Echoes from the Mountains: Capturing and Recalling Memories of the Climb, Ascension and Extension of the J. S. Chick African Centered Education Shule (School) Model, Methodology and Instructional Practice, 1998–2012

Abstract

This research sought to better understand how the instructional foundations for J. S. Chick African Centered School [Shule] from 1998 to 2012 used a culturally relevant learning model to motivate and inspire African American learners. It is suggested that the instructional learning framework for this school is based upon previous cultural learning approaches that construct collective cultural deep-identity and establishes educational efficacy to build self-determination. The research questions embedded in this study explore the historical trajectory of previous cultural school methods that constitute intergenerational practices consistent with previous methods, goals, and standards in Black Educational Excellence. African American learners considered as minorities within public K-12 school systems often face educational disparity, racial alienation, and social fragmentation that potentially further disadvantage or marginalize these students’ future school success. This research explored what is believed to be an existing relationship in cultural learning success and schools that adhere to social values and emanating culturally responsive connections to learning. The significance of this research study is to examine intergenerational educational concepts that correlate these instructional principles to preexisting African traditional learning structures, and determine whether these institutions and structures were transferable across time and space through the instructional legacies and oral histories found in cultural memory.