Teaching & Learning While Black, Part 2: Convo w/ Dr. James Wright

Thank you for bringing your ears right here for episode 17 of CALM Conversations about Learning where we lean in to re-envision our children’s education with and for the folks who matter most: teachers, parents and of course, our young people!

This episode is part 2 of a conversation series dedicated to teaching and learning while Black. 

This week, Dr. James Wright, Assistant Professor of Culturally Responsive Educational Leadership at San Diego State University, dad (who is in LOVE with his three sons), scholar and writer joins us. 

We met a couple of months ago at the cafe where I go to do my work and five minutes into the conversation, I invited him to be a guest on the podcast...and I didn’t even know then that he was a Culturally Responsive educator! 

What Ah-mazing luck!

In this conversation, we discuss teaching and learning while Black within the context of Culturally Responsive educating, the historical implications of segregated education, what makes for an effective educator and the opportunity gap.

I hope that you enjoy --and learn from --this conversation with Dr. James Wright!

Chunks & Nuggets Worth Summarizing: 

• Respect Epistemology. 
• We must remember and learn from the 100 years of segregated teaching and learning while Black.
• “There is something wrong with the platform” when determining what makes for a stellar or even effective educator.
• The Achievement Gap points the finger at the child; the Opportunity Gap places the responsibility where it belongs: on the institutions and individuals who are charged with educating the child.
• We need young Black people to attend college because we need doctors, lawyers, politicians and policymakers to effect change in our communities and in these United States.
• There is a difference between being an Ally and being an Interferer. A clear distinction must be made.   

Synthesizing and Internalizing:

• We cannot truly educate children whom we do not respect, love or seek to know. Our students arrive with their stories, their cultural norms...their WHOLE selves and it is not the place of teachers, administrators and institutions to “fix” them because they are not broken. 
• Tests, degrees and credentials are measurements of academic/pedagogical knowledge but they don’t make you an effective educator. “Learning” your students and your subject matter --and showing up to the classroom as a human being who is ever-evolving, and recognizing that good intentions are only as powerful as the impact of your actions, make for a decent start.  
• School reform is neither the cure nor the point when it comes to educating children of color. It comes down to the institutions and the individuals with the power and the policies that are harming our children and stunting their opportunities. 

References from the Conversation:

1. James Anderson, Dean of the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; author of The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935.
2. Dr. Linda C Tillman, Professor Emerita of Educational Leadership, School of Education, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
3. Dr. Vanessa Siddle Walker, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Educational Studies at Emory University
4. Dr. Martin Luther King
5. el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz (Malcolm X) 
6. Quincy Troupe, Poet and former

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