Street Data Pod: Imagining the Next Generation of Education

[RE-RELEASE] Episode 28: “All the Data is Story”: Taking a Pause with Wayi Wah Educator and Author Jo Chrona

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

Episode 37: "Teaching is a Political Act": Disrupting the Pedagogical Statu Quo with Nolan Fossum and Emmanuel Medina

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

[RE-RELEASE] Episode 32: Navigating the “Groan Zone” of Pedagogical Transformation with Marlo Bagsik and Nina Finci

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

Episode 36: LIVE From FullScale in NOLA: "A Room Full of Geniuses"

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 StudentsRead Freedom is a Constant Struggle by Angela Davis

[RE-RELEASE] Episode 18: CULT OF PEDAGOGY! “A Seat at the Table” with Jennifer Gonzalez and Amanda Liebel

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