MSVU students await the beginning of the graduation ceremony on Sunday. (Photo: Colin Parrott)
Africentric education grads make history
Making a connection with African Canadian youth might seem like an insurmountable task, but education students at Mount Saint Vincent University could be a part of the solution.
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(0) CommentsTwenty students from Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax have become pioneers in Canadian education.
Graduates of the Master’s of Education in Lifelong Learning program, a program focused on contemporary learning challenges, crossed the stage during the university’s fall convocation on Sunday.
What makes these students unique was their focus on Africentric education – education that keeps the needs of black students at the forefront. The graduates say it’s a demographic that has faced challenges in the Nova Scotia education system.
The program is the first of its kind in Canada. It is a result of a partnership between the university and the Council for African Canadian Education, and part of the recommendations put forth by the 1994 Black Learners Advisory Committee Report. That report illustrated a crumbling state of education for black children in Nova Scotia and put forth suggestions to mend the problem.
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Kesa Munroe-Anderson gives her valedictorian address at MSVU Sunday afternoon. (Photo: Colin Parrott)
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BLAC Report by the numbers
4.1 million total from provincial government, which includes:
- $80,000 to expand adult programming
- $50,000 for youth leadership programs
- $156,000 to aid Africentric Learning Institute
- $310,000 to hire eight new student-support workers
- $30,000 to increase parental involvement in education system
- $1.1 million for research into “effective educational strategies”
- $500,000 one-time investment in African Nova Scotia Education Foundation
- $200,000 for school boards to support race-relations
(All figures courtesy of www.gov.ns.ca)
Students of the program approach education from an African Canadian perspective – a perspective some believe to be more beneficial to black students than the approach that most schools in the province practice.
Tracey Thomas, who graduated from the two-year program on Sunday, described the current atmosphere for black students in what she called a Eurocentric school system.
“I would describe it as not seeing yourself in the materials,” said Thomas. “You would see yourself at only one period of time, Black History Month, which would usually just cover a pretty dominant, and negative, aspect of it.”
“As a person of African descent, it’s actually life-changing to go through the whole program and have content that is relevant for you.”
Delvina Bernard, executive director of the council, said the achievements of the graduates are a step forward, but there is “a tremendous way to go yet.” The situation for black education in Nova Scotia, she said, has actually gotten worse since the release of the BLAC report 14 years ago, which was harshly critical of the Nova Scotia education system.
“You look at the times right now, the way that pop culture influences all learners, and especially African Nova Scotian learners, and has usurped a lot of the attention and detail that people should be paying to their educational achievement,” said Bernard.
“So now, we’re not just fighting with the issue of race and cultural challenges, we’re also having to maintain the focus of young people in the face of pop culture, which is very anti-intellectual, anti-educational.”
Another part of the problem, said Bernard, is the lack of available resources needed to tackle the inequality.
“In order to do these things, it costs money. It’s difficult in hard financial times to just gather up 20 people and say ‘come to our master’s program’. We would not have had those 20 people walk across the stage if we hadn’t had the resources to make it happen.”
Those resources seem to have been trickling in steadily over the last few years. In 2003, the province allocated $4.1 million to implement more of the recommendations of the BLAC report. One of those recommendations was the funding of scholarships for programs such as the one at Mount Saint Vincent.
That commitment was rounded out in 2007 with a $1.8 million boost from the province, which saw the creation of the African Nova Scotian Education Foundation, and provided more funding for the Africentric Learning Institute, and human rights initiatives.
For now, the graduates say the program has equipped them with the tools to approach Africentric learning anew. Some, like valedictorian Kesa Munroe-Anderson, say they will continue to work in their communities or pursue doctorates. One student, Crystal Mulder, said she will use her education to help black Nova Scotians of all ages.
“My focus is primarily adult learners,” said Mulder. “I’m looking at how we teach them, and how we teach them African history and African culture in a way that places them in the centre – that it’s not just an academic pursuit but it’s something that belongs to them.”
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