Wednesday, June 5, 2019

Conversation with Scholars in Education: Dr. Rich Milner and Dr. Donald Easton-Brooks

This Podcast is a part of my Conversation with Scholars in Education. This conversation is with Dr. Rich Milner, author of  Start where you are but don’t stay there: Understanding diversity, opportunity gaps, and teaching in today’s classrooms and Rac(e)ing to class: Confronting poverty and race in schools. The conversation occurred after the Sioux Falls School District Summer Symposium



While as the dean of the School of Education at the University of South Dakota each summer we invited international scholars to campus for a series of workshops with our faculty, partners, and community. In the summer of 2019, we decided to partner with Sioux Falls Schools on a two-day training on culturally responsive practices in the classroom. 

After both Dr. Milner and I completed our sessions on culturally responsive practices, we sat down to talk about Cultural Resposniveness in the Classroom. Here we talked about the impact of his book "Start where you are but don't stay there: Understand diversity, opportunity gaps, and teaching in today's classroom". We also cover the concept of "opportunity gap". We followed up with other scholarship Dr. Milner is working on, including the new edition of his book Start Where You Are But Don't Stay There. I also shared new data from surveys I used in my book Ethnic Matching: Academic Success of Students of Color  The data show that of those teachers who do not use Culturally Responsive Practice in the Class the reasons why are as follows:

  • They were not taught in my teacher education program = 36%
  • I am not really sure what these terms mean = 21%
  • I have not been trained = 16%
  • There is little to no diversity in my school, so it is not important = 17%
  • I am not sure it matters/Simply do not care = 10%

The Conversation concludes with strategies for moving forward and ways to support all teachers as they take on the work of educating all students,

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Dr. Donald Easton-Brooks. Author of Ethnic Matching: Academic Success of Students of Color

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