Sankofa: Understanding Sierra Leone’s History, Language, and Culture
To Teach Future Generations – is Sankofa’s real time schooling of society.
It involves 13-member Curriculum Development Team that is a consortium of K-12 teachers from high need LEAs, one doctoral student, higher education faculty, and a core curriculum consultant in intensive firsthand learning experiences in Sierra Leone. Sankofa focuses on language and area studies to build knowledge, develop international relationships, and collect materials to be used in the construction of curriculum for K-12 classrooms and pre-service teacher education in the U.S. and possibly Sierra Leone.
The project is directed by Dr. Gloria Boutte with Dr. Susi Long as the co-organizer/participant.
The forenamed individuals are assisted by Host Country Coordinator and a Sierra Leonean scholar, Mr. Amadu Massally.
Participants are required to have a background in culturally relevant teaching and an introductory knowledge of Sierra Leonean connections to cultural tradition in the US. As you may be aware, Sierra Leone has strong connections to the USA, and particularly South Carolina and Georgia.
“They will commit to further study prior to, during, and following the Sierra Leonean trip and to the development and dissemination of related curricula.”
The project is critical not only to education in South Carolina, but to schooling across the U.S. because of direct links between Sierra Leone and the Gullah culture and language of South Carolina as well as the larger African American community across the United States.
This knowledge, while widely reported in professional literature is glaringly absent from curricula in schools and in pre-service teacher education programs.
In Sierra Leone, participants will gain firsthand knowledge to support their development of curricula that (a) reflect the rich resources of Sierra Leonean/African American cultural and linguistic heritage, (b) incorporate global and international perspectives, and (c) support academic achievement for children least well served in U.S. and Sierra Leonean schools, again to the extent possible.
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