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Teaching About Africa South of the Sahara in American Secondary Schools -- A Survey and a Challenge*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

Barry K. Beyer
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Extract

The study of Africa south of the Sahara in American secondary schools has traditionally been most conspicuous by its absence. In fact, the secondary-school social studies curriculum, oriented as it has always been to the study of western civilization, has rarely allowed for the study of any nonwestern region or culture, least of all that of the “Dark Continent.” Now, however, this situation is changing, and changing rapidly. Considerable efforts are being made today to introduce the study of the Non-West into the curricula of many secondary schools. And, for a variety of reasons, an increasing number of schools are making special efforts to include Africa south of the Sahara in this study.

These efforts, however, are proving a difficult, if not insurmountable, challenge for most teachers and curriculum builders. Few, indeed, are the social studies teachers and supervisors with the academic training or extended living experience in the lands below the Sahara required to provide the insights upon which a worthwhile study of this region can be structured. Most schools do not have ready access to the advice of Africaniste on this subject. Even worthwhile printed guidelines for designing a study of this region are sorely lacking; with the exception of Leonard Kenworthy's Studying Africa in Elementary and Secondary Schools (10), there is not a single book, pamphlet, handbook, or curriculum guide to which teachers may profitably turn for help.

Type
Research Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , April 1968 , pp. 18 - 27
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1968

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Footnotes

*

The author is director of Project Africa, A Social Studies Curriculum Development Project at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. The research reported herein and in the following article was performed pursuant to a contract with the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Office of Education.

References

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