‘There’s salt‐water in our blood’: the ‘Middle Passage’ epistemology of two Black mothers regarding the spiritual education of their daughters

Abstract

The author examines the discourses and practices of two Black women educators regarding the spiritual education of their daughters. Their daughters attended an independent African‐centered community school in a large Midwestern city. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted as part of a larger ethnographic study exploring the education of Black girls in two ethnocultural settings. The participants’ parental pedagogies critiqued mainstream educational practices as well as revealing the creative improvisations lived at the intersections of dominant and non‐dominant cultures. The author argues that Black mothers’ pedagogies reflect to a ‘Middle Passage’ consciousness. The author also exhorts more critical analyses of often disregarded discourse as a way to work toward transforming Black education.

Notes

1. Diaspora (from the Greek, ‘to scatter’) seems to have acquired a colloquial usage and in some settings has lost its distinctive character of unwilling displacement. As Paul Gilroy (2000) writes, diaspora ‘identifies a relational network, characteristically produced by forced dispersal and reluctant scattering. Under this sign, push factors are a dominant influence…. The term opens up a historical and experiential rift between the locations of residence and the locations of belonging’ (pp. 124–125). Listen to a National Public Radio broadcast on Oddessy (http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/), for an insightful and intellectual audioarchived radio discussion of the African Diaspora between scholars Brent Edwards—Professor of English at Rutgers University, Michael Hanchard —Political scientist at Northwestern University and Tiffany Patterson —Professor of History and Africana studies at SUNY Binghamton.

2. Names of participants and the research site have been changed.

3. See Carter G. Woodson, The miseducation of the Negro (New York, AMS Press, 1931[1977]).

4. The school espoused the following principles: Think critically and question everything; Understand history; Internalize the principles (based on the Nguzo Saba or Seven Principles) that are in the interest of our people and be uncompromising in the pursuit of them; Understand the concepts of friend, the enemy within, and the enemy without; Set good examples and accept just criticism; Develop practical skills in the sciences and communications; Practice a lifestyle which recognizes the importance of our African and African‐American heritage and traditions, and is geared to the values which will facilitate the present and future development of our people; and Learn to be critical of self first and recognize that African values are only as just and correct as those who practice them (Parent Handbook).

5. Time and space do not allow a discussion of the terms that I am using rather interchangeably: oral history, in‐depth interview, narrative. Meanings vary across disciplines (see Reinharz, 1992, p. 129 for a discussion of the terms used here: narrative, semi‐structured interview and oral history.

6. See Bush (1997) for a discussion of Independent Black institutions in the United States.

7. Despite many educational initiatives over the past 20 years, young women, especially those from diverse socioeconomic and ethno‐cultural backgrounds, are poorly represented in professions and careers related to science, mathematics and technology (Barr & Birke, 1998; AAUW, 1999). At present, students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds and racial minority groups have less access to good education, and much less to computers and the Internet (National Center for Education Statistics, 2001).

8. One article entitled ‘Bad hair day’ begins as follows: Her trademark hair beads went skittering across the court in the second set on Tuesday, earning her a point penalty, but Venus Williams’s game was already coming apart under the relentless baseline pressure that Lindsay Davenport has become the best in the world at applying. International Herald Tribune, Wednesday 27 January 1999.