Curricular Violence and the Education of Black Children: Working Toward Positive Peace Through Pro-Black Practices

Abstract

This article responds to the endemic, intergenerational, and pervasive racism endured by Black children in the USA and the need to reimagine classrooms as cultures of peace where Black histories, literatures, accomplishment, oppression, resistance, resilience, and joy are taught as central to the curriculum. To do so, the article shares a five-year study of practices developed by 12 teachers working with university educators to construct Pro-Black pedagogy for children from ages five-to-nine. The article opens with descriptions of renewed efforts in the USA to ban books and deny the teaching of whole histories and how that constitutes curricular violence in the lives of Black students. The study is anchored in Black Critical Theory as it encompasses understandings of anti-and Pro-Blackness in the education of young children. With decolonizing methodologies guiding data collection, analysis, and representation, findings are shared in the form of (a) practices used by the teachers to help students grow in their understanding of Black brilliance, resistance, and resilience; (b) tensions encountered; and (c) positive outcomes. The article closes with implications to guide the examination of curriculum and school structures as an essential element in Pro-Black curricular transformation.