AN ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY OF BLACK STUDENTS LEARNING ABOUT AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY: IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING

Abstract

The value of Black students knowing about their history has been well-established within the scholarly literature on the teaching and learning of African American history. There is a paucity of empirical studies, however, that examine how exposure to this knowledge informs students’ historical and contemporary understandings. Framed by the theory of collective memory, the purpose of this study was to investigate how two teachers’ contrasting representations of African American history shaped student’ understanding of the Black past and its relationship to the experiences of Black Americans today. To examine this, I conducted an ethnographic study at two school sites that each required students to complete a year-long course on African American history. The participants in this study were two groups of Black high school students and their respective African American history teacher. Analysis of data derived from classroom observations, student and teacher interviews and curricular artifacts (e.g., reading materials, handouts, assessments and writing samples) indicate that teachers’ representations of African American history shaped students’ understandings in distinctive ways. This study contributes to the existing literature by examining students’ interpretations of the Black experience in relation to two teachers’ competing narratives on the meaning and significance of African American history. Findings from this study suggest that we must go beyond advocating for inclusion of African American history curricula and work toward ensuring this is being taught in a way that is relevant and meaningful for students.