Intra-Afrikan Early Childhood Education

Drawing from the unifying work of Seattle-based Intra-Afrikan Konnection (IAK), this course takes a strengths-based approach to Intra-Afrikan Early Childhood Education, including African, African American, African Caribbean, African Indigenous, and Afro-Latino experiences. Leading with Frederick Douglass’s notion that it is easier to build strong children than to repair broken people, students will review Geneva Gay’s culturally responsive and Molefi Kete Asante’s Afro-centric approaches to working with young children and families. The course will survey Africa; Janice Hale’s vision for African American children; the importance of the Haitian revolution; Marcia Tate Arunga’s The Stolen Ones and How They Were Missed; Angela Davis’s work on the school to prison pipeline; Grandy Nanny and the Maroons of Jamaica; Wade Boykin’s nine interrelated dimensions of African American culture; the story of the Garifuna people; the Lukumi of Cuba; the inter-disciplinary art of Storme Webber; and Patrick Makokoro’s studies on colonialism, post colonialism, and early childhood education in Africa.

Course Outcomes: Through participating in this course, we expect students to be able to:

1. Describe strategy and legacy of Seattle-based Intra-Afrikan Konnection (IAK).

2. Explain a strengths-based approach to Intra-Afrikan Early Childhood Education, including African, African American, African Caribbean, African Indigenous, and Afro-Latino experiences.

3. Demonstrate understanding of Frederick Douglass’s notion that it is easier to build strong children than to repair broken people.

4. Give examples of Geneva Gay’s culturally responsive and Molefi Kete Asante’s Afro-centric approaches to working with young children and families.

5. Present on the history, background, language, and focus of the people of the African Diaspora.