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1 introduction Brandon D. Lundy This book aims to transform the disparate and often ineffective ways that teachers teach africa in american higher education and to bridge the knowledge gap between the realities and the perceptions about the continent. By focusing our attention on the tertiary level, we expect to have a direct influence on the overall education, media outlook, and societal impressions of africa in the United States. Therefore, this book encourages a newly engaged global citizenship that recognizes the importance of transnational collaboration with the world’s second-largest and second most populous continent , surpassing one billion people. We respond directly to the ongoing institutional shift from insular to multifocal education in african studies (Vengroff 2002). each author encourages an integrated understanding of global culture without neglecting to address how these interactions play out at the regional, national, and local levels. To challenge Western preconceptions about africa in order to better equalize the knowledge base, increase accuracy of information, and motivate students is a slow process, but the benefit of thinking about commonalities with the peoples of africa is a valuable and necessary undertaking in a globalizing world. Divided into 54 recognized sovereign states, the african continent covers 20.4 percent of the earth’s total surface area.1 The histories of the West and africa have been intertwined for more than five centuries. africa is the birthplace of the human species, the witness to the rise and fall of some of the most powerful and far-reaching empires the world has ever known, and today the site of some of the earth’s richest natural resources. africa’s geopolitical relevance and economic and resource potential are affecting a renewed interest in the continent by the U.S. government, which in turn shapes the direction of 2 | Introduction public education in the global north. By 2040, one in every five people worldwide will be african (United nations 2008). The U.S. government is already making strides to reinvigorate its african-based policies to take advantage of the budding labor forces, resource-rich environments, expanding markets, and prospective political allies. Students also have to better understand africa’s role in the global economy to be better prepared to fully engage with an integrated transnational world. But how do Western students understand “africa”? how do they make sense of the various news stories, stereotypes, and myths about the continent? how can educators hope to provide relevant perspectives on such a complex and ever-changing place? The rethinking of Western teaching and learning about africa is a necessary first step to realizing cooperative economic and political initiatives spanning the atlantic. This book presents new ideas about africa and africans to demonstrate the value and necessity of teaching africa in the 21st-century classroom. it builds on the african Studies initiatives while pushing beyond their political and disciplinary boundaries. american students must come to understand africa better. a proliferation of misinformation about africa results in an incongruous student knowledge base, which leads to three serious consequences. first, nonexperts shy away from providing african content in their classrooms because it is difficult to teach to multiple experience levels, thus creating an ongoing and cyclical knowledge deficit about the continent. Second, when nonexperts do provide their students with african-based material, it is often overly vague and outdated as a direct result of the recirculation of misinformation about the continent, an overemphasis on political correctness, and a lack of appropriate pedagogical resources. as such, students are indirectly discouraged from engaging with and developing a real depth of knowledge about what is going on in africa. Third, and in large part based upon the first two corollaries, american college and university students develop a learned helplessness in terms of a real understanding of africa, unable to establish a strong foundation about the continent—its peoples and cultures. as a result, educators cannot be content with the status quo; business as usual when teaching about africa disadvantages our students’ employment potential in a globalized economy. Development of Teaching and Learning about africa The present volume introduces game-changing strategies for teaching africa as developed by committed and innovative college- and university-level instructors with active scholarly pursuits tied to the continent and its diaspora. Technological, regional, global, and academic developments directly related to africa necessitate the reconsideration of teaching africa at a consistent and academically rigorous level. The chapters of this volume give experientially-based and practical ideas adoptable by teachers within and outside traditional african...

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