Copyright by Christopher Haviland Ketcham 2010 the Dissertation Committee for Christopher Haviland Ketcham Certifies That This Is
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Copyright by Christopher Haviland Ketcham 2010 The Dissertation Committee for Christopher Haviland Ketcham certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: WHAT AND HOW WILL WE TEACH; FOR WHAT SHALL WE TEACH AND WHY? AIMS-TALK IN THE JOURNAL OF NEGRO EDUCATION 1932-1953 Committee: ____________________________ Sherry Field, Supervisor ____________________________ Anthony Brown, Supervisor ____________________________ Lisa J. Cary ____________________________ Norvell Northcutt ____________________________ Mary Lee Webeck WHAT AND HOW WILL WE TEACH; FOR WHAT SHALL WE TEACH AND WHY? AIMS-TALK IN THE JOURNAL OF NEGRO EDUCATION 1932-1953 by Christopher Haviland Ketcham, B. S.; M. B. A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of: Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May, 2010 Epigraph Whence all this passion towards conformity anyway?—diversity is the word. Let man keep his many parts and you‘ll have no tyrant states. Why, if they follow this conformity business they‘ll end up forcing me, an invisible man, to become white, which is not a color but the lack of one. Must I strive towards colorlessness? But seriously, and without snobbery, think of what the world would lose if this should happen. America is woven of many strands; I would recognize them and let it so remain. It is ―winner take nothing‖ that is the great truth of our country or of any country. Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in the face of certain defeat. Our fate is to become one, and yet many – This is not prophecy, but description. Thus one of the greatest jokes in the world is the spectacle of the whites busy escaping blackness and becoming blacker every day, and the blacks striving towards whiteness, becoming quite dull and gray. None of us seems to know who he is or where he‘s going. 1 Ralph Ellison‘s ―invisible man‖ speaks from his basement apartment about the social order of his time. 1 Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man, Vintage Books Edition ed. (NY: Random House, Inc., 1972, 1947), 435-36. WHAT AND HOW WILL WE TEACH; FOR WHAT SHALL WE TEACH AND WHY? AIMS-TALK IN THE JOURNAL OF NEGRO EDUCATION2 1932-1953 Christopher Haviland Ketcham, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin Supervisors: Sherry Field and Anthony Brown This is a study of educational aims discourses (aims-talk) in the Journal of Negro Education between 1932 and 1953. In this era of segregation, economic depression, and war, educators and other champions of education for African Americans struggled to define and then develop objectives, goals, and curricula for African American students in secondary schools and colleges. This study considers the different aims discourses, how they evolved, and how they were affected by economic depression and war. Using literary analysis, this historical analysis considers the influence of philanthropy, The Cardinal Principles, segregation, the American social order, democracy, and the ―peculiar‖ needs of African Americans as themes within the disparate discourse. This study uses the taxonomy of critical race theory to inform the discourse and supplement 2 ―What and how shall we teach?... For what shall we teach and why?‖ [emphasis in original] In the title of this study is from a quote from: Ambrose Caliver, "The Negro Teacher and a Philosophy of Negro Education," The Journal of Negro Education 2, no. 4 (1933): 439. v the theory of whiteness as property with the related theory that education is also property. The study‘s analysis is informed by Nel Noddings‘ theoretical position that aims can be used as a critique of society. Finally, this study adds empirical evidence to support Eddie S. Glaude, Jr.‘s theory of nation language. The conditions of segregation significantly influenced the discourse of the 100 authors and the 137 articles considered by the study. The conditions of segregation did not change during the period of this study but the economy improved and war provided more job opportunities for African Americans. While there was a heightened call for the elimination of segregation and resetting of the social order during World War II in the Journal of Negro Education, the educational condition of the African American as reported by these researchers did not significantly evolve over the same period. However, a new discourse developed in which both philanthropists and African-American educators recognized the need for some combination of industrial and academic education for their students. The period examined in this study begins with the publication of the first issue of the Journal of Negro Education in 1932 and ends on the eve of the Brown vs. Board of Education decision in 1953. vi Table of Contents Introduction—How This Study Is Organized ................................................................ 1 Chapter 1—Historical Analysis ....................................................................................... 5 Chapter 2—The Discourse is All about Segregation and the African American’s Place in the American Social Order .............................................................................. 35 Chapter 3—The Meanings of “Peculiar,” “the Negro,” “Negro Education,” “Education for Negroes,” and “Social Order” ............................................................. 51 Chapter 4—Why Aims-Talk? ........................................................................................ 75 Chapter 5—Segregation: A Value Statement ............................................................... 92 Chapter 6—The Cardinal Principles .......................................................................... 112 Chapter 7—Philanthropy ............................................................................................. 124 Chapter 8—Democracy and the Social Order—Living the Amphibious Life ........ 149 Chapter 9—Industrial vs. Traditional Academic Schools; and a Philosophy of Negro Education: Same As vs. Different from Whites ......................................................... 199 Chapter 10—“Getting Out of the Dog House”: The Reorganization and Redirection of Negro Education—July 1936 ................................................................................... 229 Chapter 11—Summary and Conclusions ................................................................... 299 References ...................................................................................................................... 322 Vita ................................................................................................................................. 338 vii Table of Figures Figure 1 The Contributors to the 1936 JNE Yearbook ....................................... 232 viii Introduction—How This Study Is Organized This is a multi-dimensional analysis of educational aims discourses (aims-talk) in the Journal of Negro Education (JNE) from 1932-1953. Chapter One discusses the study‘s research methods and methodologies and explains why the JNE is important to African-American aims-talk. Chapter Two introduces the discourses used in the study and places them in the context of the social order of the period to be discussed. This chapter considers the theory of ―nation language‖ relative to the views of the researchers whose work informs this study. This chapter also discusses how Antonio Gramsci, Paulo Freire, and critical race theory will inform the study. Chapter Three considers the use of the following words and their various and possible connotation in this study: ―peculiar,‖ ―the Negro,‖ ―Negro Education,‖ ―education for Negroes,‖ and ―social order.‖ Chapter Four is a theoretical analysis of the concept of educational aims, their importance to education and, from a critical perspective, how they can be theorized viewed as a critique of society. Chapter Five explores segregation as the contextual fundament that creates an ever-widening divide in America over the period of this study. Associated with segregation is the Critical Race Theory (CRT) concept of whiteness as property and its corollary, education as property. 1 Chapter Six discusses The Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education—the 1918 report issued by the National Education Association‘s Committee on the Reorganization of Secondary Schools—a theory of aims that was frequently discussed in the JNE and that is still relevant to present-day aims-talk.3 4 Chapter Seven considers the efforts and aims of the Northern philanthropists who not only influenced the aims and curricula of the rural Southern schools, but who were also given a prominent voice in the JNE. Chapter Eight explores democracy and aims. Democracy was a central theme of both African-American-centric and white-centric educators during the period of this study. In the context of the African-American experience, democracy is complicated by segregation. This chapter separates democracy and aims from segregation in order to define democracy in an age where laws applied differently to different races and laws made it difficult or even impossible for African Americans to vote in the South. The chapter considers how aims-talk for democratic means and ends was construed and constrained in a democracy that was not democratic for all. Chapter Nine examines the industrial versus traditional academic school debate and associated aims-talk for secondary schools and colleges. This discourse considers elements of aims-talk from all