The Africa-America Institute (AAI) is hosting its 6th Annual State of Education on Africa Conference (SOE) on Friday, November 13th, 2020 and will examine issues that are very important to the education agenda for Detroit and children generally. The theme for this 6th annual conference is “Teaching Africa:” A 21st Century, Anti-racist Agenda that Promotes Equity and Achievement in K-12 Education,” and the aim is to gather in solidarity with the global Black Lives Matter movement.
Tonya Allen, CEO of the Skillman Foundation, will be speaking, and school leaders from the University Preparatory/Detroit 90/90 schools will be featured. Other notable speakers include Dr. Janice Jackson, CEO of the Chicago Public Schools and Patrick Gaspard, President, Open Society Foundations.
The SOE conference will bring together a diverse group of knowledgeable and caring scholars and practitioners. They will explore the urgency, challenges, and transformative potential of “teaching Africa”—as a culturally responsive pedagogical approach to nurturing the high academic achievement and wellbeing of K-12 students.
There is no charge for participants to attend the SOE conference. The link for registration is: https://bit.ly/32Dp5YC
A wide and diverse audience is being invited—journalists, educators, scholars, students, parents, social justice activists, policy leaders, foundation program officers, philanthropists, and anyone else—based in the United States and in Africa—who cares about anti-racism, equity, and achievement in elementary and secondary education.
SOE conference participants can expect to:
1) Examine the centrality of Africa and African Descendants to the well-being of the human family and our world;
2) Learn why students should be taught in ways that dislodge and preclude misinformed and distorted perceptions of Africa; and
3) Receive practical information about educational resources and tools that make transformative teaching and learning about Africa and the worldwide African Diaspora feasible.
Other notable SOE conference speakers include:
➢Michael A. Gomez, PhD, Silver Professor of History and Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at New York University, and author of (inter alia) Reversing Sail: A History of the African Diaspora (New Approaches to African History)
➢ Theresa Perry, Professor Emerita of Africana Studies and Education, Simmons University, and co-author of (inter alia) Young, Gifted and Black: Promoting High Achievement Among African-American Students
➢ Brenda Randolph, founding director of Africa Access and African Studies Association Outreach Council coordinator
➢ Joe Truss, principal of Visitation Mission School in San Francisco and founder, Culturally Responsive Leadership
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