Featured Scholar: Lasana Kazembe, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Urban Teacher Education
IU School of Education, Indianapolis
Research Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nX4StRoGSQI
elev8te: Exploring Global Black Arts Movements
Dr. Lasana Kazembe’s translational research project is a literacy and creative arts program that introduces participants to the cultural, historical, and political impact of six 20th century global Black Arts Movements. The program's foundation and focus draw from and build on research from the domains of Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy, Arts-based inquiry, and African Centered Education. In addition, elev8te's pedagogical and curricular framework is informed by the Six Culturally Inclusive Principles (developed by Dr. Joyce E. King, 2014, 2016, 2018) and the Six Dimensions of Culturally Responsive Teaching (Gay, 2010).
In addition, with its emphasis on the culturally-affirming literature of 20th century global Black Arts Movements, the program enables students to leverage the power of the arts and humanities to develop, fortify, and expand geo-literacy competencies and cultural knowledge. elev8te is designed to address the arts opportunity gap by providing students with access to research-based, hands-on arts learning opportunities. A growing body of research affirms that when part of a well-rounded education in schools, arts learning contributes to increased academic achievement and student success in preparation for college, career, and life. The program encourages students to learn about and to make content connections across the curriculum, broaden their academic horizons, and deepen learning and engagement. At its core, elev8te is informed by Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT), a research-based pedagogical approach that creates and emphasizes meaningful connections between school learning and the students' heritage knowledge (i.e., their cultures, languages, traditions, experiences). By acknowledging and leveraging these connections, the program encourages the development of higher-level academic skills, as well as helping learners to see the relevance between what they learn at school and their lives. This is particularly important for African American children as their history, culture, and images is routinely marginalized and/or not emphasized in school curricula.
Dr. Kazembe's development of an arts-based, culturally responsive curriculum that leverages students' heritage knowledge, deepens and reinforces academic, aesthetic, and cultural literacies, and situates the arts as a counter-narrative to reclaim and teach a usable past is another excellent example of how IU Indianapolis's faculty members are TRANSLATING their RESEARCH INTO PRACTICE.
Selected Publications in IU Indianapolis ScholarWorks
With several research works contributed to IU Indianapolis's free, open access repository, Professor Lasana Kazembe has made translational research knowledge available to professionals, researchers, students, and communities around the world.
Kazembe, L. D. (2021, February 23). Curriculum studies and indigenous global contexts of culture, power, and equity. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education. Oxford University Press. https://hdl.handle.net/1805/25291
Kazembe, L.D. (20 Aug 2020). I prepare aspiring teachers to educate kids of color – here’s how I help them root out their own biases. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/i-prepare-aspiring-teachers-to-educate-kids-of-color-heres-how-i-help-them-root-out-their-own-biases-141761. https://hdl.handle.net/1805/25214
Kazembe, L. D. (2019). A New Music Screaming in the Sun: Haki R. Madhubuti and the Nationalization/Internationalization of Chicago's BAM. Chicago Review, 62(4), 94. https://hdl.handle.net/1805/25191
Kazembe, L. (2017). Reading the World: Toward a Praxis of Inquiry, Critical Literacy, and Cultural Knowledge. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 61(2), 209–212. https://hdl.handle.net/1805/15837
Kazembe, L. (2014). Furious flowers: Using black arts inquiry and pedagogy to engage black males. Journal of African American Males in Education (JAAME), 5(1), 36-52.https://hdl.handle.net/1805/25190