Countering miseducation: Situating K-12 Social Studies education within the Black Intellectual Tradition

Abstract

“Countering Miseducation: Situating K-12 Social Studies Education within the Black Intellectual Tradition” combines two separate articles—Part I “Re-membering” The Teachings of PtahHotep: Educational Implications of the Oldest Book in the World” and Part II “Locating Early 20th Century K-12 Black Social Studies Educator, Leila Amos Pendleton, within the Black Intellectual Tradition.” Our aim is to speak to limitations and new possibilities in Social Studies education. We address lesser known Black intellectuals, PtahHotep in ancient Egypt [Kemet] and Leila Amos Pendleton, African American educator and social activist, and how their intellectual contributions expand the contours of school-based instructional knowledge for teachers and diverse learners. Moreover, this article uses African-centered perspectives to place key issues surrounding standards-based Social Studies instruction within the context of the Black Intellectual Tradition. In Part III, we conclude with a duoethnography discussion on the aforementioned intellectuals and the implications of their work for the continued development of Social Studies education.

Keywords:

• Black history education
• PtahHotep
• “re-membering”
• Black intellectual tradition
• social studies
• social studies curriculum
• urban education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Greg Wiggan

Greg A. Wiggan is Professor of Urban Education, Adjunct Professor of Sociology, and Affiliate Faculty of Africana Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. His research addresses school processes that promote high achievement among urban and minority students. He was recipient of the 2015 Cato College of Education Award for Excellence in Teaching and the College’s Diversity Award. He is a nationally award nominated author and has published over 100 publications, inclusive of 30 education books, with notable titles such as: Global Issues in Education; Power, Privilege and Education; and Teacher Education to Enhance Diversity in STEM; Sister Outsider in the Academy, and Healing Power of Education.

Annette Teasdell

Annette Teasdell is an Assistant Professor of Curriculum and Instruction at Clark Atlanta University. Her research agenda is driven by her commitment to meeting the needs of students and improving academic outcomes for students in urban schools and communities. Additionally, her research is centered on the fundamental belief that culturally responsive pedagogy combined with a curriculum that is accurate, relevant, appropriate, and whose educational processes are humane, can yield improved student outcomes.

LaGarrett J. King

LaGarrett King is an associate professor in the Department of Learning and Instruction at the University of Buffalo. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin after an eight-year teaching career in Georgia and Texas. His primary research interest examines how Black history is interpreted and taught in schools and society. He also researches critical theories of race, teacher education, and curriculum history.

Alana Murray

Alana Murray is an educator-activist who has taught world history on both the middle- and high-school levels and currently serves as a middle school principal at Shady Grove Middle School in Montgomery County, Maryland public schools.

ArCasia James-Gallaway

ArCasia D. James-Gallaway is an interdisciplinary historian of education and teacher educator in the Teaching, Learning, and Culture Department at Texas A&M University, where she works as an Assistant Professor, ACES Fellow, and ADVANCE Scholar. Dr. James-Gallaway's research agenda follows three overlapping strands of inquiry: the history of African American education, Black history education, and gendered (anti)Blackness in education.