Intellectual Leadership and the Influence of Early African American Scholars on Multicultural Education

Abstract

Key aspects of multicultural education and early African American scholarship are selectively examined to broaden, deepen, and refine our understanding of the link between the transformative nature of multicultural education and early African American scholarship. The exploration of the roots of multicultural education provides a basis for understanding contemporary issues in multicultural education within a historical context. Intellectual leadership is one of the most significant ways in which multicultural education and early African American scholarship are linked. Intellectual leadership is characterized by knowledge that is connected to action and societal reform. Early African American scholars exercised intellectual leadership by challenging the meta-narrative, by encouraging perspective taking, and by providing an intellectual foundation for questioning the status quo and building a just society. Scholars in multicultural education are continuing those activities as they exercise intellectual leadership in a contemporary context.