Teaching through Black history: An overview of Black historical consciousness
What does the research say?
This article by LaGarrett J. King addresses the challenge, need, and benefits of teaching Black history beyond the stereotypical trajectory from slavery to the civil rights movement, highlighted by the same remarkable individuals and notable events: Martin Luther King Jr’s: I have a Dream Speech, Rosa Park’s bus boycott, and the landmark court case of Brown versus the Board of Education, etc.
The challenge to teaching Black history more authentically exists due to the fact that teachers themselves have never received this education in their own schooling, that teacher education programs did not address Black history as a pedagogical issue, and that consequently, this lack of content knowledge renders teachers insecure about a subject they fail to deeply understand. Additionally, King’s work addresses that historically, the U.S. history curriculum centers the White experience as influential and heroic.
King advocates for a more nuanced and holistic approach to teaching Black history by teachers developing a Black historical consciousness, a framework that emphasizes the following eight principles:
- power, oppression, & anti-blackness: which addresses the lack of justice, freedom, equality, and equity experienced by Black people throughout history,
- agency, resistance, & justice: which acknowledges that although victimized, Black people were not helpless,
- Africa & the African diaspora: contextualizes histories within the African Diaspora, including Black histories,
- Black emotionality: focuses on Black peoples’s emotions, including joy, fear, rage, sadness, and hope,
- Black identities: promotes the inclusion of of Black identities beyond Black, middle-class, heterosexual, able-bodied, Christian men,
- historical contentions: recognizes that Black histories are complex and should not be ignored, even if they are not all positive. It also highlights Black people’s ides and disagreements,
- community, local, & social histories: includes histories of “regular” people (especially children) who have made (and are making) a difference in their communities,
- Black futurism: (re)imagines, (re)invents, and recognizes the possibilities of Black people in the future.
The article further reports on the implementation of King’s Black historical consciousness framework in multiple U.S. school districts, along with the challenges such as teacher resistance and political opposition.
Why is it important?
King states that the importance of teaching a more inclusive and holistic history curriculum goes beyond the obvious fact of representation. He states that “Black history is not just about White oppressors and Black victims”. He states that “history is about helping us understand our humanity and the decisions we make based on the context of the time. It is about shaping citizens and about fostering a more historically mature society that is able to learn from its past (King, 2023).
What are the implications for education?
The implications for education are for teachers to use the vast resources available today, to cultivate their own racial pedagogical content knowledge (RPACK) so that in time, they will
- develop a comfort level to teach difficult histories and be able to discuss the power that racism has on power and oppression;
- be able to provide multiple examples of Black people’s resistance and fights for justice,
- be able to expand the narratives of Black history beyond where they live (and beyond the U.S.) and engage learners in action research and passion projects that bring additional stories to the fore,
- honor the full range of Black people’s emotions
- include the intersectional identities of Black people and not only highlight exceptional individuals
- teach the complexity of Black history, and teach through Black people’s diverse experiences, even the not so great aspects.
- research Black histories within their own communities.
- imagine, dream, and support the futures of Black people and children.
This learning journey, however, can also be shouldered by the students as they engage in student-led inquiries to discover the contributions that Black people have made in sports, the arts, the sciences, etc. A choice-board on this vast topic may help surface the hidden narratives of the Black experience and as such reinvent the curriculum while educating all involved.
About the author
LaGarrett J. King is an award winning Professor of Social Studies Education in the Graduate School of Education at the University at Buffalo, New York. He is also the founding Director of the Center for K-12 Black History and Racial Literacy Education. Dr. King earned his PhD from the University of Texas at Austin. A former teacher in Texas and Georgia, his research centers on the teaching and learning of Black history, teacher education, critical theories of race, and Black historical consciousness. His Black history framework has been used with multiple school districts in the United States and Canada.
King’s scholarship helps us examine the current shortcomings of how Black history and race is taught and learned in schools. Beyond critical analysis, he guides his readership through helpful frameworks such as Racial Historical Consciousness and Racial Pedagogical Content Knowledge (RPACK) and introduces principles by which teaching and learning about Black history and the Black experience can be taught with more complexity.
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