Blurring the Borders: Voices of African Liberatory Pedagogy in the United States and Canada

Abstract

The 1983 report of the Commission on Excellence in Education declared that the United States was a Nation at Risk because of its mediocre educational system. Since then we have seen a spate of follow-up reports and improvement efforts commonly referred to as the educational reform movement. This effort, designed to improve the quality of education at every level, has virtually bypassed students of color (Quality Education for Minorities Project, 1990). Most noticeable among those the reform movement has overlooked are Afro-North American students* At the same time that education has placed the United States at risk, both African-American and African-Canadian youngsters have been defined as the at-risk.