MOOSE African Diaspora in Maine Learning Progression

African Diaspora in Maine

What does it mean to be a member of the African Diaspora? Through conversations with African American and Black community members and others, we have learned that diaspora means any people living outside of their homeland. So, the Japanese Diaspora represents individuals of Japanese heritage living outside of Japan. MOOSE uses African Diaspora as an inclusive umbrella term to include African-Americans, Blacks, and People of Color whose people were brought to British North American as part of the middle passage Atlantic slave trade and those from sub-Saharan Africa who have entered America in various ways since then.

Special thanks to the community advisors that worked with the Instructional Designers on this journey: Heidi Allen, Meadow Dibble, James Ford, Dr. Lance Gibbs, Seth Goldstein, Kate McBrien, and Patricia Roseway.

Explore the Modules

Black Joy flows regeneratively through communities of color in Maine. It is then fitting that the History of Maine’s Descendants of the African Diaspora learning progression begins by prompting our youngest learners (Pre-K-2 grade) to explore how Maine families experience joy.
The 3rd-5th grade module examines the idea of community and how its citizens bring forth change. Here students get to travel through local history from barbershops to the Maine State House.
The middle grade modules inquire into Maine’s lesser-known relationship to slavery and enslavement. As the modules on the learning progression examine an increasingly challenging set of themes and topics, Black Joy and how communities lean into it remains a vital subtext.
The high school module provides the opportunity to explore Maine artists and a number of different historical and contemporary stories relating to Maine’s African diaspora. Maine teachers collaborated with Maine descendants of the African diaspora to take special care in presenting modules that center Joy and achievement instead of Black pain, Black body history and exploitation.