In this episode, we spoke with Paul Gorski who is the founder of the Equity Literacy Institute, U.S. 

 

PAST (00:01:47): Paul shares how during college years he developed an interest in social justice while being aware of his own privileged identities in academia. Later, when Paul was a professor, he also became interested in activist burnout, meaning the stress-related symptoms and illnesses that may occur among activists who tend to work in highly stressful and unpredictable environments.

 

PRESENT (00:13:34): Paul discusses an award lecture by Gloria Ladson-Billings (2009) on teacher education and how novice teachers have been using the word “culture” as an explanation for student behavior they cannot explain. Furthermore, Paul explains the concept of equity literacy, encourages the listeners to rethink the role of “culture” in teacher education with the goal of making teacher education more transformative and powerful.

 

FUTURE (00:37:00): In this final section, Paul dives deeper into burnout among social justice activists (activist burnout), the link between activism and depression, and the healing potential of talking openly about mental health struggles.

 

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We want to thank Minor Revisions for the music, Lotte Gottschewski-Kooijman for the logo design, Max Kersten for post production, and zeythehuman for their artwork. 

Gorski, P. (2016). Rethinking the Role of “Culture” in Educational Equity: From Cultural Competence to Equity Literacy. Multicultural Perspectives, 18(4), 221–226. https://doi.org/10.1080/15210960.2016.1228344

Gorski, P. C. (2019). Fighting racism, battling burnout: Causes of activist burnout in US racial justice activists. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 42(5), 667–687. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2018.1439981

 

*Ladson-Billings, G. (2006). It’s Not the Culture of Poverty, It’s the Poverty of Culture: The Problem with Teacher Education. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 37(2), 104–109. https://doi.org/10.1525/aeq.2006.37.2.104 

 

Ladson-Billings, G. (2014). Culturally Relevant Pedagogy 2.0: A.k.a. the Remix. Harvard Educational Review, 84(1), 74–84. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.84.1.p2rj131485484751

 

Christine Sleeter

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Stay tuned and talk soon!