African Traditional and Oral Literature as Pedagocal Tools in Content Area Classrooms, K-12 (Hc)

For a long time, many American educators and educational stakeholders havedrawn their ideas for educational reforms from ideas generated in Europe andAsia for the changing demographics of America’s diverse classrooms. Thisbook is therefore motivated by a bold attempt at advocating for the revision ofexisting pedagogic fora and the creation and addition of new fora that wouldprovide for the inclusion of thoughts, perspectives and practices of Africantraditional oral literature in the pedagogical tools of content area classroomsespecially in North America. The articles that are presented in this book provide theoretical frameworks for usingAfrican traditional oral literature and its various tenets as teaching tools. They bring together new voices of howAfrican literature could be used as helpful tool in classrooms. Rationale for agitating for its use as ideal forpedagogic tool is the recurrent theme throughout the various articles presented.The book explores how educators, literacy educators, learners, activists, policy makers, and curriculumdevelopers can utilize the powerful, yet untapped gem of African oral literature as pedagogical tools in contentarea classrooms to help expand educators repertoire of understandingbeyond the ’conventional wisdom’ of their pedagogic creed. It is acomprehensive work of experienced and diverse scholars, academicians, andeducators who have expertise in multicultural education, traditional oralliterature, urban education, children’s literature and culturally responsivepedagogy that have become the focus of U.S. discourses in public educationand teacher preparation.This anthology serves as part of the quest for multiple views about our’global village’, emphasizing the importance of linking the idea of diverseknowledge with realities of global trends and development. Consequently,the goal and the basic thrust of this anthology is to negotiate for space fornon-mainstream epistemology to share the pedagogical floor with themainstream template, to foster alternative vision of reality for otherknowledge production in the academic domain. The uniqueness of thiscollection is the idea of bringing the content and the pedagogy of most of thegenres of African oral arts under one umbrella and thereby offering apractical acquaintance and appreciation with different African cultures. Ittherefore introduces the world of African mind and thoughts to the readers. In summary, this anthology presentsan academic area which is now gaining its long overdue recognition in the academia.