Cultural War: The Critical Need for African Centered Education

This paper presents the findings from interviews of renowned Black education scholars discussing the challenges Black students are facing in the K-12 educational system. The paper begins with an introduction outlining the “cultural war” that has been waged against Black youth, it provides an overview of Afrocentric theory as it is used in the field of education, provides the methodology used to glean data, offers an analysis from interviews, and provides implications and discussion for the ways in which Black students would be better served if education policy, research, and practice were positioned to acknowledge the successes that African centered education has had among Black youth. The findings include three interconnected themes, including: the need for a culturally centered and culturally responsive pedagogy as educational imperatives, the role of expectations and cultural centeredness in shaping educational achievement, and the significance of intergenerational learning and humanely equitable relationships in fostering the academic and personal growth of Black students.