Teaching K-8 students about race: African Americans, racism, & the struggle for social justice in the U.S.

TLDR: The authors argue that the current situation exemplified by limited textbook content about race, racism, and social justice, unless supplemented with other critical texts or additional knowledge presented by the teacher, yet it is likely employed unquestioningly by many teachers (both White or Black) as they enter and serve in our schools.

Abstract: Keffrelyn D. Brown and Anthony L. Brown are assistant professors in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction of the College of Education at the University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas. curriculum and the implications of these representations on understanding these groups’ current experiences. Additionally, targeting textbook knowledge, or what is also often referred to as the official curriculum, illuminates or veils the material interests gained by and the role central actors have played in past events of racial injustice. This knowledge also informs us about the long-term effects of such histories. Thus, what makes the history curriculum a central space for debating issues of representation, national history, and race is that most if not all U.S. citizens are expected at one time or another to read, sing, and learn a common narrative of American history in school. The history curriculum, then, becomes a central apparatus through which to narrate a racial group’s past and frames what we know of their contributions to the national imaginary. In light of these factors, another persistent concern raised about the history curriculum relates to the effect such knowledge has on African Americans themselves. From this historical trajectory, we note how the history curriculum has played a prominent role in the way discourses of race and racial injustice are presented in schools. We argue that the current situation exemplified by limited textbook content about race, racism, and social justice—unless supplemented with other critical texts or additional knowledge presented by the teacher—is inadequate, yet it is likely employed unquestioningly by many teachers (both White or Black) as they enter and serve in our schools. Given these long-standing problems and the contentious debate surrounding curricular knowledge about African Americans and its relationship to teaching and learning about race, the basic question we pose is: How then should teachers approach race and social justice in the classroom? Introduction