Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Indigenous Governance for Africentric School Success

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
Handbook of Indigenous Education

  • 8471 Accesses

Abstract

As a key proponent of the establishment of Africentric schools in Ontario and Canada, my paper will explore the possibilities of enhancing learning outcomes for Black/African, Indigenous, and marginalized youth in counter/alternative educational spaces. The focus is development of a governance structure that takes into account the central tenets of Afrocentric education with parents and local communities as key foundational players in the school’s governance. Among key questions for engagement are: how do we conceptualize Indigenous governance for an Africentric school? How such governance is manifested in Indigenous and alternative educational sites outlets? How do Indigenous systems of governance offer important lessons for re-visioning schooling and education in Euro-American contexts? The discussion is informed by a search for Indigenous philosophies for critical education working with local analytical concepts and ideas to enhance youth learning outside of the conventional school system.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 489.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 699.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Apple M (1999) The absent presence of race in educational reform. Race Ethnicity Educ 2(1):9–16

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Apple M, Weiss L (1983) Ideology and practice in schooling: a political and conceptual introduction. Ideology and practice in schooling. Temple University Press, Philadelphia

    Google Scholar 

  • Asante MK (1991) The afrocentric idea in education. J Negro Educ 60(2):170–180

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Asante M, Mazama A (2005) General editors, encyclopedia of black studies. Sage, Thousand Oaks

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Asante M, Mazama A (2010) Afrocentric infusion for urban schools: fundamental knowledge for teachers. Ankh, Philadelphia

    Google Scholar 

  • Banks J (1993) The canon debate, knowledge construction and multicultural education. Educ Res 22(5):4–14

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brathwaite K, James C (eds) (1996) Educating African Canadians. James Lorimer & Co., Toronto

    Google Scholar 

  • Burrow J (1997) Wampum at Niagara: the royal proclamation, Canada legal history and self-governance. In: Burrows J (ed) Aboriginal treaty rights in Canada: essays on law. equity and respect for difference. University of British Columbia Press, Vancouver, pp 155–175

    Google Scholar 

  • Codjoe H (2001) Fighting ‘Public enemy’ of black academic achievement – the persistence of racism and the schooling experiences of black students in Canada. Race Ethn Educ 4(4):343–376

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dei GJS (2000) Rethinking the role of Indigenous knowledges in the Academy. Int J Incl Educ 4(2):111–132

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dei GJS (2008) Racist beware: uncovering racial politics in contemporary society. Sense Publishers, Rotterdam

    Google Scholar 

  • Dei GJS (2017) An indigenous Africentric perspective on black leadership: the African scholar today. In: Kitossa T, Howard P, Lawson E (eds) Re/visioning African leadership: perspectives on change, continuity and transformation. Toronto, University of Toronto Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Dei GJS, Kempf A (2013) New perspectives on Africentric schooling in Canada. Canadian Scholars’ Press, Toronto

    Google Scholar 

  • Dei GJS, Simmons M (2016) Citizenship education and embodied ways of knowing: what can be learned from the voices of Ghanaian youth in schooling and education? J Global Citizensh Educ Equity Educ 5(1):1–20

    Google Scholar 

  • Dei GJS, Mazzuca M, McIsaac E, Zine J (1997) Reconstructing ‘Drop-out’: a critical ethnography of the dynamics of black students’ disengagement from school. University of Toronto Press, Toronto

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Dei G, James M, James-Wilson S, Karumanchery L, Zine J (2000) Removing the margins: the challenges and possibilities of inclusive schooling. Canadian Scholars Press, Toronto

    Google Scholar 

  • Doxtater MT (2011) Putting the theory of Kanataronnon into practice: teaching Indigenous governance. Action Res 9(4):385–404

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fine M (1991) Framing dropouts: notes on the politics of an urban public high school. State University of New York Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault M (1980) Power/knowledge: selected interviews and other writings, 1972–1977. Pantheon, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Fullan M (2001) Leadership in a culture of change. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco

    Google Scholar 

  • Gillborn D (1995) Racism and anti-racism in real schools. Open University Press, Philadelphia

    Google Scholar 

  • Giroux H (1981) Ideology and culture and the process of schooling. Temple University Press, Philadelphia

    Google Scholar 

  • Hargreaves A, Fink D (2006) Sustainable leadership. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco

    Google Scholar 

  • Hill R (1990) Oral memory of the Haudenosaunee: views of the two row wampum. Northwest Indian Q 7:21–30. 1: 27 2. Ibid., 26. 3

    Google Scholar 

  • Hill SM (2008) Travelling down the river of life together in peace and friendship, forever: Haudenosaunee land ethics and treaty agreement as the basis for restructuring with the British Crown. In: Simpson L (ed) Lighting the eighth fire: the liberation, resurgence, and protection of indigenous nations. Arbeiter Ring Publishing, Winnipeg, pp 23–45

    Google Scholar 

  • hooks b (1989) Talking back: thinking feminist, thinking black. South End Press, Boston

    Google Scholar 

  • Hountondji P (1997) Endogenous knowledge. Research trails. Codesria Book Series, Dakar

    Google Scholar 

  • James EC (2010) Schooling and the University plans of immigrant black students from an urban neighborhood. In: Milner H, Richard IV (eds) Culture, curriculum and identity in education. Palgrave Macmillan, New York, pp 117–139

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • James CE, Shadd A (2001) Talking about identity: encounters in race. In: Ethnicity and language. Between the Lines Press, Toronto

    Google Scholar 

  • James C, Howard PSS, Brown R, Samaroo J (2015) The Africentric Alternative School experience: agency and action. Final report to Toronto District School Board

    Google Scholar 

  • Keen I (1989) Aboriginal governance. In: Altman J (ed) Emergent inequalities in aboriginal Australia. Oceania Monograph 38, Sydney

    Google Scholar 

  • Kelly J (1998) Under the gaze: learning to be black in white society. Fernwood Publishing, Halifax

    Google Scholar 

  • King J (ed) (2005) Black education. A transformative research and action agenda for the new century. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers, Mahwah

    Google Scholar 

  • Ladson-Billings G (1994) The dreamkeepers: successful teachers of African American children. Joss-Bass, San Francisco

    Google Scholar 

  • Larson AM (2011) Forest tenure reform in the age of climate change: lessons for REDD. Global Environ Change 21(2):540–549

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Larson E, Johnson Z, Murphy M (2008) Emerging Indigenous governance: Ainu rights at the intersection of global norms and domestic institutions. Alternatives 33:53–82

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lauer H (2007) Depreciating African political culture. J Black Stud 38(2):288–307

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lawrence S (2009) Afrocentric schools and the legal framework of educational equality remarks on the panel: rethinking “Separate but equal”: a discussion of equality and Afrocentric schools. Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, March 10

    Google Scholar 

  • Leithwood K, Jantzi D, Steinbach R (1999) Changing leadership for changing times. Open University Press, Buckingham

    Google Scholar 

  • Leithwood K, Louis KS, Anderson S, Wahlstrom K (2004) How leadership influences student learning. Wallace Foundation, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Letseka M (2014) Ubuntu and justice as fairness. Mediterr J Soc Sci 5(9):544–551

    Google Scholar 

  • Letseka M (2016) Open distance learning (ODL) through the philosophy of Ubuntu. Nova Science

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewin KM (2000) New technologies and knowledge acquisition and use in developing countries. Compare 30(3):313–321

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Magnusson J (2000) Spiritual discourse and the politics ontology. A proposal for a Roundtable Discussion. OISE, University of Toronto

    Google Scholar 

  • Mazama A (ed) (2003) The Afrocentric paradigm. Africa World Press, Trenton

    Google Scholar 

  • McCarthy C (1990) Race and curriculum: social inequality and the theory and politics of difference in contemporary research on schooling. Falmer Press, Basingstoke

    Google Scholar 

  • Mila-Schaaf K (2008) Workshop report: regional pacific ethics of knowledge production workshop. 2007 Nov 13–15; Tofamamao, Apia, Samoa. UNESCO, Wellington

    Google Scholar 

  • Nelles J, Alcantara C (2014) Explaining the emergence of Indigenous–local intergovernmental relations in settler societies: a theoretical framework. Urban Aff Rev 50(5):599–622

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Njoh AJ (2015) The meta Indigenous politico-administrative system, good governance, and the modern Republican state in Cameroon. J Asian Afr Stud 50(3):305–324

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Malley P (1996) Indigenous governance. Econ Soc 25(6):310–326

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Portelli JP, Campbell-Stephenes R (2009) Leading for equity: the investing in diversity approach. Edphil Books, Toronto

    Google Scholar 

  • Reed K (1999) Aboriginal peoples building for the future. Oxford University Press, Don Mills

    Google Scholar 

  • Ross R (2006) Dancing with a ghost: exploring aboriginal reality. Penguin Group, Toronto

    Google Scholar 

  • Simpson L (2008) Looking after Gdoo-naaganinaa: precolonial Nishnaabeg diplomatic and treaty relationship. Wicazo Sa Rev 23(2):29–42

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith LT (1999) Decolonizing methodologies: research and indigenous peoples. University of Otago Press, Dunedin

    Google Scholar 

  • Solomon P (1992) Black resistance in high school: forging a separatist culture. SUNY, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Solomon PR (2002) School leaders and anti-racism: overcoming pedagogical and political obstacles. J School Leadersh 12:174–197

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tauli-Corpuz V (2006) Our rights to remain separate and distinct. In: Tauli-Corpuz V, Mander J (eds) Paradigm wars. Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, pp 13–21

    Google Scholar 

  • Torres RA, Nyaga D (2016) Discussion of power through the eyes of the margins: praxis of post-colonial aeta Indigenous women healers in the Philippines. Int J Asia Pac Stud 12(2):31–56

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vukets C (2011) High school would make students work to pay tuition Toronto star p. GT3

    Google Scholar 

  • Willis P (1977) Learning to labour. Saxon House, Farnborough

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Social Justice Education, OISE, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    George J. Sefa Dei

Authors
  1. George J. Sefa Dei
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to George J. Sefa Dei .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Elizabeth Ann McKinley

  2. Faculty of Māori and Indigenous Studies, The University of Waikato, Hamilton, Waikato, New Zealand

    Linda Tuhiwai Smith

Section Editor information

  1. OISE, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

    George Sefa Dei

  2. Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto, 252 Bloor St. W., M5S1V6, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Jean-Paul Restoule

  3. Dept. of Indigenous Education, University of Victoria, 3800 Finnerty Road, V8P 5C2, Victoria, BC, Canada

    Jean-Paul Restoule

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Sefa Dei, G.J. (2019). Indigenous Governance for Africentric School Success. In: McKinley, E., Smith, L. (eds) Handbook of Indigenous Education. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3899-0_27

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation