Suchergebnisse

This article discusses the concept of "suahunu" as the "trialectic space" and highlights its key principles and ideas as part of the project of pioneering new analytical systems for understanding Indigenous communities. The concept is borrowed from the lexicon of the Akan people of Ghana, with the embedded meaning that if one is seriously about learning, one will come to know and acquire knowledge and act responsibly. The article also raises lessons for the ways we produce and validate knowledge for social action and practice. In the discussion, the ideas embodying the "trialectic space" (e.g., body-mind-soul interconnections, culture-society-nature interface, sacredness of activity, spiritually centered space, ancestralism, embodied connection, decolonization, and multicentricity) are fleshed out, pointing to the implications for revisioning schooling and education globally for contemporary learners.

Punctuated with terms such as at risk, dropout, and disadvantaged, Western educational discourse is replete with euphemisms for the reasons that Black youth underachieve or fail in school. This article highlights some of the contemporary developments in Ontario, Canada, focusing on issues of African Canadian education. Pertinent issues of sociological and historical relevance are discussed, with implications for education in the contemporary schooling context. Education must cultivate a sense of identity within culture and community, while working with ancestral cultural knowledge retentions. This calls for a revisioning of the educational system in public schools so as to (a) introduce a more effective method of teaching diverse youth, (b) create spaces where the needs of the most disadvantaged are seriously and concretely addressed (and not glossed over), (c) promote schools with strong ties to the community, and (d) help learners build their self-, collective, and cultural identities within an environment of social excellence.