What is the Touching the Spirit Framework?
The Touching the Spirit framework was developed by Augusta Mann to help teachers in utilizing culture in the achievement of educational excellence for underachieving African American and other students.

The framework is based on two areas of research: the culture, history, and language of African American people, and successful teachers of African American students and students of other ethnicities whom our schools are failing to educate to high standards.

It includes Five Teaching and Learning Patterns used within the context of Nine Supportive Practices.

The Five Teaching and Learning Patterns are:

• Ritual
  (Affirmations/performances)
• Rhythm
  (In music, speech and movement)
• Recitation
  (Oral performance/memorization)
• Repetition
  (To enhance meaningfulness)
• Relationships
  (Relationships of love, respect, and belonging)
  (Recognizing ties between humans and nature)
  (Scientific study of patterns in nature and the phenomenal world)
  (Making connections between school work and students’ life
  experiences)

The Nine Supportive Practices:

1. Expectations of Excellence
   
   
2. Continual Search for Patterns
   
   
3. Insistence on Working Toward Mastery
   
   
4. Teacher Modeling of Skills and Processes
   
   
5. Intensive Direct Instruction and Practice
   
   
6. Study of African Deep Thought
   
   
7. Focus on Discourse, Inquiry,
   and Creative and Symbolic Thinking
   
   
8. Using Knowledge for Social Criticism
   and Community Action
   
   
9. In-Depth Study and Performance of African
   and African American Culture

Successful teachers learn about their students’ history, culture, language, background knowledge, and experiences. They use this information to develop learning activities that empower and engage their students’ interest and involvement. The Touching the Spirit framework helps guide teachers in these processes. To help educators understand the classroom implementation of Touching the Spirit, explanations of the teaching strategies that are featured on this web site will refer to the principles and supportive practices of this framework.

These patterns and practices flow from the central principle in traditional African and African American culture: Oneness of Being/Unity of All Things. This idea is the paramount influence on values, beliefs, behaviors, rituals, customs, and practices. It postulates a universe that is essentially good; a belief in spirit as the strong, alive, vital, cycling, changing, inquisitive force that threads through all things; and the idea of transformation—the push, regardless of adversity, to reach to higher and higher levels of achievement.

The Touching the Spirit educational model helps teachers use this intrinsic African cultural idea to design educational content and processes that foster excellence in African American students. Since culture drives education and the core of African and African American culture is “Spirit”, to tap the culture of African American students and bring out educational excellence, teachers must Touch the Spirit. They do this by designing curriculum and instruction that includes the Teaching and Learning Patterns and Supportive Practices.

These 14 components of are the teaching and learning patterns and practices that effective teachers use. As teachers use the patterns and practices of the framework, so prominent in African and African American culture, they realize that these principles speak to students of all cultures.

A bibliography is included for further information on issues related to culture centered education in general and African American culture specifically.

Culture Centered Education and African American Culture References