hdbk_blackstudies ch 15.pdf

Sage Reference Handbook of Black Studies For the most optimal reading experience we recommend using our website. A free-to-view version of this content is available by clicking on this link, which includes an easy-to-navigate-and-sea...

Sage Reference Handbook of Black Studies For the most optimal reading experience we recommend using our website. A free-to-view version of this content is available by clicking on this link, which includes an easy-to-navigate-and-search-entry, and may also include videos, embedded datasets, downloadable datasets, interactive questions, audio content, and downloadable tables and resources. Author: Emmanuel Ngwainmbi Pub. Date: 2010 Product: Sage Reference DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412982696 Keywords: African American studies, Africa, African studies, African Americans, Afrocentricity, course descriptions, American studies Disciplines: Race & Ethnicity, Race, Ethnicity & Migration, Black Studies, Sociology Access Date: July 8, 2024 Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc. City: Thousand Oaks Online ISBN: 9781412982696 © 2010 SAGE Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. African American Studies Programs in North Ameri- ca and the Teaching of Africa: Myth, Reality, and Re- construction EmmanuelNgwainmbi The content of this article is predicated on the fact that qualitative research like pedagogy is a process of analytic induction, which implies no commitment to innumeracy As a qualitative study one based largely on my experiences and analysis, the article identifies factors that are present and absent within the domain dubbed African American Studies (AAS) and its perceived connection with the teachings of Africa. However, the process of carrying out such an epistemological inquiry on the tangible and intangible entity—culture, subject, or place—is challenging for the following reasons: (a) facts and factoids constantly change, and (b) cultural/ethnic studies involve personal bias in abstractions and sensitivities involved in the determination of accuracy and the evaluation of academic programs and teaching outcomes. I may impose on the reader my differences between wrestling perceptions of the Africa and the African Diasporas in this academic topic that requires a hypothetical-deductive methodology. But because the social scientist's chief task is to seek an ex- planation to inner existential choices made by people and the consequences of some mechanistic chain of cause-and-effect phenomena (Kirk & Miller, 1989, p. 10), any perceived ambiguities embedded in the argu- ments here cull from that hermeneutical approach. The article will attempt to review the rationale for erection of AAS programs, identify Africa-based courses taught in African American degree programs, and discuss some of the basic instructional problems, including intellectual grandstanding espoused by African American instructors when teaching students about Africa. Then, it will offer propositions in the areas of curricula, didactic, and resource allocation for improvement in the teaching of Africa. Background of African American Studies To posit that African American Studies is a researchable subject is to acknowledge the value of oral and writ- ten expressions of African slaves—recordings of African American experiences with Europeans and their nos- Handbook of Black Studies Page 2 of 22 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. talgic and their psychocultural connections with Africa. The poetry, letters and memoirs, and scientific inven- tions of these people all constitute the background for analyzing a collection of Black experiences. Because of mobility and trade across continents in the course of the last three centuries, sociocultural values devel- oped by Africans and their descendants in Europe and South America have developed paradigms that have profoundly shaped global pop culture, politics, and economy and generated multiple cultures within specific geographic locations. Equally, the existence of hybrid cultures has contributed importantly to broader debates about race, the economy, and ethnicity. The director of Undergraduate Studies in the Faculty of Arts and Sci- ences at Harvard has cited race, health, environment, ethnic conflicts, and state and civil society relations as well as popular arts as central subjects in the field of AAS (Faculty of Arts Sciences Student Handbook, 2002). This statement is consistent with the Afrocentric mind-set, which addresses (a) the connectedness and socio- cultural continuity of the African Diasporas (Asante, 1987, 1993), (b) the inclusiveness of all people and the need to live robustly (Richards, 1980), (c) the debate about what is passed down from one generation to an- other (Woodson, 1992), (d) favor of a more culturally oriented worldview over an individualistic one (Mutisya & Ross, 2005, p. 236), and (e) modes and processes used in the study of contemporary African Diasporas. The philosophical and historical works of great Black thinkers such as Alain Leroy Locke, Frederick Douglass, William Edward Burkhart Du Bois, or Booker Taliafero Washington, which set the pace for contemporary Black renaissance; sociopolitical thinkers such as Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, Jr.; the Negri- tude movement championed by Leopold Sedar Senghor and Aime Cesaire have all laid foundations for the development of academic structures and ideas. First was the founding of the Institute of Colored People in 1837, followed by the establishment of the first Black institute of higher learning in 1856 (Wilberforce Universi- ty); the teaching of the first course on African Civilization at Harvard University; the founding of a seminary in 1866 to train freed slaves as preachers, a liberal arts college (now Howard University) in 1867, and the United Negro College Fund in 1944; and the $1 million donation from the Ford Foundation to two historically Black institutions as well as for Yale University for instructors to be trained on the teaching of courses centered on the African American experience. The vitality of those achievements was further enhanced by the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, which masterminded the formation of more AAS programs. Legislative records show a strong connection between student demonstrations and a growth in the number of new programs in the 1970s, as students pressured col- lege administrators to introduce courses on Black issues, hence promoting a sense of pride in the Black her- itage. This event, which coincided with other resistance movements in Black communities around the world and the independence of certain African countries, pressured local, state, and federal government officials to Handbook of Black Studies Page 3 of 22 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. start AAS programs in public universities. Public-led interventions in the form of education policies and res- olutions have helped promote the teaching of Black issues in the school curriculum. For example, the Edu- cation Improvement Act of 1984 required each public educational institution to instruct students in the history of Black people as a regular part of its history and social studies courses, and on the state level, the 1994 Florida Legislature amended Section 233.061 (currently 1003.42) of the Florida Statutes, enacting into law a requirement for all teachers across subject area disciplines to provide instruction in Black history. Although some state officials and dissident groups have made aggressive attempts to thwart Blacks' efforts in acquiring an academic education—such as the prevention of Caucasian Mississippians against James Meredith from enrolling at Ole Miss (University of Mississippi) in 1962, Alabama Governor George Wallace's blocking of two Black students from registering for classes in 1963, and the subsequent segregation of schools and the limited funding for Black-managed academic institutions—more postsecondary institutions have infused new courses on African American issues and materials for the improvement of learning since the 1980s. Harvard, Yale, Temple, UCLA, Indiana, Princeton, University of California-Berkeley, Massachusetts, Indiana, and other African American Studies programs have been successful at implementing programs and granting academic degrees in African American Studies. Problematic in Defining “African American” As more research institutions continue to expand ethnographic studies on Japanese, Asian, and African peo- ple and even create institutes such as the School of International Studies at American University (Washing- ton, DC), the debate as to whether the programs have academic value and whether they successfully meet the accreditation standards of degree programs culls from the stance that they are relatively new on campus, have not been thoroughly studied, and have not been scrutinized like the traditional disciplines. Some have argued that the content of ethnic studies lacks depth and promotes subjectivity—racial ambiguity often fraught with emotional judgments—rather than an attempt to promote intellectual discourse. The difficulty in mapping out local meanings and alternative reactions against prevailing social structures and the study of everyday life result in unanswered questions about how the logic in personal texts and interpretations supersede the celebratory display of the polysemy of audiences under study. Ethnographic studies, then, only support ex- isting beliefs and provoke explorations of research on ethnic groups contributing to the arguments about why cultural studies fail to draw on ethnography (Murphy, 2003). From a radical contextual standpoint, the textu- Handbook of Black Studies Page 4 of 22 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. al and psychological meanings of African American Studies cannot be decided on without our consideration of multidimensional intersubjective social (including TV and public-mediated) contexts. Ang (1996) has point- ed to a growing emphasis on ethnography and ethnic studies as a means of empirical inquiry stressing that “ethnographically oriented research is considered the most suitable to unravel the minutiae of difference and variation as they manifest themselves in concrete everyday instances” (p. 251). Furthermore, the key com- ponent in ethnicity involves the study of large-scale structures and some reflexivity about academics and the academics' reflexivity of the agents they study (Couldry, 2003). Similarly, modernity itself has reconstituted ethnic identities, promoted nationalism, and transformed subjectivity at a more intimate level (Kraidy, 2003). If these arguments were accepted, the philosophical definition and research-ability of AAS would remain as complicated and troublesome as establishing a conceptual framework for analyzing the academic discipline. But if we were to see “African American” in terms of blood relations between Black (colored) people in North America and Africa or as the infusion of large quantities of Anglo-European and African values, concepts, customs, and behavioral patterns in the thoughts and actions of Blacks residing in North America, we may ar- rive at a crossroads from which we can create a theoretical perspective for the study of the African American experience. To take race relations and ethnicity as principles for understanding that concept is to admit that current and past circumstances in Africa are a part of the African descendant in North America. Using those paradigms, we can develop a pedagogical framework for teaching about Africa, evaluating programs that do so, or both. Yet because Africa implies various cultures, geoethnic groups, and natural science components that are to a certain extent different from those in the Diasporas, the challenge of composing a working definition through which students, administrators, and scholars can approach Africa as an academic discipline becomes more daunting for the pedagogist. To make clear cut distinctions, we ought to take another look at the differences between hermeneutic, scientific, and social paradigms that constitute ethnic studies, for unlike traditional dis- ciplines (e.g., history, economics) whose didactic value has been successfully tested in educational systems all over the world, the AAS curriculum is mostly broad based, the nature of which warrants a closer inquiry. A segment of this article will examine the composition of AAS programs, including financial factors and the general intrinsic contexts on which an AAS curriculum can address the teaching of Africa before offering sug- gestions for the use of a student-centered agenda in the teaching of Africa. Using program mission state- ments and the curricula as paradigms, the article will point out the administrative and pedagogical weakness- es as well as strengths in selected highly acclaimed undergraduate and graduate programs across North America. Handbook of Black Studies Page 5 of 22 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. The AAS program and teaching of Africa will be analyzed on two levels: (a) The instructional-ideological will deal with knowledge-conveyance or the philosophies and methods used in the conveyance of information to students in the classroom. (b) The second level has to do with pragmatics—the means and materials used, including personnel and budget. The Composition of AAS Programs Funding Following a decision by the Clinton administration in 1992 to grant public and commercial access to cyber- mediated communication, not only have academic administrators and students had greater access to infor- mation—with the latter becoming more creative with the generation and manipulation of ideas on social para- digms, including race, ethnicity, and regional space—but also instructional technology has been increasingly upgraded to enhance teaching and learning. These innovations have inevitably led to the creation of new programs. As of December 2004, there were approximately 600 programs and departments in North America involved with Black Studies; about 450 (75%) offered BA degrees, 20% offered master's degrees, and about 8% granted doctorates. Most undergraduate programs are supported by Title III funds, whereas more postgraduate programs seek sustenance through private funding—grants. The annual operating budget for all programs was less than $2 million—insufficient to meet the fiscal demands of the growing student enrollment. Records from one Ivy League institution indicated a concomitant drop in funding for instruction between the fiscal years for Handbook of Black Studies Page 6 of 22 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. 2000–2003 (see Table 5.1). The emphasis of this institution, which receives much of its program management funds from the state, is on increasing funding for traditional disciplines. Contexts for Teaching about Africa It is a valid attestation that historico-circumstantial contexts, cultural relevance, and spatiotemporal and psy- chological dimensions are fundamental principles for the establishment of all academic programs, for ideas cannot be properly conveyed or exchanged in a learning environment without some kind of entente among participants—that is, the meaning initiator and the recipient. The program goals that administrators seek to achieve depend in part on the achievement goal orientation they bring to the context—that is, the classroom (Nicholls, 1984; Urdan, 1997)—and on the quality and focus of the curriculum. For the same reason, instruc- tors shudder at the responsibility of helping students develop skills and proclivities needed for critical thinking (Urdan & Giancarlo, 2001). And because this sort of motivation is to enable students achieve new levels of understanding (Ngwainmbi, 2004, p. 67), an academic degree or certificate-granting program cannot be clin- ically relevant until it meets those general criteria. Hence, those preparing the curricula are expected to have a working knowledge of the group's value system. To arrive at an appreciation of the function of AAS and understand their relationship to the teaching of Africa, a brief reference to the historical and social circum- stances that have created the contexts for the philosophical mind-set is needed. Having been collected from different tribes in Africa and having experienced psychological hardships in Anglo- American, English, Spanish, and Portuguese plantations, Blacks eventually settled in different regions of the Western hemisphere for over three centuries, incorporating European values with African values. For this rea- son, Africa and the Diasporas will remain an intriguing subject for academic inquiry. However, it is technical- ly less feasible for college administrators and educators from such a background to implement a curriculum that is devoid of racial, ethnic, cultural, or personal bias. But because the African heritage extends to South America (Brazil, Cuba) and the Caribbean, AAS curriculum should incorporate historical and contemporary experiences of Africans on the continent and in the Diasporas, notwithstanding the psychophysical and cul- tural traits of other races within the American society. Handbook of Black Studies Page 7 of 22 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. Education researchers who repeatedly compare the learning culture of African American students with their Euro-American counterparts find lower achievement levels—IQ, creativity, reading, writing—and social habits among African American learners. The deficiency approach to the education of the African American disre- gards the primary tenet of the constructionist philosophy, which is to teach from the knowledge base of the learner. Hanley (2002) has blamed the U.S. educational system for not adapting itself to cultural differences among students, and Gloria Ladson-Billings (1994) has proposed the use of culturally relevant instruction as a method for teaching African American students and improving their school success. This sort of pedagogic approach empowers students intellectually, socially, emotionally, and politically because it subscribes to ref- erents that impart knowledge, skills, and attitudes. In addition, these cultural referents constitute the curricu- lum (Ladson-Billings, 1994, p. 8) and form the basis for explaining the contexts within which to approach the African American experience as an academic field. Hence, to develop an instructional student-centered aca- demic program, administrators and educators need an understanding of core beliefs and cultural experiences of African descendants in North America and the general values of Africans and diasporans that cumulatively constitute the African American experience. A degree program in AAS should include a concentration/minor in Afro-Caribbean and Afro-South American realities. Moreover, greater mobility to North America and social mediation between Afro-Brazilians, Afro- Caribbeans, and African Americans in augmenting sociopolitical and diplomatic interconnections makes a more persuasive argument for increasing the number of courses on African Diasporas. Similarly, positive in- structor attitudes toward subject matter, ethnic composition of learners, teaching methodology, and teacher- student relationship should be the bedrock for determining the degree to which students articulate the quality of knowledge transmitted. A review of some of the objectives in larger degree granting programs nationwide, as shown in Table 5.2, reflects the inclusion of Diaspora issues. Handbook of Black Studies Page 8 of 22 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. Handbook of Black Studies Page 9 of 22 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. Overview of Problems Administration and Program Implementation Although these AAS departments claim to cover social and cultural linkages between Africa and the Dias- poras and increase research and teaching potentials, there is evidence of lesser focus on teaching Africa at the expense of implementing a curriculum centered on the local experiences—race, art, popular culture—of African descendants in North America. Most degree programs chiefly address social issues but fail to include core courses that treat scientific developments and technological innovations in an in-depth manner. Many of them operate on a shoestring budget and have few scholarship opportunities; programs have rela- tively low enrollment, are understaffed, and operate with scarce learning resources. Some programs have on- ly one director or staff member, and the department uses instructors affiliated wtih other departments, which can minimize teaching effectiveness, slow the process of attracting students, and render the program insignif- icant on campus. Recently, two degree programs were eliminated at Fayetteville State University and North Carolina Central because of resource shortages and antagonism with other traditional programs. It took 17 years for the UNC-Charlotte undergraduate program to increase enrollment from five majors to 55 majors and 35 minors, according to the current chairperson. Personnel, Teaching Techniques, Classroom Climate A significant demise of AAS programs is predicated on peer perceptions of their usefulness to society—that is, their ability to advance knowledge and the economy. Although the curricula of most programs aim to in- troduce students to the culture, history, landscape, and lifestyle of African descendants in the United States; to enhance their critical thinking skills; and to prepare them for better problem solving and integration into a fast-evolving multicultural-multiethnic global society, some of the faculty members are affiliated with other de- partments and only serve as adjuncts. In addition, 90% of faculty members are African Americans who in some cases have not had much field expe- rience in Africa. Although many use interactive technology or organize study-abroad programs and fieldtrips for students to Africa for instructional enhancement, the frequency of field trips and courses that students can take in African universities is too minimal to warrant the thought that it can serve in the stead of the strong Handbook of Black Studies Page 10 of 22 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. messages that a firsthand experience (of the instructor—central narrator) conveys in a pedagogic context (classroom). Teenagers from various ethnic and racial backgrounds often find the AAS classroom a hostile environment because discussions on the Civil Rights Movement, Black history, or race relations are sometimes too sensi- tive and controversial, appearing to be aimed at instigating guilt among Caucasian students. Observers have described high tensions between Black and White students during lectures on race. This behavior can im- pede the generation and exchange of constructive ideas and slow the overall ability for others in the acade- mic community to have greater appreciation of AAS. On some campuses, racial tensions among department faculty members or between them and the administration have reportedly prevented the department from de- veloping a broad-based curriculum or teaching courses on the contemporary African American experience by reducing funding for research and instruction in the department. The collegiality of Black and White fac- ulty members in AAS departments appears problematic. Frank P. Graham professor and chair of the African American & African Studies Department, University of North Carolina-Charlotte, Mario Azevedo, has said that African American, Caucasian, and African faculty members work under tensions because of underlying racial attitudes and sociopolitical trends in the United States (personal communication, March 2004). The distin- guished Africologist adds that others think instructors do not teach students; rather, they indoctrinate Black students to become radicals in society. Such disrespect is exemplified by their exclusion from curriculum plan- ning meetings and decisions involving interdisciplinary studies and other forms of collaboration. To exercise their rights to “academic freedom,” some instructors have resorted to tailoring their syllabi ac- cording to their own personal interests, and enrolled students expecting to gather ideas about Blacks have succumbed to instructor bias or left the class with more confirmed stereotypical attitudes on race relations than before. Some textbooks may not be centered on subject matter. In some undergraduate programs, the instructor rather than the department textbook committee or body of curriculum experts selects reference material. As in other disciplines and units across the nation, the instructor determines which books to use, unless there is a common syllabus for which everybody must use the same textbooks. This autonomy in the book selec- tion process may cause financial strains and an imbalance in the way undergraduate students learn, because some textbooks are more expensive and have more valuable information than others. When teaching an in- troductory course on African religion, some instructors focus only on a famous novel rather than on the vari- Handbook of Black Studies Page 11 of 22 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. ous customs, cultural trends, and language groups across the continent. Many instructors have used Things Fall Apart (Achebe, 1958), which covers Ibo customs in Nigeria, as a source text for learning about more than 200 ethnic groups and 1,000 African languages, 70% of which are not yet in textbooks or any recorded form. Other perceptions shared on some campuses are that (a) AAS is still searching for its own disciplinary per- spectives and (b) it has not reached the goal of affecting the way Africa is taught. Plagued by some these obstacles, certain AAS departments spend more time trying to assert themselves by organizing social events such as Black History Month, inviting Black celebrities to campus, and hosting colloquia on Black social issues instead of concentrating on teaching. Overview of Successes The contributions of Blacks to the global society in sports, social justice, invention, academia, and enter- tainment—especially the accomplishments of political figures such as Nelson Mandela and Jesse Jackson; media gurus such Oprah Winfrey and Black Entertainment Television CEO, Robert L. Johnson; and literary figures, including Nobel Laureates Wole Soyinka, Naguib Mahfouz, and Tony Morrison—and their struggles have generated renewed interest in Black livelihood since slavery, the Great Depression, and Civil Rights Movement. The growing interest is not unprecedented; those who may be considering admission to graduate or professional schools or careers in law, business management and economics, city planning, publishing, social work, and health administration could benefit from a philosophical and working knowledge—thought process, values, output abilities—of the field (AAS). Success in any of those careers in the United States re- quires some form of mediation and interaction with African Americans. A growing number of Latinos are attending urban and suburban universities, but AAS departments have not attracted Latinos, partly because of a small number of tuition waiver programs and partly because of the per- ception that there are too few careers for AAS graduates and the programs themselves have limited potential to prepare graduates. Despite the low student enrollment relative to other departments, most AAS programs have continued to operate because of an interdisciplinary initiative wherein students in other departments are required to take courses in AAS to obtain certain degrees and are allowed to have a double major. The num- ber of Caucasian students taking AAS courses has increased considerably due in part to curriculum require- ments. Caucasian students seek more courses on learning about Africa than about African Americans be- Handbook of Black Studies Page 12 of 22 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. cause in most classes taught by African American instructors and numerically dominated by Black students, they have been forced to confront racial attitudes in the United States through discussions on segregation, slavery, and other civil rights violations against African Americans, which is very uncomfortable—especially in a classroom where all students should be free to express their opinions. Conversely, they reportedly find Africa geographically exotic and intellectually stimulating and are less likely to nurse any feelings of guilt in a class where the instructor is African or Caucasian and the topic is Africa. This escape psychology may come from the notion that Americans did not colonize Africa. To curb this problem and promote a friendly climate, however, some instructors use videotapes and other interactive technology and encourage creative thinking among their students through the following techniques: (a) Students select their own research topics,(b) in- structors administer multiple-choice exams, and (c) instructors give notes and lectures for the majority of the session. The Black Studies department at the University of California (UC) Santa Barbara serves 4,000 undergraduate majors per year as well as the larger academic community. Undergraduate students must take courses on the Black experience as part of their fulfillment of the general education requirements; faculty members and nontraditional students are allowed to audit some classes. This is the case at Temple, Harvard, University of California-Berkeley, Yale and UC Santa Barbara, to name a few. In the Black Studies department at UC Santa Barbara, resources and partnerships include the Center for Black Studies, the Ethnic Studies Library, the Multicultural Center, and various student groups. The affiliated faculty members come from the Art Studio, English, Political Science, and Sociology Departments and from the Women's Studies Program, giving the course content greater diversity. If more courses are created, AAS departments will be able to recruit more students, bringing new levels of tolerance toward Blacks on campuses and in society. More programs have survived extinction by employing qualified faculty and staff members from other races, and the composition of traditional and nontraditional students has broadened, with other races represented in the classroom since the late 1980s when aggressive political demonstrations and other civil activities waned and the global de- mand for personnel with multicultural experience increased. The number of course offerings in 90% of departments in predominantly White institutions has increased; so has the graduation rate, by at least 7% since the 1990s. Arguably, Africa is better known and appreciated in academic circles in the United States than 30 years ago, primarily through raised recruitment, broad-based curricula, and social awareness campaigns organized on campus and by AAS departments. This may be creating a visible forum for more jobs and economic growth, improvement of Black image, greater social me- diation, and better diplomatic negotiations between Black politicians and old structures of world power. As Handbook of Black Studies Page 13 of 22 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. more departments and pro-Africa sectors on college campuses across the nation (especially Temple, UCLA, UNC office of International Programs, Howard, Wisconsin, and Texas) continue the expansion of activities that promote cultural diversity and form more exchange and study abroad programs with African universities where students and faculty visit each other's campus once per year, enrollment is bound to double and so- cioeconomic issues affecting Blacks worldwide would receive higher priority on the agendas of local, state, and world governing bodies. Candidly, governmental, nonprofit agencies and private companies have been providing financial and technical support to these programs for the past four decades. As of 2004, over 5,000 American students have toured or studied in Africa, and at least 10,000 African students, scholars, and re- searchers have served in African and U.S. educational institutions following mutual agreements with religious, cultural, and academic groups. The supplemental efforts of some U.S.-based national and international organizations in educating the world about Africa cannot be overlooked. These are the Peace Corps Volunteer program set up in the early 1960s by the J. F. Kennedy administration, which enabled young Americans to live, learn, and teach students in Africa; USAID programs in Africa, including the recent Africa Education Initiative (set up by the George W. Bush administration), which plans to grant 250,000 scholarships, is producing 4.5 million textbooks and teacher guides and will train 420,000 teachers over a 5-year period; and UNESCO's long-term grassroots learning programs and UN-sponsored ADEA (Association for the Development of Education in Africa), which reports on educational innovations and sponsors many secondary and postsecondary programs. Other col- laborative efforts include programs between African universities, historically Black colleges and universities, and U.S. research institutions, and the philanthropic efforts Harry Belafonte and other foreign celebrities who bring Africa's educational issues to the world stage, as well as a school for young people established by Oprah Winfrey in South Africa. Handbook of Black Studies Page 14 of 22 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. Figure 5.1 Mean Percentage Distribution of Courses Note: The figure shows that the AAS programs place considerably greater emphasis on courses that deal with the Black experience in America than on courses that deal with the African experience, while African American and African Studies programs place similar emphasis on courses that deal with both content areas. AAS programs have contributed to better student relations on campus. Annual events such as Black History Month, Kwanzaa celebrations, nationally televised college sports, and the annual UNCF (United Negro Col- lege Fund) telethon that feature vital achievements of Blacks may have provoked public inquiry into Black issues as researchers seek better understanding and appreciation of Black livelihood and companies contin- ue to make investments in AAS. There are more graduates in the workforce and professional schools and an increasing number of cross-culture researchers now than during the 1960s when racial discrimination was most rife. Besides the student-teacher mediation factor, there exists a controversy among educators as to what consti- tutes AAS in terms of the undergraduate curricula (see Figure 5.1). A few of the nationally known programs appear to meet the general criteria of a productive AAS. UC Santa Barbara, Temple, and Yale offer a considerable number of core courses on Africa, the Caribbean, and other Diaspora regions in addition to courses centered on the Black experience in America (see Tables 5.3a and b). At least 30% of the courses offered by 70% of the programs shown in Tables 5.3a and b focus on Africa, and among the courses in the curricula, 28.9% constitute courses focusing on the African experience, as shown in Figure 5.1 and as computed from the entire data in Tables 5.3a and b. On the other hand, some courses Handbook of Black Studies Page 15 of 22 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. with a primary focus on either Africa or the African Diaspora also focus on the Black experience in America. The curriculum at UC Santa Barbara provides a strong foundation for the study of the African American ex- perience. According its online course description list (http://www.blackstudies.ucsb.edu/student_info/cours- es.html), the lower division offerings constitute 15 courses of which 8 courses are on Black experience in America; 3 focus on Africa and the Diasporas; 1 course addresses the Caribbean experience; 1 is on Afro-Latino American experience; and 1 is on Black psychology—connections between Africa, Afro-Amer- ican psychological traits—and the other is a seminar on Blacks. Upper-division requirements include 28 courses, which atypically have a multipurpose in terms of regions and themes. Ten of the courses focus on Africa—francophone African literature, Euro-African literature, philosophy, foreign policy, religion, linguistics and culture (dialects, Creoles, hybridization, multilingualism), cinema/film, and special topics. Ten courses address the entire Black community, 5 courses generally cover the African American experience, 3 address methodology issues. Some courses include special topics and group research on the Black experience, in- dividual field research, independent study, readings, and bibliographic methods. Interestingly, Africa in Black and White (Black Studies 131) is no longer available in the class listings. Thus, the course was either dropped for lack of interest or lack of an instructor. African Cinema (Black Studies 162) addresses aesthetic strate- gies and ideological concerns of culture, gender, identity, authorship, and post-coloniality This course aims to broaden student perspectives of the spatiotemporal, philosophical, and realistic paradigms that militate against the African experience. In addition, most students who take courses in the AAS department are ex- pected to develop a psychological concept that can be useful in understanding other cultures. Handbook of Black Studies Page 16 of 22 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. Harvard, Temple, UC Berkeley and other institutions allow students to graduate with a double major, which better prepares them for greater opportunities in a 21st century world where outsourcing has become a phe- nomenon and state as well as private institutions seek to recruit persons with a working knowledge of inter- cultural communication and business ethics (Ngwainmbi, 2005, in press). But although some AAS departments have undertaken certain strategies to teach their students about the Black community, programs with African and African American (AAAS) curricula may be creating stronger career investment opportunities for their students in that (a) by balancing instruction on both cultures and systems, they provide students with more ideas and (b) global job market conditions demand broad-based degrees, especially consumer communities with large investment potentials in Africa and the Black commu- nity in the United States. A closer look at the mission statements and course offerings in the departments of African and African American Studies at UNC-Charlotte, UNC-Chapel Hill and UT-Austin suggests such po- tential (see Tables 5.3a and 5.3b). Typically, AAAS departments attempt to balance offerings on the African and African American experience. At UNC-Charlotte, there is almost a precise balance of offerings a se- mester, as shown in Table 3b. The department offers quite a few courses with a Diaspora focus—namely, Pan-Africanism, African Families in Africa and the Diaspora, Caribbean Literature in English, Religions in the Caribbean, and Slavery, Racism and Capitalism in Africa and the Diaspora. During the 2004–2005 academic year, the department worked on changing its paradigm from African American and African Studies to Com- parative Africa and Its Diaspora, for which it had received several curriculum development grants. By the fall of 2005 the program title at UNC-Charlotte will be Africana Studies. Conclusion Based on data collected from selected university Web sites, we may cautiously conclude that there is dis- symmetry between some of the AAS and AAAS mission statements or program titles and the actual course Handbook of Black Studies Page 17 of 22 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. offerings because the programs do not offer enough courses on Africa to claim the full caption African Amer- ican Studies. We can agree or disagree that the AAS curriculum is incomplete because it covers only aes- thetic factors and fails to include the physical sciences—significant scientific and technological contributions of Blacks. To maintain the courses in the current curricula is to claim that African descendants in America are more American than African, which, regrettably, highlights the geocultural component while underestimating the fundamental principle that governs the study of race—in this case, African American ancestry history and val- ues and political connections between contemporary experiences in Africa and those they face in the United States. Recommendations Because existing curricula are laden with structural and didactic handicaps and reportedly minimize intellectu- al foreplay, not only is a strong curriculum relevant, diligence is needed when designing a “balanced” curricu- lum and enhancing intellectual foreplay in the classroom. This includes upgrading the curriculum, greater col- laboration among Afrocentric pedagogists and educators and between campus administrators and the AAS department, and using more instructional resources during instruction. Curricular-Based Strategic Planning Major internal and external changes must take place, beginning with an acceptable program evaluation mech- anism that includes implementing more full-fledged degree programs and recruiting more program coordina- tors and administrative assistants. To tighten the focus of the curriculum, college administrators should work with pedagogic experts from each community in the Diaspora to develop course titles and descriptions, be- cause those pedagogical areas have not been adequately covered. Specifically, pedagogists should do the following: 1. Develop a standard of measurement for the program that accurately and effectively measures actual student knowledge about the African American experience 2. Develop a statewide Web site that lists resources prepared and recommended by the State Depart- Handbook of Black Studies Page 18 of 22 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. ment of Education 3. Identify progress-oriented Afrocentric values 4. Seek to a. expand education and professional training opportunities for Africans, foster greater under- standing of Africa in America, and promote mutually beneficial U.S.-Africa relations b. educate persons about African culture, landscape, history, and science in order for them to have the skills to cope with and operate in an increasingly multicultural and multiethnic Amer- ican society c. provide courses in Afrocentric science to give learners an opportunity to understand the rudi- ments of physical sciences and inventions developed by Africans and their descendants Selection of Resource Materials Organizers of Black conferences like the National Association of African American Studies (NAAAS); Cheikh Anta Diop Conference, and the Southeastern Regional Seminar in African Studies (SERSAS) should get to- gether and form a nationally recognized Instructional Materials Adoption Committee that oversees general standards for selecting textbooks. Each AAS department should follow national standards in determining text- books because some textbooks are too expensive for students from economically challenged backgrounds. The department committee should have the final authority in the selection of appropriate textbooks and other instructional resources for its department and the library. University librarians should collaborate with depart- ment textbook committees and the Instructional Materials Adoption Committee to identify and catalog re- source materials for dissemination. Managing Outreach Activities Department chairs and faculty should conduct more workshops with focus groups to promote dialogue with the university community and increase the visibility and usefulness of AAS. Campuses should also do the following: 1. Develop a resource clearinghouse for instructors to their enhance their teaching 2. Organize workshops and hold rotating conferences in African countries and U.S. schools in collabo- Handbook of Black Studies Page 19 of 22 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. ration with leading African pedagogists on the teaching of science, culture, and economics 3. Develop university-wide and national accreditation evaluation standards that accurately measure stu- dent knowledge about Africa Face-Lifting Teaching Methods To improve teaching methods, African American instructors should endeavor to separate mythical romantic longings from facts. African professors should be invited to give lectures about their country because they have firsthand knowledge about existing and past customs. Instructors should teach the truth, highlight positive aspects of Africa and collaborate with African research centers and others in the Diasporas to build a comprehensive Afrocentric Studies curriculum and arrive at generic approaches to the teaching of Africa and its descendants. Upgrading the Curriculum Because a curriculum directs a set of ideas and provides a framework for the decisions we make, the neces- sity to design and implement a socially relevant cannot be understated. Course descriptions should address historical and contemporary political, economic, technological, scientific, and social realities in Africa and the Diaspora. Introductory course descriptions should address historical and contemporary political and econom- ic, techno-social realities in Africa and Diasporas. General criteria for setting up the AAS curriculum should be directed by Afrocentric scholars with distinguished credentials. Core courses for the undergraduate stud- ies curriculum should include African geography, history, African ruling systems, African art, European ruling systems, ancient African culture, modern culture, contemporary and medieval languages, and communication patterns, because these form the backbone of the arts and social sciences. Expanding Student-Based Research Activities Postdoctoral, doctoral, and MA. degree candidates should conduct research and use an evaluation system approved by well-trained Afrocentric educators and scholars with strong theoretical foundations and primary Handbook of Black Studies Page 20 of 22 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. experiences. Graduate-level research and teaching should focus on a particular country or region; an attempt to cover the entire continent using single indicators would be too vague. There should be specialized courses in politics—for example, contemporary African politics, ancient political systems. References Achebe, C. (1958). Things fall apart. New York: Alfred E. Knopf. Ang, I. (1996). Ethnography and radical contextualism in audience studies. In J. Hay, L. Grossberg, & E. Wartella (Eds.), The audience and its landscape (pp. 247–262) Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Asante, M. (1987). The Afrocentric idea. 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