"The School System is Failing Black Students" by English Teacher-Cert Major, Sharayah Alkire

The English Department's own Sharayah Alkire has published an important, timely article on the website, Black Feminist Collective, entitled "The School System is Failing Black Students." This is a must-read for anyone interested in how 'social justice pedagogy' can transform classrooms--and the lives of their students. A brief excerpt from the article to whet your appetite:

"The only way to combat racist regimes is by inciting knowledge and passion into our students and future teachers by showing the honesty of these racist practices. By bringing more multicultural literature into the English Language Arts classroom, specifically Black American Literature, we can attempt to confront these issues with our students. Based on the books “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas and “brown girl dreaming” by Jaqueline Woodson I will attempt to explain how Civil Rights issues can help inspire empathy and revolution in our students from the Language Arts classroom. Using Paulo Freier’s book “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” and his idea of praxis to bring students to act I will show how bringing students experiences to the table along with new material they are given can help our future adults realize how they can be the change they wish to see in the world. With these techniques and classroom texts that demonstrate similar ideals students can be taught to challenge these racist systems they are growing up in and can teach them to open to ideas they may have never previously thought of."

Read the entire article here: https://blackfeministcollective.com/2019/11/09/the-school-system-is-failing-black-students/