Critical Reflection 2

In examining the issues revolving around the education of African youth, it is clear that the students are marginalized and oppressed due to the whiteness of the curriculum of the current schooling system here in Canada. It is hard for me personally to understand the feeling of this oppression as a white male because in school I was taught by this white curriculum in which white history, “successes” and so forth were illustrated resulting in a feeling of empowerment. African youth and those of the many races who attend school in Canada do not gain this feeling of empowerment. They are not taught of the countless contributions and the amount of success reached by people of their race, cannot identify and therefore they are oppressed. Because I am unable to relate, I will look at the issue of African youth failure rates, drop out rates and so forth with scholarly evidence from George J. Sefa Dei and then the interview/ debate on Afro-centric schools and then express my opinion of what may need to be done to move away from this continuing problem.

It is evident that there is a problem within the system in regards to African-Canadian youth education. “Schooling as Community: Race, Schooling, and the Education of African Youth” (Dei, 2008, p. 346-366) provides some illustrating qualitative and quantitative evidence of drop out rates, failure rates and so on. The amount of ethnoracial groups has raised to about 40% in 2001 and the amount of
new youth to Canada that reside in the Toronto area have a high rate of not finishing high school. “High numbers of new youth to Canada who do not complete high school- approximately 46% to 74% in some jurisdictions, while the rate for the general population is much lower at 12% to 25%” (Dei, 2008, p.347). This statistic shows that there is in fact a major problem and Dei continues by linking that problem to alienation among this group “Many newcomers suffer alienation from trying to fit in with a socially devalued identity” (2008, p.347). One might argue that there is only a problem with newcomers to Canada, however the same issues apply to Canadian Aboriginals and Canadian born non-European's who continue to “encounter huge problems in the school system; in the law and legal system; and in the employment sector” (Dei, 2008, p.348).

Since it is clear that people of ethnic backgrounds, Canadian born non-Europeans, non-Europeans who are new to Canada, Aboriginals and basically anybody who is not white are having problems with the white foundations and curriculum of our schooling system. Keeping in mind that I am white and have not experienced this alienation and oppression, I believe that Afro-centric schooling is a move in the right direction for African-Canadian youth. Based on the evidence shown in the interview/ debate on TVO, schools with Afro-centric foundations yield better results for students. I think that they should continue to open schools with this foundation to establish lower drop out rates, better marks and so on for African-Canadians, but the school board should also continue to work on how to incorporate better teachings and curriculum into their system. During this interview/ debate there seemed to be a division of opinion between setting up more Afro-centric schools or bettering the current school system to appeal to African-Canadian youth, but I think that both should be done. While I don’t see this type of school as backwards or a form of segregation like some might, I think that the “end game” so to speak should still be to have a school system that functions with beneficial results to all races. This is to say that Afro-centered schools should continue to open doors in more areas and accommodate more students and at the same time the Toronto school board should reform and make a major transformation to meet the demands of every individual who may attend. In my opinion, our goal should be to seek an education system in which people of all races, religion, and so on can go together and yield an equal education.

Sefa Dei, G. J (2007) Schooling as Community: Race Schooling, and the Education of African Youth. Journal of Black Studies, 38, 346-366. doi: 10.1177/0021934707306570