Literacy Leads to Liberation

The CEO of CRESTSprogram, LLC, Dr. Cirecie West-Olatunji, engages in a conversation with Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings about Black children's educational concerns.

Gloria Ladson-Billings is Professor Emerita and former Kellner Family Distinguished Professor in Urban Education in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction and was Faculty Affiliate in the Departments of Educational Policy Studies, Educational Leadership & Policy Analysis, and Afro-American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is the Immediate Past President of the National Academy of Education. She was the 2005-2006 president of the American Educational Research Association. She is a 2020-2021 Hagler Institute Fellow at Texas A&M University. She is a Fellow in the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the British Academy. Ladson-Billings’ research examines the pedagogical practices of teachers who are successful with African American students. She also investigates the applications of Critical Race Theory in education.  

Ladson-Billings is the author of the critically acclaimed books, The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children, Crossing over to Canaan: The Journey of New Teachers in Diverse Classrooms, and Beyond the Big House: African American Educators on Teacher Education. She is the editor of 9 other books and the author of more than 100 journal articles and book chapters. She is the former editor of the American Educational Research Journal and a member of several editorial boards. Her work has won numerous scholarly awards, including the H. I. Romnes Faculty Fellowship, Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship, and the Palmer O. Johnson Outstanding Research Award. She is the 2015 recipient of the Social Justice in Education Award from the American Educational Research Association. She was named the 2012 winner of the Brock International Prize in education. In 2018, she was awarded an honorary degree from Morgan State University. In 2012, she was awarded an honorary degree from the University of  

Alicante, Alicante, Spain. In 2010, she was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Massachusetts – Lowell. In 2002, she was awarded an honorary doctorate from Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden. During the 2003-2004 academic year, she was a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, California. In fall 2004, she received the George and Louise Spindler Award from the Council on Anthropology and Education for significant and ongoing contributions to the field of educational anthropology. In spring 2005, she was elected to the National Academy of Education and the National Society for the Study of Education. She is a 2008 recipient of the state of Wisconsin’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Heritage Award and the Teachers College, Columbia University 2008 Distinguished Service Medal. In 2015, she received the Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award from the Literacy Research Association. In 2016, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Benjamin Banneker Association of the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics. In Fall 2017, she received the John Nisbet Award from the British Educational Research Association at the University of Sussex in Brighton, England. In April 2018, she received the American Educational Research Association’s Distinguished Research Award and the Division B (Curriculum Studies) Lifetime Achievement Award.  In 2023, she received the Professor A. Noam Chomsky North Star Lifetime Achievement Award.

Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings' website: 

https://ci.education.wisc.edu/staff/ladson-billings-gloria/

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