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EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION: SANKOFA IN THE AP RESEARCH CLASSROOM

ASHLEY GIBSON

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PUBLISHED IN:

 Volume 2, Issue 3, November  2025

Special Issue

Sankofa in AP Research

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DOI:

https://doi.org/10.70144/ag020301hs

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ABSTRACT:

Amid rising political and cultural pressures shaping American education, this special issue of the Texas Journal for Multicultural Education highlights an AP Research classroom where inquiry, justice, and reflexivity serve as acts of resistance. Grounded in the West African principle of Sankofa—to go back and get it—the classroom reframed the recursive nature of research as a humanizing, culturally rooted process. Students learned to revisit early ideas with purpose, situate themselves within academic discourse, and engage in rigorous reflection through restorative circles that nurtured trust, accountability, and intellectual risk-taking. Within this liberatory space, students investigated issues of race, identity, memory, environment, and community, demonstrating that young people can act as scholars whose lived experiences inform meaningful research. This special issue captures their growth, courage, and commitment to truth, offering a vision of what education becomes when students are empowered to think critically and name the world.

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