Giving Compass' Take:

• Mbali Kgame reports that in response to South Africa's call to increase the presence of representational materials in classrooms, a workbook featuring African children was produced to teach history and reality.  

• How can funders help to increase the proportion of educational material that is inclusive? What is the importance of representation in education? 

• Learn more about representation. 

South Africa, like many other nations whose people were previously oppressed, still faces transformational challenges born of the legacy of apartheid and colonialism.

One of these challenges is that previously marginalised groups are still under-represented in many areas — including educational tools like textbooks.

But when people aren’t properly represented in things like books or films, it can leave them feeling disconnected from culture and society.

Earlier this year, the Department of Basic Education released a report that found a need for a more Afrocentric history to be taught in schools, to counteract the emphasis still put on a Eurocentric history.

The report claimed that putting more emphasis on African history would help South African students fully understand the context they live in.

And an activity book called Little Brown Sugar, hopes to help provide this context. It’s written for children up to 12 years old, and aims to teach them about themselves, their history, their looks, and their reality.

Read the full article about representaional materials by Mbali Kgame at Global Citizen.