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African American Students Struggle In The Eurocentric Education System

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Never be limited by other people’s limited imaginations was stated by Dr. Mae Jemison, an American female engineer, physician, and NASA astronaut. This is a quote that I feel speaks to all students, educators and people who have had dreams, comments and questions belittled because their opinions or thoughts do not fit into the Eurocentric educational system. In addition, let me tell you a little about my hometown Fresno, Ca. The majority of people back in my hometown were white, Latinos and Asians. Additionally, there was a small percentage of black students in Fresno Pacific University, where I attended undergrad. I can probably count them using one hand. Back in Fresno, Ca it was interesting to see how divided the city was structured. According …show more content…

In a way, the challenges fall into the students’ having to juggle and negotiate which identities they need to accept in order to fit into the successful Eurocentric homogenous system. These three factors analyze some of the key issues that we as future school psychologist can be advocates for students. I find it rather fascinating that Bowies school psychology program is so diverse. We are part of the small percentage of ethnically diverse school psychologist and that we can personally relate with parents and students of ethnic minorities. Therefore, I feel some sort of responsibility to challenge the views of the Eurocentric educational style when students of ethnic minorities are “failing” to be socially …show more content…

This is the first time that I have the opportunity to look into a culture that is different from my own. Today I have the privilege to think outside of my normal view and step into a culture that has so much history and culture. In addition, since I am part of a minority group in the US, I feel that I can understand and relate with the triple difficulties that Boykin states mainstream, black culture, and the oppression of minorities. Before attending Bowie, I did not know what “Black culture” meant. Even now, I am struggling to understand the concept. According to Boykin (1983), there are nine interrelated dimensions to Black culture: spirituality, harmony, movement, verve, affect, communalism, expressive individualism, oral tradition and social time perspective. Black students may identify with these nine foundations. This is the cultural piece that the Eurocentric educational system is asking our young people to shred, hide and put away. The way of achieving success is through being materialistic, calm; clock oriented, and must conform to the system that leads to

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