How I teach
The Pedagogical Imperative: Identity, Philosophy, and the Cultivation of Citizenship
Robert “Tre” Hickey is an educator, curriculum designer, and program specialist whose pedagogical philosophy is grounded in the Ubuntu principle of interconnectedness. Inspired by the legacy of Bob Moses and the Algebra Project, he champions math literacy as a fundamental civil right. He teaches math at Montgomery Village Middle School in Montgomery County.
My approach deliberately moved beyond a curriculum solely focused on historical events or narratives of oppression. Instead, I posed a foundational question: What does it mean to be African, and how might an African narrate their experience in America? My core interest lay in exploring the continuity that might exist between precolonial African philosophy and African American thought, had cultural memory not been fractured by enslavement and colonization.
This inquiry led me to an intensive study of African philosophy, specifically Bantu-Kongo philosophy. My most compelling finding was the contrast between Bantu-Kongo conceptions of self, community, and spirituality and those emphasized in Western traditions. Where thinkers like René Descartes centered the individual with the claim, “I think, therefore I am,” Bantu-Kongo philosophy emphasizes Ubuntu, the relational nature of existence: “I am because we are.” This philosophical shift fundamentally reorients the individual’s belief about their identity relative to the collective.
Core beliefs shape identity, and identity is the wellspring of pedagogical practice. Educators teach not merely from what they know, but from who they are—their presence, values, and interactions. This reality helps explain why, as Du Bois suggests, students often absorb more from the teacher’s embodied values than from the curriculum alone.
Bantu-Kongo philosophy stresses balance and harmony, both within the individual and the community. It emphasizes developing effective communication to articulate one’s unique relative position within the universe, based on the premise that no one else can occupy one’s distinct space. Articulating one’s truth from that perspective contributes directly to the betterment of the community.
Rooted in nature and everyday experience, this philosophy is both accessible and deeply layered. Education within many traditional African societies functioned as a process of initiation, preparing individuals for citizenship and communal responsibility rather than merely transmitting factual information.
This perspective aligns closely with the civic purpose of public schooling in the United States. In Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court affirmed that public education “is the very foundation of good citizenship,” describing it as a principal instrument for awakening children to cultural values and preparing them to adjust meaningfully
to their environment. Education, in this sense, is not principally about professional function, but about the human being and citizen one becomes.
Students intuitively grasp this mandate. They observe their teachers not just for content, but for signals regarding identity, purpose, and belonging. Classroom structures, management protocols, and curriculum implementation all communicate the educator’s self-understanding, offering students a critical model for imagining their own futures.
This insight directs us back to the Bantu-Kongo concept of Ubuntu: I am because we are. Humanity is defined by relationship, not isolation. Within institutional education, our responsibility must extend beyond technical skill development to the modeling and cultivation of a shared understanding of what it means to be human—an American, a citizen of the United States, and a member of a global community.
For education to be truly transformative, educators must return to foundational questions: What is a human being? What is an American? As Americans, what definitions of humanity and citizenship do we choose to uphold and embody? Only by clarifying these definitions and principles can public education fulfill its democratic purpose and prepare the next generation for a more just, coherent, and inclusive society.