Assessing womanist thought: The rhetoric of Susan L. Taylor

This essay focuses on the rhetoric of Susan L. Taylor, communications director and former editor of Essence, a national magazine targeted to African American women. Taylor is also the author of the magazine's monthly column, “In the Spirit.” Her monthly columns focusing on African American women's empowerment epitomize the tenets of womanist epistemology and methodology and therefore are worthy of scholarly attention.     

《紫颜色》之非洲生态女性主义解读

艾丽斯.沃克关注的焦点是性别问题,同时她也是一位有着强烈生态意识的女作家。作为一个非裔美国人,她看待问题的视角又有别于美国白人。从以非洲为中心的生态女性主义的角度去解读沃克的代表作《紫颜色》,有利于充分理解沃克和她的生态女性主义思想。     

The Illusion of Inclusion

Abstract

CSWE standards pertaining to diversity have been criticized for being vague and impotent (Hooyman,1995). A pattern in social work education of “diversity by numbers” has emerged in which the emphasis is placed on the representation of certain groups on the faculty, the staff, the student body, and the curriculum. There exists an illusion of inclusion, in which the curriculum, personnel and students are desegregated. However, the school's culture has yet to be transformed to the stage of institutional development in which equitable treatment for all members is a primary goal and diversity is a driving force which permeates organizational life. This analysis explores the challenges associated with conceptualizing and infusing diversity, specifically as it relates to race and ethnicity, throughout social work programs. The symbolic interactionism theoretical perspective is used to interpret the experiences of African American faculty in predominately white schools of social work. An African-centered perspective of organizational functioning is suggested as a strategy to transform the illusion of diversity into a reality in social work education.     

Legitimate Peripheral Participation (LPP) – The case for Recognition of Prior Learning sites and knowledges in South Africa's transforming education system

By definition and purpose, education is the development of human capital towards meeting the individual and social needs of learners and their societies. This transdisciplinary collaboration parallels the underpinning principle of Lave and Wenger's Legitimate Peripheral Participation (Lave & Wenger, 1990) to South Africa's post-colonial legitimation of alternative sites and enskilment canons. Central to both is legitimation of knowledge acquisition from communities of practice or sites and ‘knowers’ (Mphahlele, 1992) ‘outside formal institutions’ of teaching/learning. Considered and termed ‘informal’ and by deduction, less legitimate for meritorious enskilment, the 62 and 65 decrees a transformative paradigm and method of validating these sites and their skills production. SAQA highlights the fact that the pedagogical approach of such sites is context- and learner-centred with demonstrable socially valuable skills. This post-colonial mandate thus centres the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) as an acknowledgement of multiple foci of skills production, decreeing their overdue certification, as in our case study of the Van Wyk situation. The approach confronts and deconstructs the colonial marginalisation of human capital from outside ‘formal’/official institutions. It is part of the ideological framework of redressing the race and class exclusion mechanisms of artisans and others from the landscape of skills possession. It subscribes therefore to the canon of different ‘ways of knowing’ (Mosala, 1998). Van Wyk's narrative exemplify the merits of ‘outside-institutions’ learning and enskilment to various levels of complexity. The objective of such legitimation is that certification provides credibility and legitimacy, thereby widening the marketability of apprentices' skills. The social recognition and accorded certification thereof carries uncontested confirmation of expertise.     

Community,love, and culture: pedagogical insights for Black students in White spaces

Abstract

To address the tension between public education norms and the lived experiences of racially marginalized students, this study examines how Brother to Sister (BTS), a community group, promotes sense of belonging and college access among Black high school students using the school as a primary dialogical space. Specifically, through qualitative assessment, this study interprets the pedagogy of Brother to Sister through narrative accounts of how the organization functioned in the lives of its members. As experienced by participants, BTS enacts culturally centered pedagogy and African-centered education to promote personal development and community enrichment outcomes.