope to bring insights about pedagogy, identity, exile and nostalgia, and make connections between the early experiences and the more celebrated years of Stuart Hall as an outstanding educator and public intellectual.

Negras in Brazil: re‐envisioning Black women, citizenship and the politics of identity by, Kia Lilly Caldwell, New Brunswick, New Jersey, Rutgers University Press, 2007

Taylor and Francis Ltd CREE_A_365278.sgm 10.1080/13613320802651087 R ce Ethnicity and Education 361-3324 p int/1470-109X online Book Reviews 2 09 & Francis 2 0 000March 009 AnnetteHenry ahe ry@u.wa hi gton.edu Negras in Brazil: re-envisioning Black women, citizenship and the politics of identity, by Kia Lilly Caldwell, New Brunswick, New Jersey, Rutgers University Press, 2007, 276pp.,