This volume presents the findings and recommendations of the American Educational Research Association's (AERA) Commission on Research in Black Education (CORIBE) and offers new directions for research and practice. By commissioning an independent group of scholars of diverse perspectives and voices to investigate major issues hindering the education of Black people in the U.S., other Diaspora contexts, and Africa, the AERA sought to place issues of Black education and research practice in the forefront of the agenda of the scholarly community. An unprecedented critical challenge to orthodox thinking, this book makes an epistemological break with mainstream scholarship. Contributors present research on proven solutions--best practices--that prepare Black students and others to achieve at high levels of academic excellence and to be agents of their own socioeconomic and cultural transformation. These analyses and empirical findings also link the crisis in Black education to embedded ideological biases in research and the system of thought that often justifies the abject state of Black education. Written for both a scholarly and a general audience, this book demonstrates a transformative role for research and a positive role for culture in learning, in the academy, and in community and cross-national contexts. Following a foreword and preface, this book is divided into eight parts. Part I, Theorizing Transformative Black Education Research and Practice, presents the initial chapters: (1) A Transformative Vision of Black Education for Human Freedom (J. E. King); and (2) A Declaration of Intellectual Independence for Human Freedom (J. E. King). Part II, Taking Culture into Account: Learning Theory and Black Education, continues with chapters: (3) The State of Knowledge about the Education of African Americans (C. D. Lee); and (4) Intervention Research Based on Current Views of Cognition and Learning (C. D. Lee). Part III, Expanding the Knowledge Base in Black Education and Research Globally, includes chapters: (5) Colonial Education in Africa: Retrospects and Prospects (W. H. Watkins); and (6) Black Populations Globally: The Costs of the Underutilization of Blacks in Education (K. Freeman). Part IV, Engaging the Language and Policy Nexus in African Education, goes on to present: (7) When the Language of Education Is Not the Language of Culture: The Epistemology of Systems of Knowledge and Pedagogy (H. O. Maiga); and (8) Initiating Transformations of Realities in African and African American Universities (B. Lindsay). Part V, Situating Equity Policy and Pedagogy in the Political Economic Context, includes: (9) New Standards and Old Inequalities: School Reform and the Education of African American Students (L. Darling-Hammond); and (10) On the Road to Democratic Economic Participation: Educating African American Youth in the Postindustrial Global Economy (J. G. Nembhard). Part VI, Humanizing Education: Diverse Voices, contains: (11) A Detroit Conversation (J. E. King and S. Parker); and (12) Faith and Courage to Educate Our Own: Reflections on Islamic Schools in the African American Community (Z. Muhammad). Part VII, Globalizing the Struggle for Black Education: African and Diaspora Experiences, presents the next chapters: (13) Worldwide Conspiracy Against Black Culture and Education (I. Seck); (14) Black Educational Experiences in Britain: Reflections on the Global Educational Landscape (C. Wright); (15) Black People and Brazilian Education (T. J. Machado da Silva); and (16) A New Millennium Research Agenda in Black Education: Some Points to Be Considered for Discussion and Decisions (P. B. Goncalves e Silva). Part VIII, "Ore Ire"--Catalyzing Transformation in the Academy: Our Charge to Keep, continues with chapters: (17) Culturally Sensitive Research and Evaluation: Advancing an Agenda for Black Education (L. C. Tillman); (18) "Anayme Nti"--As Long As I Am Alive, I Will Never Eat Weeds: The Online Institute As a Catalyst for Research and Action in Black Education (A. Henry); (19) Incidents in the Lives of Harriet Jacobs' Children--A Readers Theatre: Disseminating the Outcomes of Research on the Black Experience in the Academy (C. A. West Olatunji); and (20) Answering a Call for Transformative Education in the New Millennium--"A Charge to Keep": The CORIBE Documentary Video (D. Hill). An afterword, postscript, and appendix are conclude the book.