I previously submitted a lengthy discussion
that concluded that the guidance
Fails to provide sound scientific foundations for its proposals
Fails to provide sound legal and public policy foundations for its proposals
Fails to provide sound ethical foundations for it proposals
Fails to provide protections for students’ safety, parents/guardians’ rights, and other dimensions of accountability, responsibility and public trust
And advised that
Clearly the guidance needs thoroughgoing rewriting. Necessary scientific, legal and ethical citations and discussion must be included. Attention to likely and possible harms, and means of accountability, responsibility and reparations for harms, must be incorporated. Guidance regarding ‘diversity’ that fails to recognize and provide for the Commonwealth’s great diversity of school districts’ needs and interests in cultural competency mis-understands what diversity actually means. Finally, an unfunded state mandate – and particularly a mandate that is this vacuous – announces that the ‘The Emperor Has No Clothes’.
I would here to add some commentary not included earlier:
The provision of the VDOE guidance that segregates 'African-American history' may have useful intentions for educating children about a vital component of Virginia and American history, but by segregating in this was likely causes harm.
First, the guidance would need to be modified to provide for 'African-American HISTORIES' (plural histories!). The construct that there is a singular historical narrative of African-origin communities and their cultures in America is a falsehood. There are many - indeed, very many! - historical narratives of African-origin communities and their cultures in America. See for example at https://oxfordre.com/africanhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-354 regarding historiography of the African diaspora:
"the migration of people of African descent from their “homelands” is mainly linked to the pre-20th century Muslim or Asian trade and the Atlantic trade as well as to the post 1980 globalization of the capitalist system. Even before the post 1980 globalization of the capitalist system deepened the crises in African states and resulted in the migration of skilled and unskilled Africans to places like the United States, Canada, Britain and the Middle East, some scholars had written on people of African descent in several parts of the world "
And, depending on where focus is given or attention is paid, scholars provide different answers to
"three fundamental questions: why did Africans leave their “homelands” and settle elsewhere? What was the impact of this process on the societies they left? How did Africans who left their “homelands” integrate into their host societies or preserve their unique identities; or, more broadly, what was the impact of their arrival on the host society they entered?"
It is clear that VDOE guidance used the term 'African-American history' with the specificity that is required by intelligent historiography. We would rightfully recoil from VDOE guidance that asked teachers to focus on the construct of 'European-American history' as a singular, undifferentiated history, ignoring the significantly different histories of English language/cultural, French language/cultural, and Spanish language/cultural settlers who subdued and removed Native American/aboriginal populations, communities and cultures. And further failed to distinguish these from histories of German language/cultural, Russian language/cultural, and other language/cultural religious minorities who came to America. And further failed to distinguish these from the different histories of Italian immigration, from Irish immigration, from Turkish and other largely Muslim immigration.
So, minimally, the VDOE guidance must record 'African-American HISTORIES' (plural), or record 'African Diaspora' (to replace 'African-American history'.
Scholarly cultural organizations use 'African Diaspora' to discuss important questions of historiography, demographic changes over time, cultural transmission over time and do not use reductionistic constructs (https://www.experience-africa.de/index.php?en_the-african-diaspora; https://oldwayspt.org/traditional-diets/african-heritage-diet/african-diaspora-cultures; etc).
Furthermore, recent discussions are focusing on 'blackness' as the most important construct for education for social change - if it is the case that the VDOE guidance actually has a purpose of social change, and not a purpose of cultural competency:
"issues around how darker-skinned people of all races and ethnicities are perceived and treated must be addressed. This is in part because we are racing toward a future in which the share of minorities who are dark-skinned will only be a fraction. By 2065, it is projected that not only will Asian Americans outnumber African Americans, but there will also be nearly twice as many Hispanics in the country as Black people. I worry that white supremacy could be replaced with a light supremacy, a society in which light-skinned people are still advantaged and dark-skinned people are still oppressed, even as the white majority recedes."
If the VDOE guidance actually has in mind a purpose of social change - for example, to reduce educational achievement disparities between 'black-skinned' students and 'not-black-skinned' students - then it fails in this purpose by failing to tell the truth of its purpose. Worthwhile achievements - such as improving school performance of this or that group or students, or this or that school systems, or this or that classroom - are not produced by vagaries. Specification, data adhering to the specifications, analysis and discussion and evaluation from the data.
While we must state clearly that the Virginia Legislature and Governor signed a law that encodes these vagaries is was and is, nonetheless, the professional scientific and professional ethical DUTY of VDOE to produce SPECIFICALLY RESEARCH, DESIGNED, DRAFTED, AND PROPOSED guidance. VDOE has failed in its professional scientific and professional ethical duties. Earlier discussion outlines matters of professional scientific and professional ethical failures.
Here, we must add that encoding a poorly defined 'African-American history' in the guidance may be expected to be counterproductive, unless the guidance intends to produce cultural discord, and disregard rather than competence.
Respectfully submitted,
Edward Strickler
Retired, School of Medicine, University of Virginia