Repositioning the Profession: Teaching Writing to African American Students.

Abstract

I begin this essay by urging writing teachers of all backgrounds to face higher education's continuing inability to meet the needs of African American students (see both Brooks and Ogbu for a sense of some of these problems as they relate to literacy). Because literacy?in the form of placement and proficiency tests and required writing courses?frequently works to exclude African American students, our greatest obligation is to transform literacy education for these students. Incumbent in this transformation is the reconception of African American literacy and writing pedagogy in more deeply understood cultural and historical contexts. Afro-American literary theory provides fertile ground for this reconception to begin.