‘Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me’: African American students’ reclamation of smartness as resistance

Abstract

In African American culture competing value systems shape the definition and value of smartness. This article will explore African American ‘sayins’ as a tool to transmit the counter-hegemonic cultural value of smartness. ‘Sayins’, a facet of the African American oral tradition, are drawn from the deep structures of African American culture. Like proverbs and parables ‘sayins’ are linguistic tools which function to transmit cultural knowledge and govern modes of behavior. African American ‘sayins’ are imbued with an awareness of the contradicted lived experience and consequent values of resistance. The exploration of these funds of knowledge makes transparent the value and definition of smartness aligned with the principles of transformative resistance. Unpacking and reframing smartness within the cultural and epistemological context of the African American experience works in opposition to debilitating normative ways of knowing which inform teaching and learning.

Keywords:

• African American education
• transformative resistance
• smartness
• critical race theory