ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the child-centered ideas and practices of White philosophers and educators in the early decades of the twentieth century and the connection of those ideas to the present. In the grand narrative of the progressive era, White historians have assigned White philosophers and educators as the “carriers” of educational thought that challenged standard school practices, even though their silence on the existing racial hierarchy in education and refusal to challenge segregation and other forms of racism contradicted their egalitarian and democratic rhetoric. Invisible in this grand narrative are Black philosophers and educators who stood within an African episteme to develop theories, conduct research, and publish materials that sought to improve standard school practices. While an African epistemic framework could have informed the theories and practices proposed by White progressive educators, using this framework would have required them to step outside the “continuum of whiteness”—something we show they were unable to do. We further propose becoming familiar with the African worldview and cultural concepts and productions as a step in the direction of identifying a viable epistemic foundation that can support schools as sites of democratic practice.
