Thesis (M. A. (Psychology)) --University of Limpopo, 2017 / This study investigated the perceptions of African families of TBI. Caregivers and TBI victims were given the opportunity to talk about their TBI perceptions. The study revealed that people’s knowledge of TBI is not good. This is proven by the way in which the participants understood and explained the conditions the victims found themselves in, after the accidents and how their family members are. Findings reveal that culture does play a vital role in the perceptions of African people. The study illustrates that the perceptions are culturally-rooted. The study interviewed five individuals (n=5) with TBI and a total of nine caregivers (n=9) were interviewed. A total of fourteen (n=14) participants were interviewed. The study reveals that the causes of TBI were attributed a number of things. According to the participants TBI is caused by witchcraft, the will of God and ancestors. The study also helped highlight the beliefs and the cultural system of Africans. It also explained the reality of an African. The Afrocentric theory helped shape the study as it helped in explaining the importance of an Africans’ view. The Afrocentric theory postulates that Africans have a different reality from that of Westerns and it has been proven by the findings. Although the participants were told about TBI by the doctors, they still had their own explanations and attributions to the problem.

Although extensive quantitative research has been conducted on Black American incarceration rates, to date, there has not been a study from an Afrocentric (Black American) perspective in the field of public policy. Using Dillard's conceptualization of Afrocentric theory, this study added to the field of public policy by examining how the stigmas associated with mass incarceration have reduced political and economic opportunities for Black Americans born 1965 - 1984. The purpose of this ethnographic study was to provide an Afrocentric voice by which the members of the Black American community are the center of the data collection on the stigmas associated with incarceration as a product of the new Jim Crow (mass incarceration) for those born between 1965 -1984 (the hip-hop generation where the music is the center of the culture) in the United States. Data were collected through semistructured interviews with selected informants based on their background work, experience, and cultural orientation within the Black American community; these data were analyzed via a summative content analysis, which revealed new perspectives on the stigmas associated with incarceration. The new perspective that was gained asked for the structure of the Black American church to be reexamined due to the rise in the mega-church, an improved culturally sensitive K-12 public educational system, and the overall reconnection and strengthening of the Black American family structure. These findings suggest that social change can only occur when researchers of color are allowed to provide their perspectives on issues that affect those they represent. Hence, the social change implications for this study ask that political leaders work directly with the hip-hop generation and the Black American community as a whole to make changes in legislation through political liberalism.

How do magazines that target the Black community represent Black/African American female beauty within a society that pushes a Eurocentric beauty ideal? Are these publications affected by the dominant ideal, do they resist the ideal with their own Afrocentric beauty standards, or do they find some type of compromise between the two? In this thesis, I propose that these publications present a compromise between Eurocentric and Afrocentric ideals but to the detriment of Black/African American women. To investigate my research questions, I conducted a content analysis of the advertisements in three periods of time, 1968, 1988, and 2008, in three lifestyle /news magazines that target the Black community: Jet, Essence, and Ebony. I looked at the beauty ideals represented in all three magazines by focusing on the hair type, skin color, and body shape and size of the Black/African American women portrayed. In addition I examined the historical context that supported the creation of these publications and these specific gendered and raced representations.Through a compromise between society’s dominant Eurocentric beauty ideal and an alternative Afrocentric ideal, these magazines participated in a trade-off, in which features and aesthetics of both communities were represented by Black women in advertisements. While the typical interpretation of this analysis might focus solely on the positive attributes of these representations, I argue that these representations are harmful to Black female readers because they circumscribe what constitutes Black female beauty while at the same time reinforcing negative ideas about physical attributes that are deemed “too Black” by the dominant ideals of a Eurocentric society.

The purpose of this research was to investigate ways classical composers of African descent have been included in the mainstream academic canon. I examined the insights of four scholars who have been committed to including classical composers of African descent throughout their music careers. The initial research questions of this study were: 1) How do participants describe their frameworks for making the commitment to include classical composers of African descent throughout their careers? 2) What have been the challenges and benefits associated with their commitment? 3) What might contemporary scholars view as strategies for integrating classical composers of African descent into the mainstream academic canon? Four musicians, who have contributed to the scholarship related to classical works by composers of African descent in very different ways, participated in this qualitative collective case study: Dr. Ysaye Maria Barnwell, a composer and performer; Dr. Dominique-Rene de Lerma, musicologist; Dr. Anthony Thomas Leach, educator, conductor, and organist; and Mr. Hannibal Lokumbe, composer, trumpeter, and visionary. Through two in-depth interviews with each of the four scholars, a related question emerged: How have the participants contributed to the inclusion of classical composers of African descent throughout professional careers and personal lives? I transcribed the interviews, returned them to the participants for member checks, and prepared final, revised transcripts based on their feedback for analysis. I examined the interview data to obtain a collective representation related to the research questions. I analyzed the data for emerging codes, categories, and themes until details considered substantive to the research emerged. Themes that emerged focused on the need to identify the importance of seeing the contributions for classical composers of African descent from an Afrocentric as well as a Eurocentric perspective; the impact of the Civil Rights Movement on how each participant engaged the music throughout their lives; the importance of informal and formal education and the roles family, community, and school played in their relationship with the music they shared; and, the significance of creating access to their works through publications and professional associations. / Music Education

The racialized realities faced by Black students provide an impetus to examine the controversy over Canada's first Africentric Alternative School, approved on January 29, 2008 by the Toronto District School Board. Newspaper articles, editorials and letters to the editor, as well as speeches by delegations and trustees, provide a rich snapshot of the arguments put forth in the heated political debate. Through the lens of equity and critical race theory, the diverse and divergent stances taken by both proponents and opponents of the school are analysed and understood. A conceptual framework of hidden and public transcripts (Scott, 1990) is used to distinguish arguments that reflect on the lived experiences of Black students from those that reiterate the dominant discourses of liberal democratic societies. The findings emerge as three opposing sets of themes that reveal a transcript reflective of the ongoing salience of racism within ostensibly liberal claims to racial equality.

The racialized realities faced by Black students provide an impetus to examine the controversy over Canada's first Africentric Alternative School, approved on January 29, 2008 by the Toronto District School Board. Newspaper articles, editorials and letters to the editor, as well as speeches by delegations and trustees, provide a rich snapshot of the arguments put forth in the heated political debate. Through the lens of equity and critical race theory, the diverse and divergent stances taken by both proponents and opponents of the school are analysed and understood. A conceptual framework of hidden and public transcripts (Scott, 1990) is used to distinguish arguments that reflect on the lived experiences of Black students from those that reiterate the dominant discourses of liberal democratic societies. The findings emerge as three opposing sets of themes that reveal a transcript reflective of the ongoing salience of racism within ostensibly liberal claims to racial equality.

The purpose of this life history qualitative study was to explore the Counter-Life Herstories of African American women faculty in U.S. Computing Education. Counter-Life Herstories are derived from Counterstories, life histories, and herstories as powerful social justice tools to uncover hidden truths about marginalized groups’ experiences. Through the collection of timelines, counter-life story interviews, and reflective journal writings, I co-constructed and interpreted the Counter-Life Herstories of five participants using an integrative conceptual framework that included critical race theory and Black feminist thought as interpretive frameworks, and Afrocentric feminist epistemology to govern my knowledge validation process. As an emerging African American woman scholar, with a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, I have a “unique angle of vision” to situate African American women’s distinctive educational experiences in the social-political context of U.S. Computing Education. In this study, I build upon limited knowledge about African American women’s experiences throughout U.S. Computing Education. My discoveries indicated unequivocally that my participants’ persistence in U.S. Computing Education was not solely based on their early positive reinforcements or strong academic preparation, but their resilience and ability to bounce back from insurmountable barriers, such as negative stereotypes and biases. This inquiry directly supports the U.S.’ national interest to diversify the Computing workforce, while revealing hidden truths about African American women’s experiences in U.S. Computing Education.

Department of African Studies / PhD (African Studies) / One of the contemporary themes which dominated discourse in the education fraternity is the integration of IKS in the curriculum of South African education system. There is a growing call for the recognition of contribution by locals and indigenous societies in making education relevant to African children. The aim of the study was to explore the viability of integrating indigenous knowledge into Life Orientation (LO) Curriculum in the intermediate phase. Objectives were to explore Indigenous Knowledge that could be integrated into LO Curriculum in the intermediate phase and to generate knowledge exchange platforms where community and other stakeholders could be involved in the discussion about Indigenous Knowledge integration. A qualitative method and an exploratory-interpretive approach were adopted in the study. Data were gathered through focus group discussions. Data analysis and field notes were clustered thematically. The study indicated that, to integrate Indigenous Knowledge into LO effectively, it could require a shift from the western knowledge focused curriculum taking into cognisance the knowledge of the local inhabitants. The study showed that the integration of Indigenous Knowledge in the South African school curriculum in LO will bring new life into the content and the delivery of tuition. Although there were opportunities to integrate indigenous knowledge in the curriculum, educators felt that the curriculum does not create sufficient space, time and training for the integration of indigenous knowledge. Some of the reasons put forward were that there was inadequate content knowledge on Indigenous Knowledge integration, inadequate support and insufficient allocation of resources. Without a deliberate educator capacity development focusing on indigenous knowledge systems, the viability of IKS integration remains questionable. This is exacerbated by the growing discouragement of Indigenous Knowledge amongst the parents who also felt that there is no practical relevance for IKS in the current education trajectory. Vigorous efforts need to be executed to fast track the process of integrating Indigenous Knowledge in teaching LO in the intermediate phase.

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The purpose of the study was two-fold. First, the study explored how self-identified Afrocentrist professors in higher education utilized Afrocentric pedagogy and andragogy to address the learning needs of students, specifically Black women students. Second, the study explored the ways in which Black women students experienced that learning in the higher education classroom. The purpose was advanced through an in-depth analysis of Afrocentric teaching and learning in the higher education. A sample of five self-identified Afrocentric faculty members - three females and two males - and five Black women students who studied with those professors was identified. Participants were interviewed individually in-person and by telephone. Data analysis resulted in the themes of the importance of living an Afrocentric life in which the African body is centered and elevated, rejection of European dominance and universalism, re-routing history, and introducing Afrocentricity as a methodology from which to analyze human life. These themes presented core values, approaches, practices and characteristics utilized in Afrocentric teaching. Findings also showed that the Black women student participants received multiple benefits from receiving an Afrocentric education that assisted them in their journeys through higher education. Study findings provided a foundation for the guidebook "Teach Me, Toward Me Kuongoza, "a tool for educators who choose to explore the Afrocentric journey, and for those who are curious about Afrocentricity's intent. The guidebook may be utilized by higher education institutions with a commitment to the academic lives of their Black students as well as those of diverse cultural backgrounds.