Educating African American and African Canadian Youth

1
Educating African American and African Canadian
Youth

• Disturbing Trends Across Borders the USA and
  Canada
• Some of the Problems
• Some of the Solutions.

2
2001/2002 Graduation RatesSchitt Foundation for
Public Education (2004)
3
Toronto Board of Education (1991)

• Students at risk of dropping out
• 36 blacks
• 26 whites
• 18 Asians
• Basic and General Level
• 28 of the entire student body
• 45 blacks

4
Problems Facing African Canadian Students

• 1.High school streaming and low teacher
  expectation
• 2. Stigmatizing of black immigrant youth
• 3. Assumptions about class and stereotypes of
• the black family
• 4. An increasing criminalization of black youth,
• especially boys
• 5. The safe schools act and
• 6. The curriculum and erasure of a historical
  black presence in Canada

5
George Dei

• . . . We must intensify the struggle to make
  Canadian schools more inclusive, governed by a
  set of principles that stress power-sharing with
  all stakeholders in the educational system.
  Canadian schools must speak to, and act on, the
  diversity of experiences, histories and
  knowledges that have shaped, and continue to
  shape, human growth and development (Listening
  to Voices 53).