Health, Wellness, and History: Enhancing Self-Perceptions for Black Students through Revolutionary Approaches to Education

Abstract

24 | BLACK HISTORY BULLETIN VOL. 84, NO. 2 84 No.2 HEALTH, WELLNESS, AND HISTORY: ENHANCING SELFPERCEPTIONS FOR BLACK STUDENTS THROUGH REVOLUTIONARY APPROACHES TO EDUCATION By Erin Lewis and Annette Teasdell Harmful and inequitable curricular and pedagogical practices in US schools are detrimental to Black students.1 School discipline disproportionality, low expectations, and deficit perspectives of Black students and their achievement often lead to school-based trauma and psychological distress.2 Subsequently, discussions regarding school-related mental health issues in the Black community have increased. There has also been a growing body of research on the socioemotional well-being of Black students in regard to racial trauma and other adverse experiences related to school and home life.3 In light of these developments, this article applies the theoretical framework of critical race structuralism (CRS) as it investigates schooling experiences and overall health and wellness among African Americans. Specifically, CRS analyzes racial and ethnic relations in social and institutional systems in terms of the intersections of race, culture, gender, and social structures.4 As such, this article addresses the following research question: How can revolutionary approaches to teaching history and social studies foster positive self-concept and enhance self-efficacy among Black students? In the context of this paper, revolutionary pedagogy (RP) is defined as a “philosophy of education that seeks to overturn ordinary thinking, methods, and practices of creating and delivering knowledge to children by employing Africological, Kemetological, and rhetorical techniques to reset the instructional focus for children .”5 RP advocates for teaching as a tool to nurture positive school identities and encouraging emancipation from oppression through critical consciousness. In the context of CRS and RP, self-concept and self-efficacy among Black students are directly related to wellness. Self-Concept, Self-Efficacy, and Wellness Self-concept can be defined as the way a person sees themselves, which influences their behavior, cognition, and mental health.6 Relatedly, self-efficacy refers to a person’s belief in their ability to navigate various situations while completing a course of action.7 Self-efficacy also impacts the way people think and how they are motivated. Self-concept and self-efficacy are crucial to human development, and they shape thoughts, actions, and emotions, which impact school achievement and engagement. These aspects of a person’s self-concept have broad implications for overall health and wellness, which generally refers to the well-being of the entire person (mental, physical, emotional, etc.).8 As such, health and wellness have been integrated into educational practices to nurture positive development of adolescents, as socialemotional learning is linked to improved academic and life outcomes.9 Self-concept, self-efficacy, and school identity are elements of overall health and wellness that schools must nurture to foster students’ growth and development. In consideration of the COVID-19 pandemic and in light of CRS, it is imperative to address health and wellness among African American students, who are generally underserved by public schools. Deficit Narratives and Black Students’ Identities Deficit perspectives of African Americans, which are proliferated in the US and generally around the world, have devastating effects on school-aged youth.10 Although most BLACK HISTORY BULLETIN VOL. 84, NO. 2 | 25 84 No.2 Black students are particularly resilient, schools can become enriching places of care.11 While supporting positive identities and mediating underachievement, culturally responsive teaching and anti-racist curricula can help disrupt the harmful effects of miseducation and curriculum violence, meaning the deliberate manipulation of educational content that compromises the intellectual and psychological well-being of learners.12 In terms of CRS, curriculum and lesson planning that supports positive self-knowledge and self-concept can nurture qualities that are needed to persist in schools and society .13 Revolutionary Approaches to History and Social Studies In this sense, by helping Black students excel academically and personally, revolutionary approaches to history and social studies courses foster positive self-concept and self-efficacy. These revolutionary approaches include teaching strategies that center students while supporting the following tenets: 1) human beings originated in Africa; 2) all humans migrated to other parts of the world from Africa; and 3) Africans made significant contributions to and in some cases were pioneers of geometry, medicine...