Abstract
Current and former students of two professors in a southern research university and a community educator, all participants in an African-centered research collaborative/apprenticeship, describe what and how we study together and our struggle to use our knowledge and research in service to our community. We uplift the works of key Pan-African/Black/Africana Studies/Nile Valley scholars to illustrate the African epistemic foundation of our collaborative/apprenticeship. We describe how we utilized the methodology of narrative inquiry to explore our experiences as participants in the HeKA (Heritage Knowledge in Action) research collaborative and how HeKA has provided ways of knowing and being centered in our culture and heritage. We present our findings, which include some of the dilemmas of Black doctoral students and emerging scholars engaged in HeKA and how this collaborative/apprenticeship serves as an emancipatory praxis to enable the next generation to realize their goals of partisan research and pedagogy in higher education.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 188-209 |
Number of pages | 22 |
Journal | International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education |
Volume | 32 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Feb 7 2019 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Since joining HeKA, my enlightenment continues to flourish. I have been awakened and have an avid desire to do and learn more and with greater tenacity than ever before. I began my experience in HeKA by reviewing two films that Professor King wanted to consider using for a new course: Stolen Education (Alemán, & Luna, 2013) and Skin Deep (Reid, 1995). Several of us involved in HeKa were also engaged in co-developing and supporting this course focused on social justice and student success, which was supported by a grant from the Association of Public Land Grant Universities. Later, this task came back full circle when she tasked me and another HeKA doctoral student to collaborate on developing and co-teaching a lesson using popular and critical media for that same class. This teaching experience also afforded me the opportunity to learn-by-doing in a way that is not traditionally employed in educational settings. In the same space and time as a volunteer participant in this course alongside the undergraduate, masters, and other doctoral students enrolled who were pursuing degrees in different programs across the university, I also experienced the lessons that guest professors from various fields of study taught in the course. This is just one of the ways that HeKA has been integral to my intellectual and professional growth.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Keywords
- African-centered pedagogy
- Black education
- Partisan research
- higher education
- narrative inquiry
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Education