Self help and protest: the emergence of black supplementary schooling in England

Abstract

First initiated in the late 1960s, the black supplementary school movement is now approaching its fifth decade of existence. Located across England's town and city centres, this movement represents important sites of community-based education and independent black culture. The history of black supplementary schooling points to a concerted reclamation of black knowledge and culture, and the asserted capability of black students, parents, and communities. Drawing on school archives and the testimonies of ex-teachers and organisers, this article explores the historical emergence of this significant educational movement and its relationship to the state education system. Firstly, this history traces the educational and political impetus for supplementary schools, through examining the campaign and community work that instigated -and defined -them. Following from this, the ways in which black supplementary schools challenged state educational authority through their educational practices and through their active campaign work is explored. Finally, this article examines the relationship between the schools and the state, as they struggled to maintain both their autonomy and their funding.

Black supplementary school leaders: Community leadership strategies for successful schools

“…This supports CRT’s contention of the endemic nature of racism and white privilege/supremacy which denotes white teaching/leadership approaches as superior to those adopted by Black supplementary school leaders. Acknowledging the strength of a Black leadership educational ideology as suggested here, especially one that questions the national educational provision (see examples in Gerrard, 2013) would, however, require recognition of the ways in which many Black students have been failed by the British education system, and the extent to which supplementary schools have been found to contribute to the successful mainstream achievement of Black students (Evans and Gillian-Thomas, 2015; Ives and Wyvill, 2008; Maylor et al, 2013; Musoke, 2016; Strand, 2007). Furthermore, although the views of Black parents with children attending Black supplementary schools were not examined in this article, other research has shown that Black supplementary school leaders are able to establish positive relationships with Black parents which encourages their greater involvement in the support and progression of Black students in supplementary schools, which contrasts with Black parental involvement in mainstream schools (Wilson and Johnson, 2015).…”

“…The relationship these Black supplementary school leaders developed with their staff enabled them to lead by ‘serving’ their staff and inspiring them to get the best results for children who attend their schools and in turn the educators serve the students who in turn demonstrate the value invested in their education through their achievements. Arguably, ‘servant leadership’ is born of the Black community’s need to challenge negative educational narratives about Black students (Gerrard, 2013) and educationally uplift the wider Black community, which remains a long-term goal.…”

“…Developed within the Black radical tradition of self-help/addressing one’s own community concerns (Gerrard, 2013), Black supplementary schools catering for African-Caribbean students (aged 5–18) were set up in the 1960s by African-Caribbean educators and parents who were concerned about the educational inequality and inequitable outcomes Black children in mainstream English schools experienced when compared with white 2 British students (Andrews, 2013; Mirza and Reay, 2000; Ramalingam and Griffith, 2015). The lower achievement of Black students was attributed to institutional racism (Macpherson, 1999) experienced in the form of low teacher expectations for Black students, which contrasted with parents’ own high expectations, and a national curriculum advocating Black assimilation and exclusion of Black students’ experiences (Andrews, 2013; Bryan et al, 2018; Coard, 1971; Dove, 1993; Gillborn et al, 2017; Issa and Williams, 2009; Mirza and Reay, 2000; Swann, 1985; Tomlinson, 1984).…”

Supplementary schools with connections to religious organisations in the United Kingdom: A heuristic device for school leaders and researchers

“…Staff members may perceive little, if any, formal connection to a religious organisation; for example, in one Arabic language school, students learning Arabic said that it helped them to read the Qur’an, though the teachers did not explicitly make the link when speaking with researchers (Szczepek Reed et al, 2019). Supplementary schools set up to support Black African or Caribbean children often have, or had, an association with a church, but these schools are not always formally connected to Sunday School classes and the link could primarily be the use of the church’s premises (Andrews, 2016; Dove, 1993, Gerrard, 2013).…”

<em>Black Mixed-race Male Experiences of the UK Secondary School Curriculum</em>

“…522). The persistent presence of these institutions acts to problematize misplaced notions of anti-education attitudes in Black communities (Gerrard, 2013;Sewell, 1997;Warmington, 2012Warmington, , 2014. The commonalities are seen between Black mixed-race males and Black males since both groups attend these institutions often known colloquially as 'Black Saturday schools.'…”