Social Representations of the Africentric School as Portrayed through the Toronto Newspapers/Les Représentations Sociales De L'école Afrocentrique Dans Les Journaux Torontois

In 2007, a proposed project to open an Africentric public elementary school led to a debate in the Canadian media. Public opinion was divided between supporters of the proposal and those who opposed it. Because the media greatly influence our understanding of social phenomena (Enache, 2006), we set out to study this debate as it was communicated through the Toronto newspapers in order to draw a portrait of the social representations that shaped this new social reality.BLACK EDUCATION IN CANADA: FROM SEGREGATION TO AFROCENTRICITYAfrocentricity (also referred to as Africentricity) falls within corrective cultural theories that promote the use of culture to meet the social needs of a community (Giddings, 2003). With regard to schooling, this primarily involves centring the curriculum and pedagogy on the reality of Africans and members of the African diaspora. As Carter (2003) explains, ethnic-centred approaches focus on the need to include the cultural values and worldview of marginalized groups. Africentricity is thus a reaction to the Eurocentric discourse that has traditionally predominated in Canadian society.Another important aspect of Africentricity is the focus on presenting Africans as subjects rather than objects. Given that action is central to Africentricity, a merely theoretical perspective is impossible from an Africentric point of view. As liberation is the ultimate goal, Africentricity must generate knowledge that is liberating and leads to empowerment (Mazama, 2001). Africentric education can be defined as an expression of the will of people of African descent to strengthen their cultural heritage, with the goal being to counter the negative effects of the relations of oppression that have affected Black (African diaspora) communities (Akoto, 1994).In the 1980s, the dropout rate for Black youth in Toronto had reached almost 40% (Wallace, 2009). Africentric programs in the United States had already proven to be effective, and their merits were later examined empirically in several studies (Beigrave, Brome, & Hampton, 2000; Stevenson, 1995; Warfield-Coppock, 1992).In 2007, in response to longstanding and repeated demands from the community, the Toronto District School Board studied the possibility of creating an Africentric public school in Toronto. Many consultation meetings were held, and the discussions were lively. Far from reaching a consensus, the community was divided on the question and faced strong opposition from outside (Wallace, 2009). The stated goals of the proposed project, as they appeared on the schools website (Toronto District School Board, n.d.), included encouraging young people to become engaged in their studies by creating an environment that promotes high academic achievement and inculcates high self-pride and a high motivation to succeed. This is seen as being a first step toward developing productive and responsible citizens who value the experience of African peoples and the African diaspora by teaching about their achievements in a nonstereotyped way.The Africentric elementary school is currently operating at full capacity, and there is even a waiting list to get in. Additionally, the students have performed well on provincial tests (Rushowy, 2011). In 2011, following the posting of above-average standardized test scores and in light of booming enrollment at its elementary school, the Toronto District School Board began to consider extending the program by opening an Africentric high school within another existing high school. The original choice for this school was Oakwood Collegiate Institute (Rushowy, 2011); however, following opposition from the school community, this choice was subsequently changed to Winston Churchill Collegiate Institute (Brown, 2012).The proposed opening of an Africentric school led to a lively debate on the role of notions such as race and cultural specificity in society. Opinions were many and varied and reflected an important debate concerning, among other subjects, the universality of education, relations between majority and minority populations, ethnicity, and social inequality. …

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