The ABCs of Education for Liberation: A Primer on Radical Pedagogy

Introduction

For the Black community, education is the primary vessel for the actualization of liberation (Williamson, 2005). Black intellectuals have submitted that liberatory schooling is the best way to serve Black American emancipation and freedom (Alridge, 2008; Du Bois, 1903; hooks, 1994). Historically, Black teachers were not interested in economic advancement but “increasing racial awareness, pride, and knowledge of White racism and discrimination” (Kelly, 2010 p.332). Unlike the classrooms Kelly describes, schooling in the United States has been, and continues to be, a hegemonic process of indoctrination and oppression for all students, not just students of color (Four Arrows, 2013). Moreover, Anglo¹ powerholders have shown their desire to dominate Blacks and other groups through multiple layers of oppression. Simultaneously, policymakers, school administrators, and many teachers who consciously or unconsciously take part in this oppression have worked to convince Blacks that their cultural heritage and African identity has been lost. Freire (1970) refers to this oppressive hegemony as “cultural inauthenticity,” wherein the oppressed adopt the norms and values of their oppressors (p. 134).