ABSTRACT
We have used Afrocentric theory and the principles of culturally informed curricular practice to create a process of “re-membering” with four phases: (a) identifying a topic and the identity-groups that shaped its development; (b) researching and writing identity-group narratives; (c) identifying and comparing identity-group themes; and (d) writing a heterarchal macro narrative and “re-membered” student texts that reconnect the knowledge bases and experiences of identity-groups (see Figure 2.1 in chapter 2). This chapter enacts these four phases to generate a product-a “re-membered” student text on the development of freedom and democracy in North America. This topic is ripe for historical recovery for several reasons: (a) the grand narrative used to teach it is enmeshed in dominant cultural assumptions, (b) there are agreed-upon contours for teaching about freedom and democracy that consistently omit and/ or relegate Indigenous and African Peoples to the margins, and (c) this topic is diligently taught throughout 12 or more years of schooling-driven by the same grand narrative and transmitted through master scripts at diff erent developmental levels. Our task is to broaden the contours and content related to teaching about the development of freedom and democracy by accessing and incorporating the ideas and actions of those whose presence and infl uence are well documented.
