Predominantly Black schools may struggle with ways to keep their students engaged. When Black students are not engaged in class, it could lead to low academic performance, which may reflect the lack of culturally relevant content in the curriculum. Student engagement is increasingly viewed as one of the keys to addressing problems such as low…

The challenges of selecting and reading children's literature about slavery have implications for the kinds of slavery narratives students internalize. Guiding principles for teachers' critical selection of literature depicting slavery remain increasingly necessary as needed critical discussions of children's literature with depictions of slavery…

Seventh-grade students engaged in a guided historical inquiry about slavery, freedom, and unfreedom. The teacher carefully intertwined historical content, close reading, critical thinking, and text-based writing -- both extemporaneous and refined-- during Social Studies. Students scrutinized primary sources to build their historical schemas over…

This article explores depictions of the American Civil Rights Movement in award-winning children's picture books published between 2010 and 2018. Specifically, we focused on 25 books chosen by the American Library Association (ALA) and the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) for inclusion on their yearly book lists. We included books…

The United States' collective memory focuses on the nation's story as one of progress and freedom, yet the experiences of many citizens, particularly citizens of color, are in contradiction to this collective memory. Today, there is a small yet growing collection of counter-monument installations around the country that tell a counter-story to…

When the author looked back at her first two years at Spelman, a historically Black liberal arts college for women, she can see that the African Diaspora and the World (ADW) program had been paramount to her development as a culturally competent scholar with a nuanced understanding of systemic racism. In the majority-White schools she attended for…

Background: The historical literature on the civil rights movement has tended to underemphasize the movement's educational activities, while literature on the civil rights and Black Power movements has overemphasized ideological and tactical differences between these chapters in the struggle for Black liberation. A few studies have examined…

Background: The historical literature on the civil rights movement has tended to underemphasize the movement's educational activities, while literature on the civil rights and Black Power movements has overemphasized ideological and tactical differences between these chapters in the struggle for Black liberation. A few studies have examined…

In this essay, authors Kihana Miraya Ross and Jarvis R. Givens make their case for a distinct field of education research--Black education studies, which builds on Black studies and education studies. They explore a key analytic in Black education studies, antiblackness, examining its early and more recent uses as an analytic in education research…

Social studies in general, and Black history in particular, are marginalized at the elementary level. The ways Black history has been taught are problematic, focusing on either celebrating civil rights heroes or lamenting the oppressive treatment of Black people, thus flattening the rich and varied histories of Black people. An almost singular…

Some barriers to teaching Black history in elementary classrooms include inadequate teacher preparation and the misguided view that elementary students are too young to learn the unvarnished truth about America's historical injustices. Legislative efforts to prevent teachers from discussing race-related topics labeled "divisive"…

A prominent feature of the Black Lives Matter protests following the murder of George Floyd has been the renewed call for schools to become antiracist. What can be learnt from past unsuccessful attempts to implement antiracist education? Specific critiques of the antiracist movement made by prominent academics such as Paul Gilroy are worth…

"Teaching Black Masculinity through The Uncanny Black Kirby" will examine Marvel Comics's and Netflix's Luke Cage: Hero for Higher through the last 48 years of unstably grounded imaginings. The exhibition is an illustrated syllabus with a bibliography and contextualizing imagery that educators can use in a 10-16 week unit. Creating…

In this article, we share the stories of three inspirational Black women who were pioneers in adult literacy: Harriet Jacobs, Susie King Taylor, and Septima Poinsette Clark. Their stories, connected to the struggle for Black literacy and the Civil Rights movement, remain relevant as we continue to strive for social justice and equity for all…

This project explores spiritual wellbeing for descendants of enslaved Africans at historically and predominately white institutions of higher education, through the hermeneutical and phenomenological accounts of past and present Black curators of spiritual wellbeing. By focusing on the accounts of religious and spiritual affairs professionals, my…