Cultural Competency

Pragmatism in the classroom: Lessons from Dewey, Maxine Greene, and Eleanor Duckworth

Amy Halpern-Laff 00:49:16 Comments Off

We speak with Dr. Susan Jean Mayer about her recent book, “Practicing Pragmatism Through Progressive Pedagogies: A Philosophical Lens for Grounding Classroom Teaching and Research.” Dr. Mayer defines pragmatism in today’s world and discusses the importance of critical exploration, democratic construction of knowledge, and openness to diversity of perspectives in the classroom. As teachers and learners, we can construct a shared set of values based on our experiential realities and come to understand these realities in coherent terms.

The pioneers: Democracy front and center (Part Two)

Jon Moscow 00:46:16 Comments Off

We speak with Deborah Meier and Jane Andrias, pioneers in the democratic small-school movement. Debbie founded the Central Park East Schools. Jane Andrias was an art teacher and principal at Central Park East I. Debbie and Jane discuss these ground-breaking schools, their ethical foundations, the “habits of mind” they worked to instill, and the challenges they faced.

*This is Part Two of a two part episode. Go back one episode to listen to the first part.

The pioneers: Democracy front and center (Part One)

Amy Halpern-Laff 00:31:51 Comments Off

Technology and ethics: AI and the classroom

Jon Moscow 01:03:26 Comments Off

Robbie Torney, director of AI Programs at Common Sense Media, analyzes teachers’ use of AI. We focus on AI teaching assistants, their uses and abuses, and how teachers’ judgment and skills remain central. We discuss the need for school- and district-wide education and policies on using AI in teaching and learning.

Teachers as Interpreters: Listening to Every Student

Jon Moscow 00:40:31 Comments Off

We speak with Dr. Cynthia Ballenger about her recent book, “Teaching Is Inquiry: Observation and Reflection as the Heart of Practice,” a series of stories from the classroom. We discuss the often overlooked, “life-changing” value of ethnographic approaches for teachers. Dr. Ballenger shares her work with the children she calls “puzzling” and the importance of “stopping time” for reflection.

Hip Hop in the classroom: Reaching students where they are

Amy Halpern-Laff 00:38:26 Comments Off

We speak with Dr. Dawn Hicks Tafari, Professor of Education and Coordinator of Elementary Education at Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina. Dawn is author of “The Journey of Kamau Miller: Hip Hop Composite Counter Stories for Black Men Teachers.” She uses hip hop as a way to communicate with students and composite counter stories to communicate beyond the academy.

Mobile Creativity Labs: Scaling STEAM Across India

Jon Moscow 00:40:31 Comments Off

Today, we speak with Dr. David Penberg and Adhirath Sethi about Agastya, a unique educational ecosystem serving students and teachers in 22 Indian states. Agastya has a hub-and-spokes design, with an elaborate 172-acre campus outside Bangalore and a fleet of mobile vans and bicycles delivering science and art programming to poor and rural children in far-flung towns and villages.

Creating democratic learning environments: Educators in conversation

Jon Moscow 00:46:48 Comments Off

We speak with Dr. Linda F. Nathan and Jonathan Mendonca, two co-editors of the recently published book, “Building Democratic Schools and Learning Environments: A Global Perspective,” an anthology of accounts of creating innovative schools around the world. We discuss autonomy vs large-scale uniformity, issues of scaling innovations, and defining success. The book, intentionally available free online, includes both existing schools and concepts of possible schools.

Teaching from core values: Practical wisdom at the crossroads of philosophy, education, and teacher ed

Amy Halpern-Laff 00:48:01 Comments Off

We speak with Cara E. Furman, Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education at Hunter College, about her book “Teaching from an Ethical Center: Practical Wisdom for Daily Instruction.” Dr. Furman focuses on teachers ensuring that their practice corresponds with their ethical center. She emphasizes teachers’ knowledge of learning environments, local communities, and the children themselves. We discuss the ethical problems with “fidelity” as applied to teaching.

The “Name Game”: racialization in a suburban high school (Encore)

Jon Moscow 00:49:53 Comments Off

Drs. Tony de Jesus, Anthony Johnston, and Don Siler of University of St. Joseph recount their intervention in a multiracial high school in crisis. White students had instigated a “game” of addressing Black students as the n-word. We discuss the impact of racialization in the Trump era on white students, students of color, and the school community as well as actual and potential responses by schools.

Solving teacher shortages: It’s not just pay

Jon Moscow 00:34:00 Comments Off

Drs. Katherine Norris and Kathryn Wiley, colleagues at Howard University’s School of Education, speak about obstacles to recruiting and retaining teachers and increasing diversity. Money matters, but even more, so does ending discrimination. “Racial battle fatigue” is pervasive among Black teachers.

Towards the school you want to see: Plan, Act, Reflect, Repeat

Amy Halpern-Laff 00:35:28 Comments Off

We speak with Justin Cohen, whose work focuses on the intersections of education, race, privilege, and public policy. Cohen’s recent book is Change Agents: Transforming Schools From the Ground Up. He looks at ways a faculty can systematically improve its school. Knowing the community and having honest and difficult conversations about race are critical.

Intersections: Supporting Black LGBTQIA+ students

Jon Moscow 01:03:27 Comments Off

We speak with Dr. David Johns, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition, NBJC, about the challenges faced by Black LGBTQIA+ students. Most young people at this intersection live in the South among other Black people, not in secular, gay-friendly cities like San Francisco or Hollywood.These young people face economic and cultural barriers to accessing mental health services, Dr. Johns explains how, rather than telling these students what sorts of support they need, adults should ask them.

Cultural responsiveness: is music optional?

Amy Halpern-Laff 00:39:57 Comments Off

We speak with Dr. Anne Smith, longtime music teacher in Northern Virginia, about accommodating cultural differences. Dr. Smith created an alternate curriculum for students whose traditions don’t allow secular music-making. We discuss the extent to which parents should be able to influence what their students learn. We also talk about why music and art are treated as lesser (“special”) subjects.

The purpose of education: Educating for a solutionary future?

Jon Moscow 00:34:34 Comments Off

We welcome back Zoe Weil, president and co-founder of the Institute for Humane Education, to speak about her recent Psychology Today column on the purpose of education. Although the official goal of many school systems is to prepare students for global competition, compassion, cooperation, and creativity are the qualities we should be emphasizing. A generation of solutionaries has a much better chance of creating a sustainable planet where humans and animals other than humans can thrive.

Solving chronic absence: A whole-school approach

Amy Halpern-Laff 00:45:00 Comments Off

We speak with Hedy N. Chang of Attendance Works, who describes the long-term impact on student success of chronic absence in all grades. Framing chronic absence as a truancy issue can increase alienation from school. Distinctions between excused and unexcused absences can unfairly penalize low-income students and students of color. Chronic absence rates may hit 40% this year. Ms. Chang discusses relationship-based strategies for mitigating absenteeism.

Challenging censorship: Student journalists fight back

Jon Moscow 00:32:55 Comments Off

We speak with Hillary Davis, who runs the New Voices program at the Student Press Law Center, and Sara Fajardo, who experienced censorship firsthand at her high school. School administrators frequently prevent students from publishing articles or posts that might make parents nervous or “damage the school’s reputation.” New Voices laws, which students shepherd through state legislatures, aim to guarantee freedom for student journalists.

Students speak up: NYC Youth Agenda

Jon Moscow 00:34:30 Comments Off

We speak with students Eugenia Bamfo, Alexandra Rouvinetis, and Mukilan Muthukumar, members of the NYC Youth Agenda. Using citywide student survey data, Youth Agenda teams aggregated young people’s needs to make recommendations to policymakers in five areas — housing security, food justice, mental health support, economic mobility, and leadership and civic engagement. Among the findings: large numbers of students are unaware of existing youth programs, many don’t trust the “trusted adults” in their schools, and Department of Education “student voice” efforts are tremendously understaffed.

Abolitionist education: Creating liberatory spaces (Encore)

Amy Halpern-Laff 01:17:14 Comments Off

We speak with Swarthmore’s Dr. Edwin Mayorga, who explains how abolitionist classrooms and schools create “freedom as a place” in contrast to racial capitalism. Dr. Mayorga encourages educators to center joy and healing. We also discuss the corporatization of schools that reduces students to their test scores. Schools, as “localized nodes of political power,” should adopt democratic processes that cultivate voice, participation, and collaboration.

Mentors and passages: The power of teen-centric programs

Amy Halpern-Laff 00:42:00 Comments Off

We speak with Al Kurland, longtime leader of out-of-school-time programs in Upper Manhattan’s Washington Heights. Mr. Kurland founded youth programs that help teens to “rewrite their stories” with the support of adult and peer mentors. He collaborated with other local youth organizations, creating a cluster of empowering and horizon-broadening experiences for students, helping many expand “tunnel vision.”

Efforts to ban books escalate: Tips for resistance

Jon Moscow 00:29:30 Comments Off

We speak with Dr. Richard Price, associate professor of political science at Weber State University, about recent attempts to ban books, especially those about GLBTQIA+ people and people of color, from classrooms and school libraries across the country. (Spoiler alert: it’s not only in red states). Dr. Price offers strategies for teachers, principals, and school districts for responding to book challenges.

Engaging young black men in school: What we can learn from art class (Encore)

Amy Halpern-Laff 00:56:58 Comments Off

Dr. Don Siler, a researcher and inservice teacher educator, himself a former high school dropout, discusses how art classrooms invite students to be themselves, to explore their lived experiences, and to work on projects that mean something to them. Student engagement in the art classroom can be leveraged across subject areas by incorporating both the arts and art-based pedagogy throughout the curriculum. Student outcomes improve when we broaden the ways in which students get information, process the information, and demonstrate their understanding of the information.

Malign neglect: School systems fail immigrant students

Jon Moscow 00:27:30 Comments Off

We welcome back Stephanie Carnes, a school social worker who has worked extensively with Central American immigrant students and their families. School systems are designed for homogenous student populations, rather than the diverse reality. Despite new immigrants’ high motivation levels, they often fail for lack of support. School social workers could help design asset-based programs but often aren’t given a seat at the table.

Identity vs branding: The power of messiness

Amy Halpern-Laff 00:32:15 Comments Off

Part One of a two-part interview. We speak with Dr. Garrett Broad of Fordham University about social media and how it informs student outlooks. One of Dr. Broad’s key objectives is to help students to be comfortable with the messiness–the fluidity and complexity–of identity and to resist the pressure to be fully formed, branded. High school teachers can help students to understand the factors that shape people’s perspectives.They can encourage students to be open-minded, cultivate intellectual humility, and “show up” for social justice.

Disrupting power structures: Organizing youth for equity in schools

Jon Moscow 00:46:45 Comments Off

We speak with Keith Catone, executive director of CYCLE, the Center for Youth & Community Leadership in Education at Roger Williams University. CYCLE helps students, those who are most affected by school policies, to destabilize systemic power hierarchies, and encourages teachers to adopt an “organizing disposition.” Through trainings and ongoing support, CYCLE helps community youth organizations to build capacity, alliances, and power to achieve equity-based change.

The power of happiness: A Buddhist approach to secular education

Amy Halpern-Laff 00:48:30 Comments Off

We speak with Drs. Isabel Nuñez and Jason Goulah, editors of “Hope and Joy in Education: Engaging Daisaku Ikeda across curriculum and context.” According to Ikeda, the internationally-famous Buddhist philosopher, education should first and foremost engender happiness and instill habits of global citizenship. Drs. Nuñez and Goulah talk about implications for teachers’ classroom practice.

Teaching differently about being “modern”: Questioning Western mindsets

Jon Moscow 00:26:21 Comments Off

In our guest episode of Lev Moscow’s podcast, A Correction, Professor Walter Mignolo of Duke discusses decoloniality, a radically different way of thinking and teaching which rejects the “naturalness” of racial capitalism and its development. Lev and Dr. Mignolo discuss what this can look like in high school and college classrooms.

Authentic history: Too uncomfortable for white kids?

Amy Halpern-Laff 00:27:45 Comments Off

We speak with Betty Collins, eighth grade teacher in Tulsa County, Oklahoma. Ms. Collins speaks about conservatives’ hostility to Critical Race Theory, which looks at the role of systemic racism in US history. We discuss a just-enacted law in Oklahoma that tries to ban teaching history that may make any students “uncomfortable” and how unions and educators are responding.

Creating antiracist classrooms: Listening and other essential skills

Amy Halpern-Laff 00:49:30 Comments Off

We speak with Dr. Steven Cohen of Tuft’s Department of Education about helping teachers to think critically about race and class.. He talks about the importance of listening to students over time, even watching the media they watch, to get a better understanding of their life experiences. He describes how to create fair strategies for resolving conflicts and for grading and he explains how to introduce complex subject matter in ways that students find relevant.

Research in schools (Part 2): Safeguarding the data

Amy Halpern-Laff 00:20:00 Comments Off

We continue our conversation with Marianna Azar, director of NYC Department of Education’s Institutional Review Boards (IRBs). This week, Ms. Azar discusses the potential privacy dangers created by collection and dissemination of research data, strategies to combat them, and the need to strengthen the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

Shared visions: Creating an abolitionist school culture

Amy Halpern-Laff 00:37:45 Comments Off

We continue our conversation with Grace Alli Brandstein, a school improvement and instructional coach supporting struggling high schools in the Bronx. This week, Ms. Brandstein focuses on humane, antiracist education, and explains Dr. Gholdy Muhammad’s construct of literacy as identity, skills, intellect, criticality, and joy. She also speaks about the conditions for successful adult learning, giving teachers the training they need to lead one another and the space to coalesce around a shared vision, expectations, and protocols.

BIPOC and undocumented: A trauma-filled intersection

Amy Halpern-Laff 00:33:10 Comments Off

Dr. Christiana Best, who spent thirty years in the New York City child welfare system before becoming a full-time academic, discusses her personal experience of being left behind in Granada while her mother settled in the US. Dr. Best, now an assistant professor of social work at St. Joseph’s, delves into the difficulties of providing holistic support to immigrant children and families, who are (justifiably) hesitant to trust government agencies.

Consumption as ethics: Talking with students about food

Jon Moscow 00:27:15 Comments Off

We welcome back Monica Chen of Factory Farming Awareness Coalition. She describes the animal-agricultural complex that exploits workers in meatpacking plants and animals in factory farms and devastates communities and the environment. Monica introduces FFAC’s culturally-competent virtual lessons and presentations for students from middle school through university, customized for all subject areas. Students who want to become social justice activists, with food as the hub that connects worker rights, sustainability, and environmental racism can apply to FFAC’s intern program.

Food injustice: The corporatization of school meals

Jon Moscow 00:35:59 Comments Off

We speak with Monica Chen, veteran teacher and executive director of Factory Farming Awareness Coalition. Monica tells us how cow’s milk became a staple in school lunches even though most children of color do not have the ability to digest lactose, the main carbohydrate in dairy products. She explains how checkoff programs like Got milk? mislead the American public into thinking these are healthy foods for human children.

Challenging hierarchies: The role of the social justice teacher educator

Amy Halpern-Laff 00:39:00 Comments Off

Dr. Sherry Deckman speaks about creating classroom environments that challenge cultural and social hierarchies. Teachers need to be aware of the lenses through which they view the world and their students, especially lenses that center Whiteness. She discusses everyday anti-racism for educators and creating humanizing spaces for all students, as well as the isolation that teacher educators of color often feel.

The principal as “keeper of the vision”: Fostering and protecting an ethical community

Jon Moscow 00:37:00 Comments Off

Jill Herman, founding principal of East Side Community H.S, now at Bank Street College, raises essential questions: To whom should a principal be accountable? How can social emotional learning and academics be integrated? What do we mean by an ethical school?

Culturally responsive practice and SEL: Effective professional development and programs

Amy Halpern-Laff 00:20:00 Comments Off

Dr. Heather C. Hill of Harvard Graduate School of Education looks at the research on culturally responsive education and SEL programs. She examines components of successful professional development programs, and how they apply to SEL and CRE. Well-designed curricula give teachers a framework on which to build and perhaps self-reflect. Daily classroom practices that build trust and engagement are important. Even if the professional development is high quality and teachers embrace the strategies, principal leadership and support is critical for learned practices to continue over time.

Engaging young black men in school: What we can learn from art class

Jon Moscow 00:56:50 Comments Off

Teaching as research: Auto-ethnography of a pioneering bilingual teacher educator

Amy Halpern-Laff 00:40:30 Comments Off

Dr. Carmen Mercado, CUNY professor emeritus, talks with us about the importance of self-study, sharing diverse perspectives in class, and reflective writing in her own development and that of her students. She shares her experiences as one of the first bilingual classroom teachers and teacher educators in NYC. Carmen’s book, “Navigating teacher education in complex and uncertain times: connecting communities of practice in a borderless world,” was published in 2019.

The Algebra Project: Bob Moses on math literacy as a civil right – Part 2

Amy Halpern-Laff 00:28:30 Comments Off

The Algebra Project founder and president–and lead organizer of the famous 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer voting rights campaign–talks about math literacy as an organizing tool to guarantee quality public school education for all children. Bob Moses describes the Algebra Project’s strategies to connect math to students’ life experiences and everyday language. The interview is divided into two episodes.

Parent-school relationships in early childhood programs: Family engagement is driven by families

Jon Moscow 00:39:31 Comments Off

Yasmin Morales-Alexander of Lehman College dispels the myth that Latinx parents don’t engage in their children’s education. Genuine parent-school engagement is based on schools’ recognition of families’ cultural values and traditions. “Family engagement is a cultural practice.”

Multicultural Education: Challenges and Aspirations

Jon Moscow 00:54:16 Comments Off

We speak with New York State Regent Luis O. Reyes on the evolution of multilingual education in New York, beginning with the ASPIRA Consent Decree that in 1974 established bilingual education as an entitlement for Puerto Rican and other Latinx students. NY is gradually transitioning to bicultural and bi-literate education. The Regents’ Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education Framework represents the way forward.

Special education: How students and their teachers are shortchanged

Jon Moscow 00:30:00 Comments Off

Jia Lee, NYC special education teacher and union activist, talks about the unfairness of the Fair Funding Formula, the school-to-prison pipeline, and the tendency of schools to re-traumatize vulnerable students. She also highlights the contrast between NYC Chancellor Carranza’s call for more culturally responsive classrooms and the City’s newly-mandated MAP tests, and the gap between what the United Federation of Teachers does and what it could do.

José Jiménez on gender diversity and sexual identity in elementary schools

Jon Moscow 00:34:15 Comments Off

We speak with José Luis Jiménez, principal of A.C.E. Academy for Scholars, PS 290, in Queens. A queer educator of color, he came out to his students during Pride Month in 2017. If a community is truly welcoming to all, he thought, “you don’t “check a part of yourself at the door.” José encourages his…

Mark Santow on Suing Rhode Island for Educational Equal Protection

Jon Moscow 00:29:45 Comments Off

We speak with Dr. Mark Santow, Chair of the Department of History at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth. Dr. Santow and his middle school son, along with 12 other plaintiffs, are suing the state of Rhode Island in federal court under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution for failing to provide civics curricula and other components of an adequate education to some Rhode Island students. The suit is especially notable because most education equity cases are brought in state courts. We discuss the racial, socioeconomic, and political underpinnings of educational inequality.

David Kirkland on New York’s State’s Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education Framework

Jon Moscow 00:24:30 Comments Off

We speak with Dr. David E. Kirkland, Executive Director of NYU’s Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools. A leading voice in culturally responsive and sustaining education, the Metro Center helped write New York State Education Department’s new Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education Framework. The Framework is founded on a view of education that regards culture as a critical component of learning. Multiple expressions of diversity, including race, ethnicity, gender, language, and sexual orientation, are regarded as assets to be recognized and cultivated.

Kids learn through relationships: A conversation with Pedro Noguera about building a culture conducive to teaching and learning

Amy Halpern-Laff 00:24:00 Comments Off

We talk with Dr. Pedro Noguera about public school models that work for students, parents and teachers, and how to build a social movement for a progressive education agenda. He talks about the social dimensions to learning and the mismatch between students’ needs and teachers’ skills. He argues that an obstacle to making change in schools is that we deal with education as individuals rather than collectively. Pedro Noguera is a Distinguished Professor of Education at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies and Faculty Director for the Center for the Transformation of Schools at UCLA. He is a critically acclaimed scholar, a dynamic speaker and a committed activist. His work focuses on a broad range of issues related to education, social justice and public policy. He is the author of several best-selling books and is a highly sought-after public speaker and international consultant.

Stephanie Carnes on post-traumatic growth and resilience: Cultural competence and creating safe environments for Central American immigrant children in today’s U.S.

Amy Halpern-Laff 00:34:00 Comments Off

We talk with Stephanie Carnes, a trauma-focused bilingual school social worker in a large public high school in New York’s Hudson Valley. Stephanie worked as the lead clinician in a federally-funded shelter program for unaccompanied children from Central America and as a consultant she challenges the districts and agencies with whom she works to re-envision the meaning of an inclusive community. We talk about the necessity to normalize mental health care, how to create safe environments for immigrant children in American schools, and the power of their resilience.

Cultural Competency

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