Conceptualizing the Communally Bonded Education Model: An Ecological Approach for Black Education

The communally bonded education model (CBEM) has emerged from the ongoing need for models and theories that address the social, political, and educational landscape Black people face. Drawing on the legacy of historic Black schools as protective and culturally affirming educational spaces for Black children, Black educational thought, and empirical research, the CBEM is an ecological framework that presents education as a communal endeavor involving people and their culture, histories, identities, institutions, and contexts. Its foundational tenets are: (a) Sankofa , (b) communal teaching and learning spaces, (c) holistic education, (d) the ubiquitous race-caste structure, and (e) intersectional Blackness. Transcending conventional educational reforms and research, I highlight the CBEM’s scholarly, policy, and practice implications for Black people’s educational ecosystems.