Street Data Pod: Imagining the Next Generation of Education

Episode 35: “Critical love is always needed”: Exploring Archeologies of Self with Dr. Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz

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
 
 

[RE-RELEASE]: Episode 17: Building “A Place Called Home” with Math Educator Geniuses Crystal Watson and Dr. Dawn Williams

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:

Episode 34: “Everything is One:” Land-Based Learning, Reciprocity, and the Educational Transformation in British Columbia

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

[RE-RELEASE] Episode 19: “We’ve been looking for you”: A Conversation with Dr. Sidney Stone Brown on Native Self-Actualization, Maslow’s Hierarchy, and the Data We Need

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

Episode 33: “Standing Among Others”: Transforming Our Schools with Student Leader Karime Reyes and Educator Tamar Sberlo

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