November 16th: Fugitive Pedagogy and Dignity Affirming Schools

Essential Questions:

• What is fugitive pedagogy & how is it an example of culturally responsive teaching?

• How can we (the cohort) engage in intellectualism and better understand ourselves as intellectuals and achievers?

• How can we build schools that are rooted in intellectualism and identity forming counternarratives?

• What does it mean to have dignity-affirming schools as an essential anti-racist practice?

Readings: (Primary - Definitely complete these)

1. Givens, Jarvis, R (2021). Fugitive Pedagogy: Carter G. Woodson and the Art of Black Teaching. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Read the preface, intro, chapters 2 & 5. (e-book was sent to you)

Consider the following as you read. Identify passages that relate to the questions. Also identify passages of interest, which you'd like to discuss further, whether they correspend to the questions below or not.

1. • • What perspective did you have about the history of Black teachers and African American education before reading Fugitive Pedagogy? How has your perspective shifted or expanded?

     • What intellectual demands are reflected in the history of Black teachers presented in Fugitive Pedagogy? Do you typically think of educators as intellectuals? If so, why? What intellectual demands come with being a teacher?

     • Chapter 5 refers to the African American teachers in Fugitive Pedagogy as "scholars of the practice." How do you understand this classification to be distinct from the label of "practitioners" usually employed to describe teachers?

     • What educational traditions informed the professional identities of the Black teachers in Fugitive Pedagogy? What educational traditions inform your professional identity? Why, if at all, is it important to be grounded in an educational tradition? Furthermore, what does grounding oneself in an educational tradition entail, and how is this practice sustained?

     • What ethical and moral questions are teachers wrestling with in Fugitive Pedagogy? How, if at all, are these questions related to your work today?

2. Charity Anderson and Charles Payne, “ The Radical Affirmation of Dignity: Septima Clark, Ella Baker and Educating the Disenfranchised. In Decoteau Irby, Charity Anderson and Charles Payne, (eds.) Somebodiness: A Call for Dignity-Affirming Education, Teachers College Press, forthcoming.

3. Charity Anderson, “ You’re Going to Get Respected, Listened to, and Your Opinion will Be respected: Dignity Affirmation in the Clemente Course for the Humanities.” In Decoteau Irby, Charity Anderson and Charles Payne, (eds.) Somebodiness: A Call for Dignity-Affirming Education, Teachers College Press, forthcoming.

4. Payne, C. M. & Ortiz, C.M. (2017). Doing the Impossible: The Limits of Schooling, the Power of Poverty. ANNALS, AAPS, 673 (32-57).

5. Review the Bard Prison Initiative homepage. Watch part 2 of the documentary.

Readings (Secondary - Read for additional information/content):

1. Sleeter, Christine E. "The academic and social value of ethnic studies." (2011). NEA.

2. “Why Are There So Few Black Children in Gifted Programs?” https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/01/why-are-there-so-few-black-children-in-gifted-and-talented-programs/424707/

3. Valenzuela, Angela. “Uncovering Internalized Oppression,” in Mica Pollard, Everyday Antiracism: Getting Real About Race in School. New York: New Press, 2008.

4. Valenzuela, Angela, Emilio Zamora, and Brenda Rubio. "Academia Cuauhtli and the Eagle:" Danza Mexica" and the Epistemology of the Circle." Voices in Urban Education 41 (2015): 46-56. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1074841