Street Data: Imagining the Next Generation of Education: Recent Episodes
Street Data
Join Shane Safir and Alcine Mumby as they launch Street Data Pod: Imagining the Next Generation of Education. They each share their “why” for this project and name some ways of being that help them navigate working across differences. You’ll also hear what people get wrong about the work they do and what kind of data they think educators must collect in these complex times to be alive and human.
In this rich conversation, Shane and Alcine welcome education icons Debbie Meier and Matt Alexander to explore what democratic schooling has meant across generations — and what it demands of us right now. Debbie traces her path from accidental kindergarten teacher to founder of Central Park East and the Coalition of Essential Schools, sharing stories of children whose ideas revealed what becomes possible when we trust learners and honor their ideas. Matt reflects on growing up in intentionally integrated Columbia, Maryland, and how that blueprint for equity shaped his dissonance with injustice and his commitment to democratic education from the classroom to the San Francisco school board. Together, they wrestle with a hard truth: progressive schools don't survive on pedagogy alone — they need political organizing and community power behind them. And at the center of it all is a deceptively simple principle that threads through Debbie's decades of work, the Coalition of Essential Schools, and the Street Data framework itself: relationships are the foundation of hope, transformation, and the core belief that everyone is truly created equal.
For Further Learning:
- Read Debbie’s seminal book, The Power of Their Ideas: Lessons for America from a Small School in Harlem
- Read “What Happened to the Coalition of Essential Schools?” by Larry Cuban (one of Alcine’s favorite professors at Stanford) as he talks about the origin and demise of the Coalition of Essential Schools. Be sure to read the comments as well to get a fuller picture of CES as an organization.
- Read this 1994 article Debbie Meier and the Dawn of Central Park East: When Teachers Take Charge of Schooling by Seymour Fliegel about the school that Debbie started in Harlem.
- Read this 1999 article “A Conversation about Schools with Deborah Meier” where Debbie shares her ideas on key school issues at the time.
In this re-release of Episode 10, Alcine and Shane talk with thought leaders, and mother-daughter dynamic duo, Drs. Linda and Kia Darling-Hammond about their new book The Civil Rights Road to Deeper Learning: Five Essentials for Equity (Teachers College Press, 2022). Drawing on their intersections across 25 years in the field of public education, these four educators begin with a retrospective on the seminal Williams v. California lawsuit in which Shane and Linda both served as witnesses, pivoting to explore the next historic fight for equitable access. They dig into the legacy of the test-and-punish era and how testing has served as a barrier to deeper learning, and Linda drops some mind-blowing knowledge about the double discrimination baked into test questions. Finally, they dream together about equitable and just schools that elevate student voice and center performance-based assessments rather than tests.
For Further Learning:
- Read Linda and Kia’s book The Civil Rights Road to Deeper Learning: Five Essentials for Equity
- Read The Right To Learn by Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond, the seminal book that inspired us to create schools that actually work for learners.
- Visit the Learning Policy Institute to learn more about Dr. Linda Darling Hammond’s work to support equitable school reform policies and practices.
- To learn more about or work with Dr. Kia Darling Hammond, visit her website
- Watch Sherrilyn Ifill, law professor and former president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, explain the Voting Rights Act on a clip from the Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
- Enjoy an oldie but goodie: If They’d Only Do Their Work by Dr. Linda Darling Hammond that Alcine would use with her staff every year!
In this episode, we sit down with the brilliant Dr. Sonja Cherry-Paul — founder of Red Clay Educators, co-director of the Institute for Racial Equity and Literacy, and author of the bestselling Anti-Racist Reading Revolution — for a conversation that is equal parts fire and tenderness. Sonja shares how growing up in Brooklyn shaped her expansive understanding of literacy and community, why she's "irrevocably salty" about the science of reading movement, and how she approached adapting Stamped for Kids and How the Word Is Passed for young readers without watering down the truth. We also explore the dandelion framework at the heart of Anti-Racist Reading Revolution, the deep resonances between Sonja's work and Pedagogies of Voice, and what educators can do right now — even in the most constrained environments — to center student voice, honor the full humanity of Black and Brown children, and keep fighting for the books and histories that belong in every classroom.
For Further Learning:
- To learn more about Dr. Sonja Cherry-Paul’s work, visit her online at sonjacherrypaul.com orRed Clay Ed
- To order any of the following books, visit the publications page on her website:
- Antiracist Reading Revolution
- How the Word Is Passed (Adapted for Young Readers): Remembering Slavery and How It Shaped America
- Stamped (For Kids)
- Breathing New Life into Book Clubs
- Flip Your Writing Workshop
- Teaching Interpretation
- Here is the podcast with Dr. Milner Episode 7: Science of Reading Interview With H. Richard Milner IV
- Read the Executive Summary of Fact-Checking the Science of Reading by Rober J Tierney and P. David Pearson
Are you ready for another re-release? Season 5 closes with a tender and inquiry-centered conversation between Alcine, Shane, and the luminous Dr. Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz who shares that “Critical love is a profound and ethical commitment to the communities you’re serving… to the human flourishing of those young people in your classroom.” Dr. Sealey-Ruiz discusses her powerful Archeology of Self framework, quoted in Shane’s forthcoming book Pedagogies of Voice (PoV), making deep and seamless connections to Street Data and PoV. She invites us into the “Warrior Work” of solidarity, explaining how these respective bodies of work speak to each other, specifically how the 10 toxins in Pedagogies of Voice intersect with her racial literacy development framework. And the conversation ends with an emotional conversation about the 2024 election and the need to “name the suffering” as a condition for healing while also “hospicing grief to make room for something new to be birthed.” Don’t miss this episode, which ties together so many threads of our Season 5!
For Further Learning:
- Pre-order your copy of the Archaeology of Self: The Introspective Educator’s Guide to Racial Literacy
- Read the article “ An Archaeology of Self™ for Our Times” by Dr. Sealey-Ruiz
- Enroll in Dr. Sealey-Ruiz’s virtual Archaeology of Self Certificate Program at the Acosta Institute (Sundays, May 31st-June 28th, 2026)
- Learn more about The Acosta Institute: https://www.acostainstitute.com/
- Watch Dr. Sealey-Ruiz’s TEDTalk: Truth, Love & Racial Literacy
- Read Dr. Sealey-Ruiz’s recent titles:
- All About Black Girl Love in Education: bell hooks and Pedagogies of Love, 2024
- Advancing Racial Literacies in Teacher Education: Activism for Equity in Digital Spaces. 2021
- The Peace Chronicles, 2021
- Love from the Vortex & Other Poems, 2020
In this energizing conversation, Alcine and Shane sit down with Canadian educators Dr. Shelley Moore and Dr. Leyton Schnellert to explore how their lived experiences with disability shaped their paths as educators. Shelley shares how Leyton was her art teacher in an innovative 90s middle school — a class where she, as a neurodivergent adolescent, finally felt a sense of belonging. Years later, Leyton — raised in the Canadian disability rights movement as the child of blind parents who fought for curb cuts and community-based education — became her mentor and helped her earn her doctorate in special education. Today, both champion radically inclusive, asset-based pedagogy that affirms the brilliance of every learner, especially students with disabilities. Leyton connects radical inclusion, intersectionality, and the First Peoples’ Principles of Learning. Shelley offers a sharp analogy — comparing test prep to preparing for a red-eye flight — as she pushes back against standardization.Their message: there’s nothing radical about inclusion, because inclusion just is.
For Further Learning:
- Click HERE or HERE to learn more about Dr. Leyton Schnellert
- Watch this info video about Dr. Leyton’s Change Projects, Equality, Co-creation
- Watch this info video about Dr. Leyton’s Schnellert’s work in Rural Education
- To learn more about Dr. Shelley Moore
- Visit her website and reach out if you’d like to work with her
- Learn about her work here www.outsidepinconsulting.com
- Subscribe and hit notifications for Dr. Shelley Moore’s YouTube channel
- Listen to The Five Moore Minutes Podcast with Dr. Shelley Moore
- Facebook: Five Moore Minutes with Dr. Shelley Moore
- Read the short article “Which Should Be Defended: Inclusion or Segregation?” by Kathie Snow
- Read the Universal Design for Learning Guidelines 3.0
Get ready for another re-release! In this beautiful conversation with BC-based education leader Jo Chrona, we step into Jo’s childhood as a voracious reader with a love of the land. We visit Jo on the bone-shaped, forested island of Haida Gwaii where she first learned the value of taking a pause to breathe in and out. From there, we visit the First People’s Principles of Learning, which Jo helped to author and describes as a “framework” for instructional decision-making. We engage in an important conversation about how to best use large-scale standardized data as a mechanism for moving toward equity, in which Jo offers guiding principles: it must not be high-stakes or negatively impact students’ wellbeing, and it must be a way to hold ourselves accountable for racialized disparities. We explore the interconnectedness between various parts of the education system, including teacher prep, curriculum, and student learning, accessing a window into the future from BC’s forward-moving approaches. Through this dynamic conversation, Jo helps us reframe the “achievement gap”, emphasizing that it is about the system, not the learner. Finally she challenges us to ensure we never homogenize groups of students, but rather get to know who our learners are through their stories. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss this enlightening glimpse of the future!
For Further Learning:
- Visit https://luudisk.com/ to learn more about Jo Chrona’s work.
- Explore the First Peoples Principles of Learning (FPPL)
- Other podcasts featuring Jo Chrona:
- Brave New Teacher, Ep. 159
- Free Range Humans, Ep 57
- Additional Professional Learning Resources for Learning In Indigenous Education:
- Continuing Our Learning Journey: A professional learning experience (videos and workshop facilitator's guide) for educators on how to include authentic Indigenous knowledge, perspectives, and content in BC’s curriculum.
- Pulling Together: A series of resource guides developed to support systemic change in post-secondary education
In this Season 6 episode of Street Data Pod, Shane and Alcine sit down with veteran math educators Nolan Fossum and Manny Medina for a grounded, urgent conversation about what it means to teach—and to teach math—in this moment. Nolan reflects on decentering teacher voice, redesigning classroom space into circles to disrupt hierarchy, and resisting grading as harm, while Manny shares how he teaches as a proud immigrant and “ambassador” for students navigating hostile systems, building belonging through micro-affirmations, math autobiographies, and joyful translanguaging that turns multilingual students into co-teachers. Together they connect classroom moves to larger political realities—math as a historical gatekeeper, teacher learning as an agency-building practice, and professional development that must be rooted in choice, trust, and safety—culminating in a powerful closing truth: teaching is a political act, and to pretend otherwise is to preserve the status quo.
For Further Learning:
- Read more about Nolan Fossum’s classroom and work in Chapter 5: Pillars & Practices from the 2022 NCTM Publication Success Stories from Catalyzing Change.
- Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework by Gholdy Muhammad
- Unearthing Joy by Gholdy Muhammad
Get ready for another re-release! Get to know transformational teacher leaders Marlo Bagsik and Nina Finci in this beautiful conversation and new episode! Co-hosts Shane and Alcine explore with their guests what it means to “choose the margins” of our classrooms as they hear about Marlo and Nina’s development of a districtwide Humanizing instructional framework. Together, they unpack how to create the conditions for belonging as a core domain of Student Agency for students at the margins. And they conclude with a poignant moment of witnessing Marlo’s experience of collaborating with Shane, Sawsan, and Crystal to develop Pedagogies of Voice: Street Data and the Path to Student Agency, the sequel to Street Data which will be on the shelves the first week of August!
For Further Learning:
- Pre-order your copy of Pedagogies of Voice: Street Data and the Path to Student Agency today HERE
- Watch this powerful video of educators from across the country sharing their thoughts about about student and teacher agency.
- Learn more about the Bridge Program, where Nina teaches
- Learn more about the Youth Legacy Project by Carlos Hagerdon, where Nina first learned about the Heartifacts task
- Visit your local library or bookstore to find some of Marlo Bagsik + Nina Finci’s favorite books that have help them teach and lead from the heart:
- Everything We Never Had- Randy Ribay
- On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous – Ocean Vuong
- The Bluest Eye – Toni Morrison
- All About Love – bell hooks
- Community at Work - Sam Kaner
- Antiracism and Universal Design for Learning – Andratesha Fritzgerald
In our first-ever LIVE podcast, recorded between Oakland and New Orleans, Shane and Alcine engage in a heartful conversation with Pedagogies of Voice co-author Marlo Bagsik. They excavate stories from how Marlo and Shane became collaborators and co-conspirators to how PoV came to be to what a focus on pedagogies of student voice mean to all three of the humans in dialogue here. Honoring the FullScale (formerly Aurora) Institute's focus on competency-based education, they explore what pedagogies are worthy of being paired with authentic competency-based education so that young people and educators alike feel empowered and excited about their futures. The energy in the room is abuzz as the hosts close with audience questions and from the gut, truthful reflections about why, how, and in what ways to navigate this work in these critical and often-hostile conditions.
For Further Learning:
- Visit Corwin Press to your copy of Pedagogies of Voice or Street Data
- Visit https://symposium2025.fullscalelearning.org/ to learn more about the FullScale 2025 Symposium where we recorded this episode
- To learn more about competency-based education, visit FullScale’s website
- Read Dr. Asa Hilliard’s essay, “No Mystery: Closing the Achievement Gap Between Africans and Excellence” in Young, Gifted, and Black: Promoting High Achievement Among African-American Students
Read Freedom is a Constant Struggle by Angela Davis
Get ready for a re-release to kick off season 6! In this delightful dialogue with the wizard behind Cult of Pedagogy, Jennifer Gonzalez, and middle school drama teacher Amanda Liebel, Shane and Alcine walk alongside two brilliant educators to think about service, street data, and pedagogy. You’ll learn the origin story of the magical blog and podcast called Cult of Pedagogy. We’ll think about what it means to have a “heart of service”, as Amanda characterizes the deep work of teaching as always a reflective practice. We’ll also discuss how Shane, Jamila, and Jennifer came together to create a 9-hour free video series that tracks two teams of teachers as they move through the messiness and richness of the Street Data process! Finally, this episode offers vibrant one-inch windows into a pedagogy of student voice, including:
- How to receive difficult street data from students with an open heart
- How to take deeper risks in the classroom (for example, to “indigenize our learning spaces”)
- Why being a perfectionist works against you as a teacher
- And what it means to “walk alongside students” and listen to what they want
Enjoy this priceless conversation!
For Further Learning:
- Visit Corwin Press to get your copy of Pedagogies of Voice
- Listen to 7 Teaching Practices that Nurture Student Voice, an episode on Jennifer Gonzales’ Cult of Pedagogy podcast where Crystal, Marlo, Sawsan, and Shane talk about Pedagogies of Voice, a “seed store” of practices that describes small, replicable moves that educators can use to center student voice, nurture agency, and create space for meaningful learning
- Check out Jennifer Gonzales’ Cult of Pedagogy podcast and blog on The Big List of Class Discussion Strategies
- Access 9 hours of free professional learning in Street Data Cult of Pedagogy video series
Season 5 closes with a tender and inquiry-centered conversation between Alcine, Shane, and the luminous Dr. Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz who shares that “Critical love is a profound and ethical commitment to the communities you’re serving… to the human flourishing of those young people in your classroom.” Dr. Sealey-Ruiz discusses her powerful Archeology of Self framework, quoted in Shane’s forthcoming book Pedagogies of Voice (PoV), making deep and seamless connections to Street Data and PoV. She invites us into the “Warrior Work” of solidarity, explaining how these respective bodies of work speak to each other, specifically how the 10 toxins in Pedagogies of Voice intersect with her racial literacy development framework. And the conversation ends with an emotional conversation about the 2024 election and the need to “name the suffering” as a condition for healing while also “hospicing grief to make room for something new to be birthed.” Don’t miss this final episode, which ties together so many threads of our Season 5!
For Further Learning:
- Dr. Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz’s TEDTalk: Truth, Love & Racial Literacy
- Read Dr. Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz’s recent titles:
- All About Black Girl Love in Education: bell hooks and Pedagogies of Love, 2024
- Advancing Racial Literacies in Teacher Education: Activism for Equity in Digital Spaces. 2021
- The Peace Chronicles, 2021
- Love from the Vortex & Other Poems, 2020
- An Archaeology of Self™ for Our Times
- Visit The Acosta Institute
Tune in for another re-release! Shane and Alcine are back with this on-FIRE conversation with Cincinnati math educators Crystal Watson and Dr. Dawn Williams who remind us that “The sun does not ask permission to shine, and neither do I.” These Black women leaders take us on a journey to understanding the type of math pedagogy that will transform and empower future generations of learners. We learn from Dr. Dawn why it’s important for leaders to create a place called home for teachers and, in turn, for students. Crystal and Dawn model a culture of listening to students, always asking, “How will that one child feel…?” and engaging in learning alongside students, all in efforts to affirm to students that the classroom is “your space.” They also teach us how to have a student-centered Data Meeting, how to support teachers to practice active listening- even when it’s uncomfortable! They explain how anxiety specifically with math triggers fight or flight, diminished executive function, and distracting behaviors in the classroom, and how building authentic and trusting relationships can help teachers guide students through that anxiety. Finally, we celebrate the truth that Black educators are “everything” while acknowledging the emotional labor of being a Black woman educational leader.
For Further Learning:
- Principles for the Design of Mathematics Curricula: Promoting Language and Content Development with specific Math Language routines classroom teachers can implement
- The Memo and Right Within by Minda Harts on overcoming racial trauma and discrimination in the workplace
- Choosing to See by Dr. Pamela Seda and Kendall Brown
- Crystal Watson is co-author of Shane's upcoming book Pedagogies of Voice: Street Data and the Path to Student Agency! Pre-Order at Corwin
- Check out this Webinar about Pedagogies of Voice: Street Data and the Path to Student Agency which features Crystal Watson on 5/21:
Come and join Alcine and Shane as they visit with British Columbia educators John Harris and Denise Augustine. We begin in the realm of story as Denise describes being situated “between generations” in her renowned Coast Salish family of carvers, artists, and leaders and John shares his experiences of growing up on the land and watching his father negotiate treaties as the official liaison for their community. Drawing on her legacy as the Superintendent of Indigenous Education for British Columbia, Denise provides powerful historical context for the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Canada, which created space for residential school survivors to tell their stories and led to 94 distinct “calls to action” in 2015. She pulls this thread into the fabric of educational change, illuminating how BC is leading the way in reconciliation through a Tripartide Education Agreement and the more recent Declaration of the Right of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA), which requires that school districts create Indigenous Education Councils that view First Nations as “governing bodies”, not just “special interest groups.” From this exploration of reconciliation in education, John takes us into his own family’s legacy of the “Sixties Scoop”, in which his father was taken from his grandparent’s home nearly a dozen times, all the way to his family’s recent visit to the Field Museum of Chicago, which holds over 4,000,000 cultural artifacts, many of which were purchased from Indigenous Nations in the Pacific Northwest. John describes the unsettling experience “as if someone went into your house and took everything.” They end their visit discussing the nuances of place-based versus land-based education and the ways that John has woven his upbringing and community cultural wealth into his pedagogy, which is depicted in the integrative case study which concludes Shane’s forthcoming book, Pedagogies of Voice: Street Data and the Path to Student Agency (Corwin, 2025). Speaking to student agency, John reminds us that “When we give youth opportunities to give back to their communities, they really shine.” Join us for this incredible and luminous conversation reinforcing relationality and reciprocity as core values from Indigenous knowledge systems that hold the potential to transform education everywhere.
For Further Learning:
- Learn more about John and his family’s artwork and clothing line at www.aylelum.com
- Learn more about indigenous ways of knowing and being by reading
- Indigenous Storywork: Educating the Heart, Mind, Body, and Spirit by Jo-Ann Archibald
- Land as teacher: understanding Indigenous land-based education - UNESCO Canadian Commission June 21, 2021
- See land-based education in action by following Land-based Education K-12 Plains & Woodland Cree Tanya McCallum on Facebook
- Learn more about the work of the First Nations Education Steering Committee in British Columbia, Canada
- Read up on the The United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People Act
In this re-released episode, with Blackfoot scholar Dr. Sidney Stone Brown, Alcine and Shane are gifted many stories and teachings. We learn about the Native Self-Actualization model that Dr. Stone created and how she was told by her elders, “We’ve been looking for you” before she wrote her book. We dig into her original research into Abraham Maslow’s archives and discover the truth that Maslow’s concept was not originally a hierarchy, but that the corporations utilizing his work asked him to convert it into a pyramid to “motivate their employees”. We also explore the deep layers of what it means to heal, to come back to our wholeness, to understand time as circular rather than linear, and to situate listening as the ultimate act of transformation. Your heart will sing as you listen to Dr. Sidney Stone Brown.
For Further Learning:
- Visit Dr. Sidney Stone Brown’s website www.transformationbeyondgreed.com/ to learn more about her work
- Get your copy of Transformation Beyond Greed by Dr. Sidney Stone Brown, PsyD
In this touching episode, we center the voice of middle school student leader Karime Reyes who helped to spearhead a radical redesign of her school’s first week last August. In conversation with Peer Resource class teacher Tamar Sberlo, Karime brings insight and depth to what students really want in a classroom, what it means to belong, and how it felt to be part of a school transformation process. We also get a window into Tamar’s “low control” teaching style and the ways she strives to give learners choice and voice. Walk with us as we enter the world of MLK Jr Middle School in San Francisco and see the Street Data model come to life!
For Further Learning:
- Watch Sir Ken Robinson’s mind-blowing video (~12 minutes) on “Changing Education Paradigms” to situate the conversation with Tamar and Karime in a historical context.
- Courageous Conversations About Race: A Field Guide for Achieving Equity in Schools by Glenn E Singleton
- For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood… and the Rest of Y’all Too: Reality Pedagogy and Urban Education by Chris Emdin
Get ready for a re-release! Shane and Alcine dream with colleagues Matt Alexander and Jessica Huang, surfacing shared learning from a combined 80 plus years in education. Matt and Shane reminisce about the early years of teaching in San Francisco pre-No Child Left Behind and how they aspired toward a pedagogy of student voice. Jessica shares her experience working in international education in Asia where the West is “exporting stereotypes into neocolonial schools” and ways she is disrupting the Model Minority myth. These four leaders explore how the American Dream is a facade, lessons in democracy from the world of community organizing, and why leaders need a power analysis of their school communities. Finally, they consider what authentic accountability looks like and what it means to walk toward becoming elders in the movement for educational justice, and preview a project they are working on to “radically dream” together with educators across US + Canada.
For Further Learning:
- Dive deeper into the 6 Key Aspects of Social Justice Pedagogy developed by June Jordan School for Social Justice educators.
- Learn more about Faith in Action Bay Area and the work that they do to uphold the dignity of all people.
- Read up on AB 540 which expanded in-state tuition eligibility in california and check out whether you may qualify.
Get to know transformational teacher leaders Marlo Bagsik and Nina Finci in this beautiful conversation and new episode! Co-hosts Shane and Alcine explore with their guests what it means to “choose the margins” of our classrooms as they hear about Marlo and Nina’s development of a districtwide Humanizing instructional framework. Together, they unpack how to create the conditions for belonging as a core domain of Student Agency for students at the margins. And they conclude with a poignant moment of witnessing Marlo’s experience of collaborating with Shane, Sawsan, and Crystal to develop Pedagogies of Voice: Street Data and the Path to Student Agency, the sequel to Street Data which will be on the shelves the first week of August!
For Further Learning:
- Pre-order your copy of Pedagogies of Voice: Street Data and the Path to Student Agency today HERE
- Watch this powerful video of educators from across the country sharing their thoughts about about student and teacher agency.
- Learn more about the Bridge Program, where Nina teaches
- Learn more about the Youth Legacy Project by Carlos Hagerdon, where Nina first learned about the Heartifacts task
- Visit your local library or bookstore to find some of Marlo Bagsik + Nina Finci’s favorite books that have help them teach and lead from the heart:
- Everything We Never Had- Randy Ribay
- On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous – Ocean Vuong
- The Bluest Eye – Toni Morrison
- All About Love – bell hooks
- Community at Work - Sam Kaner
- Antiracism and Universal Design for Learning – Andratesha Fritzgerald
Today’s episode is a re-release with high school students Ari and Harshan and it is life-giving! These fearless leaders, along with 50 of their peers, have been using Street Data to shape school transformation projects on issues ranging from disrupting bullying through Indigenous, restorative practices to centering students’ mental health in schooling to reimagining assessment practices. In this episode, Shane and Alcine get to hear about Ari and Harshan’s names, the identities that matter to them, and the changes they seek at their schools. The episode ends with an exploration of the kinds of classrooms and conversations young people need in this complex, volatile moment we are living through. Don’t miss this wonderful dialogue!
For Further Learning:
- Pedagogies of Voice, Shane Safir's new book, is coming soon! To get 30% off of your pre order, click here!
- Get your copy of Street Data by Corwin Press
Join us for this opening episode of Season 5 as we dive into the instructional core with THE Zaretta Hammond, who needs no introduction! Get to know Zaretta as she enters her self-described “Maker Phase” of life. In this season, Alcine and Shane are exploring the question, What needs to be true—at various levels of the system—to awaken and center student voice and agency? Zaretta cracks open this conversation by challenging all of us to couple “equity work” with “instructional equity”, beginning with a deep focus on literacy to interrupt what she has deemed cognitive redlining. Listen as Zaretta unpacks a pedagogy of possibility in which educators leverage neuroscience to make learning “sticky” and help students get smarter and sharper about the core skills they need to thrive. Zaretta offers so many insights on where we need to pay attention as educators, starting with a reminder that curriculum is not a magic wand that will generate learning and belonging is a precondition for cognitive capacity-building, not the end goal. She grounds us in the truth that learning is messy, predicated on making and thinking strategically about mistakes, and that students need both care and push. And she gives us a powerful vision of classrooms rooted in the kinds of “studio habits” that artists have, in which students are cognitively apprenticed into the vital skills and habits of learning required for the global societies in which they live.
For Further Learning:
- Visit Zaretta’s organization Ready 4 Rigor HERE
- Get your copy of Culturally Responsive Teaching and The Brain HERE
- Listen to Zaretta Hammond on the following podcasts:
- Whole Student Podcast: Who Helped You Thrive as a Student? (2022)
- 180 Podcast Part 1 and Part 2
- The Future of Learning with Tim Logan (in the UK) - April 3, 2024
- Minding the Gap with Tom Sherrington (UK) - Jan. 2024
Today's episode is a re-release from Season 4! From West Philly to Stanford University to becoming a field-shifting scholar, Dr. GLB is here to drop the mic for Street Data Pod’s Season 4. We learn about Little Gloria and her largely positive educational experience growing up in Philadelphia before attending a Historically Black College or University (HBCU). We get the inside scoop on her groundbreaking research as a post-doc at Stanford, including what happened when she flipped the dominant, deficit-based research paradigms and asked, “What’s right with Black kids?” From there, GLB enlightens us around the core tenets of culturally relevant pedagogy, which starts with a set of beliefs about children and families (not practices!) and a willingness to interrogate knowledge. Finally, we talk about the transformative value of focusing on the “big ideas” of one’s discipline versus the millions of little facts that suck the life out of so much curriculum. To continue our exploration of pedagogies of student voice, GLB takes us to Matamoros, México where a science teacher with few resources in an “underperforming” region breathes life into his content by believing in the brilliance of his students and building an experiential learning simulation. Don’t miss this phenomenal episode!
For Further Learning:
- Here is a recent article by Dr. Ladson-Billings: “I’m Here for the Hard Re-Set: Post Pandemic Pedagogy to Preserve Our Culture”
- Here’s a trailer for Radical, the movie Dr. Ladson-Billings referenced as an example of culturally responsive pedagogy in classrooms.
- At the time of the recording, Dr. Luis Moll just transitioned into being an ancestor. We want to honor his brilliant contributions to our field by sharing an article on his seminal theory of funds of knowledge.
In this final episode of Season 4, Alcine and Shane return to a conversation with Dr. Sawsan Jaber, contributing writer to Shane’s forthcoming book Pedagogies of Voice: Street Data and the Path to Student Agency. They explore the impact of the genocide in Gaza, and the backlash against Palestinian advocacy, on Sawsan as a leading Palestinian educator voice. And Sawsan shares what it’s meant to her to be a part of this next Corwin Press project. In the second half of the episode, Shane and Alcine walk down the Season 4 Memory Lane, surfacing moments that moved them and stayed with them. They close with a sneak preview of Season 5, which launches in January 2025, a few months before the debut of Pedagogies of Voice. Join us to close out this dynamic season!
For Further Learning:
- Envision Learning Partners’ criteria for high quality performance assessments
- Read Shane’s article in ASCD’s Educational Leadership magazine, “Cultivating A Pedagogy of Student Voice”
In this penultimate episode of Season 4, Shane and Alcine explore the contours of Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies with the illustrious Dr. Django Paris. Their conversation explores the ideas of shared communities and solidarities across difference, intersectionality, and chosen kinship. We learn how Django’s experiences of reading, writing, and art as a little person inform his scholarship and remind him “what it means to keep that voice and dedication to expression” as a scholar. We unpack the central tenets of Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy, including CPS as a pedagogical expression of both community care and the abolitionist ethos, “We keep us safe.” Finally, this intimate fireside chat uplifts the student-led movements for a Free Palestine that have emerged across the U.S. and beyond as spaces of abundance that resist a scarcity mindset. Don’t miss this groundbreaking, heartstring-tugging conversation with one of today’s educational dreamers and thought leaders.
For Further Learning:
- To learn more about Dr. Paris and his scholarship, click here.
- You can find his book Education in Movement Spaces: Standing Rock to Chicago Freedom Square at Routledge Press and the book series Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies Book Series at Teachers’ College Press.
- Dr. Paris’s new conversations series can be found at An Educational Otherwise
- To learn more about the Popular University for Gaza at UW, click here.
Get ready for another re-release from Season 3! In this delightful dialogue with the wizard behind Cult of Pedagogy, Jennifer Gonzalez, and middle school drama teacher Amanda Liebel, Shane and Alcine walk alongside two brilliant educators to think about service, street data, and pedagogy. You’ll learn the origin story of the magical blog and podcast called Cult of Pedagogy. We’ll think about what it means to have a “heart of service”, as Amanda characterizes the deep work of teaching as always a reflective practice. We’ll also discuss how Shane, Jamila, and Jennifer came together to create a 9-hour free video series that follows two teams of teachers as they move through the messiness and richness of the Street Data process! Finally, this episode offers one-inch windows into a pedagogy of student voice, including:
- How to receive difficult street data from students with an open heart
- How to take deeper risks in the classroom (for example, to “Indigenize our learning spaces”)
- Why being a perfectionist works against you as a teacher
- And what it means to “walk alongside students” and listen to what they want
Enjoy this priceless conversation!
For Further Learning:
- Listen to the original Cult of Pedagogy podcast episode with Shane and Jamila, “Street Data: A Path Toward Equitable, Anti-racist Schools” (October 5, 2021)
- Access 9 hours of free professional learning in Street Data Cult of Pedagogy video series
- Listen to the follow-up Cult of Pedagogy podcast episode about this learning series with Shane, Jamila, and Amanda (January 29, 2023)
- Check out the mentioned Cult of Pedagogy podcast and blog on The Big List of Class Discussion Strategies
From West Philly to Stanford University to becoming a field-shifting scholar, Dr. GLB is here to drop the mic for Street Data Pod’s Season 4. We learn about Little Gloria and her largely positive educational experience growing up in Philadelphia before attending a Historically Black College or University (HBCU). We get the inside scoop on her groundbreaking research as a post-doc at Stanford, including what happened when she flipped the dominant, deficit-based research paradigms and asked, “What’s right with Black kids?” From there, GLB enlightens us around the core tenets of culturally relevant pedagogy, which starts with a set of beliefs about children and families (not practices!) and a willingness to interrogate knowledge. Finally, we talk about the transformative value of focusing on the “big ideas” of one’s discipline versus the millions of little facts that suck the life out of so much curriculum. To continue our exploration of pedagogies of student voice, GLB takes us to Matamoros, México where a science teacher with few resources in an “underperforming” region breathes life into his content by believing in the brilliance of his students and building an experiential learning simulation. Don’t miss this phenomenal episode!
For Further Learning:
- Here is a recent article by Dr. Ladson-Billings: “I’m Here for the Hard Re-Set: Post Pandemic Pedagogy to Preserve Our Culture”
- Here’s a trailer for Radical, the movie Dr. Ladson-Billings referenced as an example of culturally responsive pedagogy in classrooms.
- At the time of the recording, Dr. Luis Moll just transitioned into being an ancestor. We want to honor his brilliant contributions to our field by sharing an article on his seminal theory of funds of knowledge.
We are back for another re-release from season 2 with Young Whan Choi! In this episode, we explore ways of being and leading in education that truly center students. Young Whan implores us to “marginalize” standardized testing, or at least push it to the periphery, as he offers a vision of authentic, community-based, performance assessments that demonstrate what students know and are able to do. He exposes the irony that, while many new leaders evoke the principle of being “student-centered”, students themselves are often painfully absent from professional learning agendas, except perhaps as an aggregated data point. And finally, Young Whan helps us rethink where knowledge lives and where power exists within the system.
For Further Learning:
- Get a copy of Street Data on Amazon, Corwin Press, or from a BIPOC-owned local bookstore.
- Get a copy of Young Whan’s book, Sparks Into Fire: Revitalizing Teacher Practice Through Collective Learning at Teachers’ College Press.
- Read Shane’s recent Ed Week article on standardized testing.
- Watch Awo Okaikor Aryee-Price, Wayne Au, Denisha Jones and Jesse Hagopian discuss the racist history of standardized testing and its impacts today in The Racist History of Standardized Testing
We are back with another re-release from Season 2! In this episode, you’ll listen at the feet of the incomparable Dr. Lisa Delpit, whose books Other People’s Children and Multiplication Is for White People deeply impacted Shane and Alcine, alongside her brilliant mentee and Street Data co-author Dr. Jamila Dugan. We get a one-inch window into Dr. Delpit’s early experiences in “white teacher education” and the Open Classroom model where Black teachers’ wisdom and skill was often undervalued. We witness a beautiful exchange between Dr. Delpit and Dr. Dugan about the intergenerational work they are involved in and what it means for all of us to step into being elders-in-training. If you’re as confused as we are about the Science of Reading “debates”, this episode will help you shift and lift the discourse about literacy, as Dr. Delpit brings complexity and nuance, helping us all remember that while phonics instruction is necessary, successful teachers of Black students do so much more: affirm their humanity, create relationships, make them feel a part of the literacy “club”, and elevate their intellectual history and legacy. These leading thinkers help us envision classrooms where children have a voice and leadership roles, and schools where students begin to enter adult spaces in order to influence education. Finally, we end with a deep discussion of the Warm Demander concept and why demanding is not the same as diminishing because the love and belief in the kids has to be there first. Join us!
For Further Learning:
For Further Learning:
- The Silenced Dialogue:Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Children by Lisa Delpit
-
- Other People’s Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom by Lisa Delpit
- “Multiplication is for White People”: Raising Expectations for Other People’s Children by Lisa Delpit
- Teaching When the World Is on Fire: Authentic Classroom Advice, from Climate Justice to Black Lives Matter by Lisa Delpit
- Radical Dreaming for Education Now by Dr. Jamila Dugan
In this hot-off-the-press episode, Alcine and Shane chop it up with Joe Feldman, author of Grading for Equity: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How It Can Transform Schools and Classrooms. As you listen in, you’ll get a primer on grading, assessment, and how to reimagine grading as a tool for equity. We dig into the principles of grading for equity including accuracy, transparency, and bias-resistance. Joe’s innovative work is transforming the field and bringing joy back into teaching as educators shed oppressive practices and colonial mindsets around grading. Join us for this illuminating conversation!
Further Learning:
- Grading for Equity: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How It Can Transform Schools and Classrooms (2023)
- “Empowering Students by Demystifying Grading (ASCD, 2020)
- “Beyond standards-based grading: Why equity must be part of grading reform” (Kappan, 2019)
- “School Grading Practices are Inaccurate and Inequitable to Black Children” (New York Amsterdam News, 2018)
Today’s episode is a re-release from Season 1! Join hosts Shane Safir and Alcine Mumby as they dig deep with Dr. Christopher Emdin around how to be a good ancestor, biomimicry as a guide to school transformation, burning the pedagogical sage, and so much more. This episode will change you! A must-listen for all new administrators and teachers finding their way in complex times.
For Further Learning:
- Order Chris’s book Rathedemic at http://www.beacon.org/Ratchetdemic-P1703.aspx
- Read Chris’s foreword in Street Data to make connections to the pod conversation
- Order adrienne marie brown’s Emergent Strategy at https://www.akpress.org/emergentstrategy.html
In this double-header, Alcine and Shane close out Season 3 by talking with Dr. Sawsan Jaber, internationally known educator and consultant. Sawsan shares her heart, her story, and her legacy as a descendant of Nakba survivors, helping listeners consider how centering Palestinian students helps us “lift all boats” and create more radically inclusive classrooms. From this powerful exchange, Alcine and Shane shift into a Season 3 reflection, offering moments that stayed with them and digging into Alcine’s wealth of knowledge on transformative assessment as well as Shane’s forthcoming book project, Pedagogies of Voice–for which Sawsan is a contributing writer. They close by previewing a slight shift in podcast rhythm for the upcoming Season 4, which will launch in February!
For Further Learning:
- Get your copy of street data HERE. Use code STREETDATA for a 20% discount.
- Want to try creating a grad profile or vision of a learner for your classroom, department, school or district? Here is Envision Learning Partners’ (ELP) Grad Profile quality criteria. LP has some criteria for creating high quality vision of a learner or grad profiles. Should I include it here, seeing that Sawson references grad profiles?
- If you’d like to learn more about Envision Learning Partners and the work that Alcine does there, visit ELP at www.envisionlearning.org.
- Listen to Episode 24: “Get Off Your Pedestal!” and Other Brilliant Advice from High School Student Leaders Ari and Harshan
- Link the Episode 4: “What Does it Mean to Freedom Dream?”: Disrupting Traps and Tropes with Dr. Jamila Dugan
- Link to Episode 12: “We Made Classrooms Public Spaces” with Jessica Huang and Matt Alexander
Today’s conversation with high school students Ari and Harshan is life-giving! These fearless leaders, along with 50 of their peers, have been using Street Data to shape school transformation projects on issues ranging from disrupting bullying through Indigenous, restorative practices to centering students’ mental health in schooling to reimagining assessment practices. In this episode, Shane and Alcine get to hear about Ari and Harshan’s names, the identities that matter to them, and the changes they seek at their schools. The episode ends with an exploration of the kinds of classrooms and conversations young people need in this complex, volatile moment we are living through. Don’t miss this wonderful dialogue!
For Further Learning:
- Get your copy of Street Data by Corwin Press
In this beautiful conversation, Alcine and Shane embrace storientation to hear Dr. Montessa Muñoz’s journey from a young Latina mother to a school and district administrator, and what it has meant for her to be a role model for students who “look just like me.” We unpack the problem with making decisions for and about students based on satellite data alone and explore the “hack” of “students-as-consultants”... What happens when a bunch of school administrators are asked to sit in the back of the room and simply listen as 8-10 students talk about district-wide data on attendance and “achievement”? According to Montessa, the experience was “amazing… there were administrators in the back who were crying.” They also discuss the powerful, agentic experience of students serving on a Kiva Panel and Montessa’s radical dreams for assessment: to center student voice into a truly balanced assessment system.
For Further Learning:
- Assessment Leadership: Leading a Balanced, Comprehensive Assessment System to Improve Teaching and Learning by Jessica Arnold and Robert Sheffield, with Chelsea Talakoub
In this re-release of Episode 7, Alcine and Shane to listen and learn from Dr. Kevin Godden and Dr. Perry Smith, former Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent of the Abbotsford School District near Vancouver. Through one-inch windows into an evolving system, the conversation distills the role of deep listening in school transformation. We talk about Kevin’s first day of school in Canada as a Jamaican immigrant, confronting the ugliness of racism, and his mom’s messaging that restored him. We learn Perry’s journey of wanting to wear moccasins to school as a young Indigenous student in Abbotsford with virtually no representation around him. And we think about what it means to carry the heart of a teacher and lead like a teacher. Join us.
For Further Learning
- Learn more about the Deeper Learning Dozen, a community of practice that supports superintendents to transform their school districts in ways that create equitable access to deeper learning experiences and outcomes.
- Get a copy of Perry’s beautiful children’s book, Powwow Dancing with Family.
In this inspiring conversation, Alcine and Shane listen to principal Linda Pollastretti and vice principal Sandeep Gill about how they supported teams of 11th grade students to engage in Street Data cycles. We learn about the ways these incredible leaders have been gathering Street Data, from home visits to “entrance interviews” to having students write their own stories. We walk alongside them and their students teams to witness how student voice can change the most sacred structures in schooling, such as bell schedules that create more flexibility for learners and assessments that attune to mental health needs. We also hear about how this work scaled organically emergently from one district all the way to the Ministry of Education for the province of British Columbia, when student voice leaders spoke to Ministry leaders, the BC Teacher’s Federation and the BC Trustees. Finally, we get a birdseye view of how to lead from behind students, resisting the urge to become defensive or reactive and learning that “I am not the problem solver. I am the engager and the listener. The kids will come up with the solution in the end.”
In this beautiful episode, Shane and Alcine listen to leaders Stacey Coonsis and Valerie Kie as they share their stories, identities, and deepest hopes for the schools they lead. As Elementary Head of School for the Native American Community Academy in Albuquerque, Stacey talks about what it means to lead as a Dine’ matriarch toward NACA’s mission of creating new leaders who are not just academically prepared, but also secure in their identities and wellbeing. We learn about NACA’s holistic data framework, the Wellness Wheel, and the family conferences in which students and families analyze the learner’s physical, community, and relational wellness. Val illuminates how the NACA-inspired School Network (NISN) expanded from NACA, the original school, to 13 Indigenous-centered and led schools across the country. We get a one-inch window into the original curriculum design work at NACA that helps to build a curriculum “indicative of (our) ways of knowing and being and the values (we) have.” And we dismantle the myth of “learning loss” as Stacey paints a vivid picture of what it looked like for Indigenous children to learn in community, alongside adults and elders, before there were formal schooling establishments during Covid.
For Further Learning:
- Read the most recent 2021-22 State of New Mexico Tribal Education Status Report
- Visit www.nacaschool.org to learn more about Native American Community Academy
- Visit www.nacainspiredschoolsnetwork.org to learn more about the NACA-Inspired School Network (NISN)
- NACA interactive Wellness Wheel. In order to complete the wheel, you will need to click at the center and go outward. Click on the question marks to see the guiding questions for each domain.
In this conversation with Blackfoot scholar Dr. Sidney Stone Brown, Alcine and Shane are gifted many stories and teachings. We learn about the Native Self-Actualization model that Dr. Stone created and how she was told by her elders, “We’ve been looking for you” before she wrote her book. We dig into her original research into Abraham Maslow’s archives and discover the truth that Maslow’s concept was not originally a hierarchy, but that the corporations utilizing his work asked him to convert it into a pyramid to “motivate their employees”. We also explore the deep layers of what it means to heal, to come back to our wholeness, to understand time as circular rather than linear, and to situate listening as the ultimate act of transformation. Your heart will sing as you listen to Dr. Sidney Stone Brown.
For Further Learning:
- Visit Dr. Sidney Stone Brown’s website www.transformationbeyondgreed.com/ to learn more about her work
- Get your copy of Transformation Beyond Greed by Dr. Sidney Stone Brown, PsyD
In this delightful dialogue with the wizard behind Cult of Pedagogy, Jennifer Gonzalez, and middle school drama teacher Amanda Liebel, Shane and Alcine walk alongside two brilliant educators to think about service, street data, and pedagogy. You’ll learn the origin story of the magical blog and podcast called Cult of Pedagogy. We’ll think about what it means to have a “heart of service”, as Amanda characterizes the deep work of teaching as always a reflective practice. We’ll also discuss how Shane, Jamila, and Jennifer came together to create a 9-hour free video series that tracks two teams of teachers as they move through the messiness and richness of the Street Data process! Finally, this episode offers vibrant one-inch windows into a pedagogy of student voice, including:
- How to receive difficult street data from students with an open heart
- How to take deeper risks in the classroom (for example, to “indigenize our learning spaces”)
- Why being a perfectionist works against you as a teacher
- And what it means to “walk alongside students” and listen to what they want
Enjoy this priceless conversation!
For Further Learning:
- Listen to the original Cult of Pedagogy podcast episode with Shane and Jamila, “Street Data: A Path Toward Equitable, Anti-racist Schools” (October 5, 2021)
- Access 9 hours of free professional learning in Street Data Cult of Pedagogy video series
- Listen to the follow-up Cult of Pedagogy podcast episode about this learning series with Shane, Jamila, and Amanda (January 29, 2023)
Check out the mentioned Cult of Pedagogy podcast and blog on The Big List of Class Discussion Strategies
Shane and Alcine are back with this on-FIRE conversation with Cincinnati math educators Crystal Watson and Dr. Dawn Williams who remind us that “The sun does not ask permission to shine, and neither do I.” These Black women leaders take us on a journey to understanding the type of math pedagogy that will transform and empower future generations of learners. We learn from Dr. Dawn why it’s important for leaders to create a place called home for teachers and, in turn, for students. Crystal and Dawn model a culture of listening to students as they enter classrooms, always asking, “How will that one child feel…?”, engaging in learning alongside students, all in efforts to affirm to students that the classroom is “your space”. They also teach us how to have a student-centered Data Meeting, how to support teachers to practice active listening (even when it’s uncomfortable!. They explain how anxiety specifically with math triggers fight or flight, diminished executive function, and distracting behaviors in the classroom and how building authentic and trusting relationships can help teachers guide students through that anxiety. Finally, we celebrate the truth that Black educators are “everything” while acknowledging the emotional labor of being a Black woman educational leader.
For further learning:
- Principles for the Design of Mathematics Curricula: Promoting Language and Content Development with specific Math Language routines classroom teachers can implement
- Books: The Memo and Right Within by Minda Harts on overcoming racial trauma and discrimination in the workplace
Book: Choosing to See by Dr. Pamela Seda and Kendall Brown
Public Learning, a model developed by the organization Lead by Learning, is a practice that builds awareness in educators in order to better serve their students. Public Learning is not a formula for professional development, but rather a stance and a way of being that activates everything strong educators know about teaching and learning–the need for curiosity around a learner’s experience, the role of uncertainty and complexity, and so much more. In this illuminating conversation, the founder and current leader of Lead by Learning, Jennifer Ahn and Carrie Wilson, remind us of the power of public, reflective adult learning to create a path toward equity and antiracism in schools. These brilliant leaders help us think about what teachers need to genuinely learn and grow and how to infuse a pedagogy of voice at every level of the system.
You can follow Jennifer Ahn at Lead by Learning’s Instagram @leadbylearning_, Facebook @weleadbylearning, Twitter @Lead_byLearning, and LinkedIn at Lead by Learning.
For further learning:
Please link to any resources you would like to include in the show notes:
- Learn more about public learning and other adult learning practices in Lead by Learning’s free playbook.
- Read stories from educators on the ground who are engaging in public learning to better support students.
Watch a webinar on how teachers are using public learning and street data to challenge dominant data narratives
In this reflective conversation, Shane and Alcine wrap up Season 2 by sharing some of their own stories, lenses, and learning around the work. You’ll hear what’s emerging on the ground as Shane and Dr. Dugan try to bring the Street Data model to life through communities of practice. You’ll consider the difference between cultural appropriation and appreciation, tapping into the brilliance of Jo Chrona’s book Wayi Wah! Indigenous Pedagogies: An Act for Reconciliation and Anti-Racist Education. We also learn more about how Alcine’s mother influenced her student-centered pedagogy and how her experiences as a good test taker during desegregation efforts in the 1980’s shaped her views on standardized testing. And we say goodbye to our original producer, the incomparable Maya Cueva, who is off to work on a new film and other projects!
For Further Learning:
- Podcasts
- Cheaper Than Therapy: Avoiding Resentment
- The Cult of Pedagogy with Jennifer Gonzalez
- Books
- Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
- Wayi Wah! Indigenous Pedagogies by Jo Chrona
- Articles
- Cultivating a Pedagogy of Student Voice by Shane Safir
- Metacognition in the Classroom: Benefits & Strategies
- Films
- Watch Maya’s film On The Divide ( https://vimeo.com/ondemand/onthedivide )
In this episode, you’ll listen at the feet of the incomparable scholar Dr. Lisa Delpit, whose books Other People’s Children and Multiplication Is for White People deeply impacted Shane and Alcine, alongside her brilliant mentee and Street Data co-author Dr. Jamila Dugan. We get a one-inch window into Dr. Delpit’s early experiences in “white teacher education” and the Open Classroom model where Black teachers’ wisdom and skill was often undervalued. We witness a beautiful exchange between Dr. Delpit and Dr. Dugan about the intergenerational work they are involved in and what it means for all of us to step into being elders in training. If you’re as confused as we are about the Science of Reading “debates”, this episode will help you shift and lift the discourse about literacy, as Dr. Delpit brings complexity and nuance, helping us all remember that while phonics is necessary, successful teachers of Black students do so much more: affirm their humanity, create relationships, make them feel a part of the literacy “club”, and elevate heir intellectual history and legacy. These leading thinkers help us envision classrooms where children have a voice and leadership roles, and schools where students begin to enter adult spaces in order to influence education. Finally, we end with a deep discussion of the Warm Demander concept and why demanding is not the same as diminishing because the love and belief in the kids has to be there first. Join us!
For Further Learning:
- The Silenced Dialogue:Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Children by Lisa Delpit
- Other People’s Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom by Lisa Delpit
- “Multiplication is for White People”: Raising Expectations for Other People’s Children by Lisa Delpit
- Teaching When the World Is on Fire: Authentic Classroom Advice, from Climate Justice to Black Lives Matter by Lisa Delpit
- Radical Dreaming for Education Now by Dr. Jamila Dugan
Pod Squad, this episode just might make you cry. Join us as we walk through rural British Columbia and urban Baltimore, moving through the ancestral realm to Harvard board rooms to one guest’s grandma’s living room. We’ll talk about Indigenous fusion food (ever heard of Bannock French Toast?) and the pork chop dilemma of project-based learning: How do we neither undercook nor overcook the project? Also, what are the limitations of big studies and meta-research to help us understand the nuances and lasting impact of deep learning experiences. You’ll learn about Little Gail Higginbottom and what drove her to be the writer and fierce, heart-forward, equity-centered leader of Indigenous education she is today, and Little Jal Mehta’s pathway from an inquiry-based school (that his mom led!) to founding a community of 12 districts across North America that are blazing new trails for equity and deeper learning.
Equity is vulnerable work. We have to create cultural emotional spiritual safety for students, families and communities.
For Further Learning:
- To learn more about the Deeper Learning Dozen, click here.
- Get Jal and Sarah Fine’s book In Search of Deeper Learning here.
-
Gail’s reflection questions, inspired by the DLD teaching that “equity is structural”:
- How do we ensure student voice is leading this work?
- How do we decide who to include? How do we decide who to invite?
- How do we do that work safely?
- How do we ensure that students who share their stories are honoured, nurtured, and empowered?
- How do we ensure students are heard and their voices are amplified?
- How do we ensure these voices are listened to?
- What do we need to do to show those students that we care, that they matter, and we believe in them?
In Episode 12, Shane and Alcine dream with colleagues Matt Alexander and Jessica Huang, surfacing shared learning from a combined 80 plus years in education. Matt and Shane reminisce about the early years of teaching in San Francisco pre-No Child Left Behind and how they aspired toward a pedagogy of student voice. Jessica shares her experience working in international education in Asia where the West is “exporting stereotypes into neocolonial schools” and ways she is disrupting the Model Minority myth. These four leaders explore how the American Dream is a facade, lessons in democracy from the world of community organizing, and why leaders need a power analysis of their school communities. Finally, they consider what authentic accountability looks like and what it means to walk toward becoming elders in the movement for educational justice, and preview a project they are working on to “radically dream” together with educators across US + Canada.
For Further Learning:
- Dive deeper into the 6 Key Aspects of Social Justice Pedagogy developed by June Jordan School for Social Justice educators.
- Learn more about Faith in Action Bay Area and the work that they do to uphold the dignity of all people.
- Read up on AB 540 which expanded in-state tuition eligibility in california and check out whether you may qualify.
In Episode 11, Alcine and Shane get real with their dear friend and collaborator Joe Truss. Joe talks about what it was like growing up in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district in the 80’s and wondering, “Why am I finding success while my friends are not?” This experience eventually led him into the classroom where Joe illuminates the gap between the teacher he thought he was going to be versus the teacher he was in real life. Through student voice and feedback, he shifted many of his mindsets and practices, cultivating a way of being that he brought into his 6-year principalship in southeast San Francisco. Joe helps us unpack the difference between bringing a vision and co-constructing a vision with staff, the need to slow it all down, and the nefarious trap of power-hoarding that he continues to see in his work across North America. We conclude with the power of racial affinity as a space for differentiation learning and a vehicle for healing, leveraging our differences as our strengths, and understanding the need to co-conspire around shared goals.
For Further Learning:
- Visit Joe’s website https://trussleadership.com/ to learn about his services and read his many publications.
- Read Leading a District Antiracism Journey in the March 2023 issue of Educational Leadership magazine by Shane, Joe and Julie Kempkey
- Racial Affinity Groups Aren’t Racist – They are the Secret Sauce in Antiracist Schools by Joe Truss and Jenn Berkowitz
- What Happened When My School Started to Dismantle White Supremacy Culture by Joe Truss
In Episode 10, Alcine and Shane talk with thought leaders, and mother-daughter dynamic duo, Drs. Linda and Kia Darling-Hammond about their new book The Civil Rights Road to Deeper Learning: Five Essentials for Equity (Teachers College Press, 2022). Drawing on their intersections across 25 years in the field of public education, these four educators begin with a retrospective on the seminal Williams v. California lawsuit in which Shane and Linda both served as witnesses, pivoting to explore the next historic fight for equitable access. They dig into the legacy of the test-and-punish era and how testing has served as a barrier to deeper learning, and Linda drops some mind-blowing knowledge about the double discrimination baked into test questions. Finally, they dream together about equitable and just schools that elevate student voice and center performance-based assessments rather than tests.
For Further Learning
- Read Linda and Kia’s book The Civil Rights Road to Deeper Learning: Five Essentials for Equity
- Review Chapter 6 of Street Data, which profiles performance assessment
In this brief retrospective episode, Shane, Alcine and their 'Magic Millennial' producer, Maya Cueva look back at Season 1, reflecting on the moments that nested deepest in their hearts. You’ll get to hear or revisit impactful clips from guests in Season 1 and hear about what our producer Maya Cueva is up to on her other projects. The hosts also talk about current innovations from outside of education, including sobriety “quit lit” and Dr. Gabor Maté’s incredible work on childhood development, trauma and the potential lifelong impacts on physical and mental health conditions that show up daily in our schools and classrooms. As we prepare to launch Season 2 in February, Alcine invokes Dr. Jamila Dugan’s invitation in Episode 4: “How do I dream bigger and in community? Who do I need to be in community with so that my dreams become bigger?” Join us and dream with us about next-generation schools that affirm love and value every child!
For Further Learning:
- Learn about Producer Maya Cueva’s PBS project On the Divide
- Host a screening of On The Divide vía GOOD Docs! https://gooddocs.net/products/on-the-divide
- Episodes mentioned and excerpted include: https://www.onthedividemovie.com
-
- Episode 4: “What Does it Mean to Freedom Dream?”: Disrupting Traps and Tropes with Dr. Jamila Dugan
- Episode 6: “We Need to Marginalize Standardized Testing” with Young Whan Choi
- Episode 8: “Connecting Present to Past”: The Impact of Critical Pedagogy with Rocky Rivera and Norma Gallegos
- If you’re interested in listening to Tales of The Town, the podcast about Oakland — listen here. You can also get tickets to the Tales of The Town film: https://www.talesofthetown.info
- Tales of the Town Podcast : https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/introducing-tales-of-the-town-a-podcast-about-black-oakland/id1235932328?i=1000579592977
- Get Dr. Gholdy Mohammed’s Cultivating Genius
-
In Episode 8, Alcine and Shane reminisce and dream with two of Shane’s former students, alumni of the BALMA Project featured in Chapter 5 of Street Data. Hip hop artist and journalist Rocky Rivera and auto technician/former paraprofessional Norma Gallegos share tales of growing up in San Francisco’s Excelsior District that are equal parts heartbreaking and heartwarming. Looking at their own trajectories as learners, Norma and Rocky help us explore what success really means when we view education as a long game rather than a test-driven shell game. With tears and joy, the conversation explores the features of what Rocky calls “intentional pedagogy”: the kinds of assignments that cultivate deeper learning, the types of instructional experiences that cultivate student agency, and the impact of access to critical literacy and a community where you feel you belong. Don’t sleep on this episode.
For Further Learning
- To follow Rocky’s work, subscribe to her Patreon, and/or get a copy of Snakeskin: Essays by Rocky Rivera, click here.
- If you’re interested in watching a 15-minute retrospective video on the BALMA Project in Chapter 5 of Street Data, click here.
- Visit Norma at Pat’s Garage in SF to get your car fixed. (or help her get a job at SFMTA if you got a hook-up!)
In Episode 7, Alcine and Shane lean in to listen and learn from Dr. Kevin Godden and Perry Smith, Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent of the Abbotsford School District near Vancouver. Through story and one-inch windows into an evolving system, the conversation distills the role of deep listening in school transformation. We talk about Kevin’s first day of school in Canada as a Jamaican immigrant, confronting the ugliness of racism, and his mom’s message. We learn Perry’s story of wanting to wear moccasins to school as a young Indigenous student, in Abbotsford himself, with virtually no representation around him. And we think about what it means to carry the heart of a teacher and lead like a teacher. Join us.
For Further Learning
- Learn more about the Deeper Learning Dozen, a community of practice that supports superintendents to transform their school districts in ways that create equitable access to deeper learning experiences and outcomes.
- Get a copy of Perry’s beautiful children’s book, Powwow Dancing with Family.
In an emotional Episode 6, Alcine and Shane get real with author and educator Young Whan Choi, witnessing his personal story of marginalization in school and how it took another Asian man–during college orientation–to help him see himself for the first time in American history. Together, they explore ways of being and leading in education that truly center students. Young Whan implores us to “marginalize” standardized testing, or at least push it to the periphery, as he offers a vision of authentic, community-based, performance assessments that demonstrate what students know and are able to do. He exposes the irony that, while many new leaders evoke the principle of being “student-centered”, students themselves are often painfully absent from professional learning agendas, except perhaps as an aggregated data point. And finally, Young Whan helps us rethink where knowledge lives and where power exists within the system.
For Further Learning
-
- Get a copy of Street Data on Amazon, Corwin Press, or from a BIPOC-owned local bookstore.
- Get a copy of Young Whan’s book, Sparks Into Fire: Revitalizing Teacher Practice Through Collective Learning at Teachers’ College Press.
- Read Shane’s recent Ed Week article on standardized testing.
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Watch Awo Okaikor Aryee-Price, Wayne Au, Denisha Jones and Jesse Hagopian discuss the racist history of standardized testing and its impacts today in The Racist History of Standardized Testing
In Episode 5, Alcine and Shane talk to rural Kentucky district leader Melissa Biggerstaff. They hear her story about growing up in a district where your zip code and last name determined your opportunities. Lean in to hear about a conversation with a high school counselor that Melissa will never forget and that continues to fuel her moral imperative to this day. Finally, Melissa unpacks what it means to show up fully as a leader–to learn from and really listen to community members–and why we need to meet people where they are- especially physically- if we want to create radically inclusive institutions.
For Further Learning:
- Get a copy of Street Data on Amazon, Corwin Press, or from a BIPOC-owned local bookstore.
In Episode 4, co-author Jamila Dugan is back and giving us the inside scope on equity traps and tropes. First, we dig into how this chapter came to be (spoiler alert: from a rant!) and the conversation shifts to the luminous landscape of radical dreaming, exploring, in Jamila’s words: “What does it actively mean to freedom dream and who am I dreaming with?” Shane, Jamila, and Alcine think about how to live a life of big dreams and abundance, and the ways that hustle and grind culture often dims our dreams. Jamila shares some brilliant tips, like reverse calendaring and–drum roll–taking the email app off your phone!
For Further Learning:
- Get a copy of Street Data on Amazon, Corwin Press, or from a BIPOC-owned local bookstore.
- Read Jamila's recent EL Magazine article on Radical Dreaming here.
- Work with the Equity Traps and Tropes Inquiry Tool Jamila mentions.
- Check out Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination by Robin D.G. Kelley.
In this episode, Shane and Alcine get to talk with co-author Jamila Dugan and Denise Augustine, whose work leading Indigenous education in British Columbia (BC) forms the central storyline of Chapter 1. Together, they explore what folx believe we should be teaching and measure, other epistemologies (ways of knowing and being), and ways to heal and transform our schools in challenging times. Listen to Denise’s story of how her mom supported her to find her voice with a teacher when a science assignment pushed against Denise’s cultural values. Hear Jamila reflect on what it means to start owning her experience growing up in East Oakland and being shaped by “grittiness, real talk, hip hop, and hustle”. You’ll also learn about Truth and Reconciliation in BC, Jamila’s core beliefs around teaching and learning, and the educational experiences that have shaped these two incredible leaders. If you didn’t believe it before, you’ll walk away internalizing the idea that there are many “right” answers, many right ways, and many right paths along the journey to school transformation.
For Further Learning:
- BC Competency-Based Curriculum
- BC First Peoples' Principles of Learning
- Teaching Each Other, Goulet and Goulet (referenced by Denise)
- Wayi Wah! Indigenous Pedagogies: An Act for Reconciliation and Anti-racist Education, Jo Chrona (referenced by Denise)
Join hosts Shane Safir and Alcine Mumby as they dig deep with Dr. Christopher Emdin around how to be a good ancestor, biomimicry as a guide to school transformation, burning the pedagogical sage, and so much more. This episode will change you. A must-listen for all new administrators and teachers finding their way in complex times.
For Further Learning:
- Order Chris’s book Rathedemic at http://www.beacon.org/Ratchetdemic-P1703.aspx
- Read Chris’s foreword in Street Data to make connections to the pod conversation
- Order adrienne marie brown’s Emergent Strategy at https://www.akpress.org/emergentstrategy.html
Join Shane Safir and Alcine Mumby as they launch Street Data Pod: Imagining the Next Generation of Education. They each share their “why” for this project and name some ways of being that help them navigate working across differences. You’ll also hear what people get wrong about the work they do and what kind of data they think educators must collect in these complex times to be alive and human.