The School of Education and the Africana Studies program in the School of Liberal Arts, both at Indiana University Indianapolis, have created a dual degree pathway in Africana Studies and Urban Teacher Education degree programs (ASTUTE). This pathway provides students with an accelerated interdisciplinary course of study resulting in the completion of two majors within four years. ASTUTE is part of the larger Culturally Relevant Ethnic Studies Teaching (CREST) initiative’s focus on preparing and supporting effective teachers for urban school contexts grounded in ethnic studies as content knowledge for culturally relevant teaching competencies across academic subject areas. Each component of the project has purposeful support for the recruitment and retention of effective educators who are racially and ethnically diverse. The overarching goal is to expose high school students to teaching as a career pathway in addition to pursuing African Studies as a major or minor. CREST partners with 6 Marion County high schools to develop, implement, and expand Teacher Cadet Programs and Black History Clubs for high school youth. We will work with Teacher Cadet programs to offer students the opportunity to take up to 12 credit hours of dual-credit courses in education. Students participating in the Black History Clubs can also take a dual-credit pre-requisite course in Africana Studies. Faculty and community experts will work with school liaisons to plan a scope and sequence of activities inclusive of Saturday Summits where students from all participating high schools will meet and engage in youth participatory action research projects (YPAR).
