Historically, black male students in the United States have the lowest college degree completion rate. This chapter describes the work of the Black Male Initiative (BMI) at Empire State College in NYC. Grounded in an Afrocentric paradigm, BMI provides a safe space for students to share experiences. In this chapter, the author describes the…

Africentrism is a conceptual framework that is rooted in the epistemology, cosmology, and axiology of the indigenous African worldview. Understanding the basic principles and values of this transformative paradigm can inform doctoral programs' efforts to enhance inclusion by undoing practices of marginalization and hegemony.

This chapter juxtaposes Africentrism and Eurocentrism, leading to suggestions for creating a practice that avoids the reproduction of oppression arising from adult education's overreliance on a Eurocentric worldview.

Racism affects recruitment and retention of African American faculty and students and excludes Africentric content from graduate curricula. These issues must be addressed in adult education before societal racism can be confronted. (SK)