Uncovering Genealogies of the Margins: Black Supplementary Schooling

In our small scale, exploratory study offour black supplementary schools, we adopted a genealogical approach. By uncovering the subjugated knowledges and hidden histories of black supplementary schools we found evidence of a female centred new social movement. Our analysis of black female agency in these organic grassroots organisations enabled us to interrogate the normative mainstream discourse on 'race' and education. The narratives of black women educators consistently decentred assumptions of mainstream schooling. Supplementagy schools provided a context in which whiteness is displaced as central and blackness is seen as normative. Parental involvement showed the effectiveness of black working class agency, in a discourse which assumes their passivity. We conclude by arguing that women's work within black supplementary schools embrace strategies for inclusion--such as emphasis on the formal 3Rs, and dialogue with the mainstream-which though appearing on the surface to be conservative and contradictogy, in effect subverts the mainstream discourse on black underachievement and offer transformative possibilities from the margins.