African Centered Education

In 'The Miseducation of the Negro', Carter Woodson (2000) argues that the education provided to African-Americans ignored or undervalued African historical experiences, and overvalued European history and culture. This has caused the alienation of African-Americans, who became dissociated from themselves, by ignoring or cutting African-Americans' links with their own culture and traditions. Woodson argued that this type of education has caused African-Americans to reject their own heritage, while positioning them not at the center of European culture, but rather at its margins. Woodson predicted that such an education would result in the psychological and cultural decline of the African-American people.

For Woodson and many others, the solution to this problem could be found in the development of an educational system that responded to African-Americans. This model, built on the traditional African-American colleges, would teach both the history and culture of Africa together with that of the United...
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