Gloria Ladson-Billings

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Gloria Jean Ladson-Billings FBA (born 1947) is an American pedagogical theorist and teacher educator known for her work in the fields of culturally relevant pedagogy and critical race theory, and the pernicious effects of systemic racism and economic inequality on educational opportunities. [1] [2] Her book The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African-American Children is a significant text in the field of education. [3] [4] Ladson-Billings is Professor Emerita and formerly the Kellner Family Distinguished Professor of Urban Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Contents

Ladson-Billings served as president of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) in 2005–2006. During the 2005 AERA annual meeting in San Francisco, Ladson-Billings delivered her presidential address, "From the Achievement Gap to the Education Debt: Understanding Achievement in U.S. Schools", in which she outlined what she called the "education debt", highlighting the combination of historical, moral, socio-political, and economic factors that have disproportionately affected African-American, Latino, Asian, and other non-white students. In 2021 she was elected a corresponding fellow of the British Academy. [5]

Biography

Gloria Jean Ladson was born in Philadelphia, Pa. and was educated in the Philadelphia public school system. [6] She obtained her B.S. in education at Morgan State University in 1968 and her M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Washington in 1972. [7] She went on to complete her PhD in Curriculum and Teacher Education at the Stanford Graduate School of Education in 1984. Her dissertation titled Citizenship and values: An ethnographic study of citizenship and values in a black school setting was conducted under the supervision of Richard E. Gross. [8]

In 1995, Ladson-Billings became the first Black woman to be tenured as a professor in UW–Madison's School of Education. [6] She also served as the Assistant Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs [9] prior to her retirement in January 2018. [10] In 2015, Ladson-Billings was awarded the AERA Social Justice in Education Award. [11] Other prestigious awards include the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Benjamin Banneker Association of the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics (2016), [12] the Brock Prize for Education Innovation (2012), [13] and the George and Louise Spindler Award from the Council on Anthropology and Education (2004). [14] Ladson-Billings is an elected member of the National Academy of Education [15] and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. [16]

Education debt

Education debt is a theory developed by Ladson-Billings to attempt to explain the racial achievement gap. As defined by Professor Emeritus Robert Haveman, a colleague of hers, education debt is the "foregone schooling resources that we could have (should have) been investing in (primarily) low income kids, which deficit leads to a variety of social problems (e.g. crime, low productivity, low wages, low labor force participation) that require on-going public investment". [17] The education debt theory has historical, economic, sociopolitical and moral components. [17]

Historical component

Historical debt is the concept of inequality throughout history that has prevented equal education of minorities. Inequities surrounding education throughout history have been designed to prevent people based on their race, class, and gender from receiving quality education. It was prohibited by law in many places across the United States, specifically the south, for African Americans to attend school. As a cause of this lack of education, there were extremely high rate of illiteracy in the African-American community following the Civil War. [18] Similarly, the Native American population was prevented from obtaining a quality education. After forced labor and genocides, the remaining population was funneled into boarding schools focused on religious teachings and assimilation into European culture. [17] Latino/as were also denied equal education. In the case Mendez vs. West Minister, Latino fathers challenged the courts as their children, and thousands of others, were victims of racial segregation. The falsity that African Americans were unable to be educated was endorsed by Thomas Jefferson, even though he supported the idea of education for all American people. [17]

Economic component

Economic debt has greatly accumulated from the disparities in school funding. Even after it was deemed unconstitutional for education to be withheld on the basis of race, legislation regarding the allocation of money for public schools was passed regardless of the fact that it left minority school districts with significantly less money than predominantly white school districts. The concept of separate but equal, made constitutional by Plessy vs. Ferguson, allowed a significant of amount of funding disparity between school districts to be perpetuated. [17] Ladson-Billings also points to the fact that higher level of income is related to a higher level of education. [17] The average white student completes college at a school that spends over $11,000 per student, while the average Black student completes college at a school that spends under $10,000 per student. [19]

Sociopolitical component

Sociopolitical debt "is the degree to which communities of color are excluded from the civic process" (Ladson-Billings 2006). [17] Disenfranchisement of voting rights contributed to and continues to contribute to sociopolitical debt. African American, Latino, and Native American communities were often excluded from legislation and conversation concerning education which did not allow them to advocate for the equal education. An example of the mitigation of sociopolitical debt is the Voting Rights Act of 1965.  This piece of legislation ensured a voice to minorities within the political sphere.  No such legislation has been passed that focuses on diminishing education inequalities. Affirmative action is the closest legislation that has had a strong impact. [17]   Although affirmative action benefited white women the most, observations show that the emergence of the Black middle class was aided by the policy. [20]

Moral component

Moral debt is the final component of the education debt and "reflects disparity between what we know is right and what we actually do" (Ladson-Billings 2006). [17] Moral debt is expressed as the lack of honor given when honor is due.  There is no hesitation in giving honor to Martin Luther King Jr. or Rosa Parks. Another example of repaying moral debt are the reparations placed on Germany after WWII. [17] Debate is happening on the basis of moral debt, reparations and success but much of the debate focuses on the individual and the responsibility of the individual to ensure success.  "No nation can enslave a race of people for hundreds of years, set them free bedraggled and penniless, pit them, without assistance in a hostile environment, against privileged victimizers, and then reasonably expect the gap between the heirs of the two groups to narrow. Lines, begun parallel and left alone, can never touch." Randall Robinson states. [21]   Individual responsibility becomes an unrealistic expectation when a group has been exploited, disenfranchised and oppressed for centuries.

Selected articles

Chapters in edited texts

Books

Keynote and presidential addresses

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References

  1. ↑ University, © Stanford; Stanford; California 94305 (2021-04-29). "Educators must resist a return to 'normal,' urges scholar and activist Gloria Ladson-Billings". Stanford Graduate School of Education. Retrieved 2022-11-27.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  2. ↑ Forester, Jakki (2013-09-13). "Gloria Ladson-Billings brings equity in education discussion to K-State". The Collegian. Retrieved 2022-11-27.
  3. ↑ Ladson-Billings, Gloria (2022). The dreamkeepers : successful teachers of African American children (3rd ed.). San Francisco. ISBN   978-1-119-79193-5. OCLC   1328002483.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. ↑ Delpit, Lisa D. (March 1996). "Review of The Dreamkeepers (1st ed., 1994, by Gloria Ladson-Billings)". Contemporary Sociology . ASA. 25 (2): 240–241. doi:10.2307/2077209. JSTOR   2077209 . Retrieved 2021-10-26.She championed the idea that educators need to be aware of the culture in the classroom to ensure effective teaching.
  5. ↑ "The British Academy elects 84 new Fellows recognising outstanding achievement in the humanities and social sciences". The British Academy. 2021-07-23. Retrieved 2022-01-22.
  6. 1 2 "Gloria Ladson-Billings: Daring to dream in public". news.wisc.edu. Retrieved 2022-11-27.
  7. ↑ "Gloria Ladson-Billings | University of Wisconsin-Madison - Academia.edu". wisc.academia.edu. Retrieved 2022-11-27.
  8. ↑ Ladson, Gloria Jean (1984). Citizenship and values: An ethnographic study of citizenship and values in a predominately black school setting (Thesis). OCLC   26912284. ProQuest   303328689.
  9. ↑ "UW–Madison Department of Curriculum & Instruction".
  10. ↑ Levitan, Monica (February 27, 2019). "UW-Madison to Host Public Discussion to Honor Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings". Diverse: Issues in Higher Education. Retrieved 2021-10-25.
  11. ↑ "Social Justice in Education Award". www.aera.net. Retrieved 2022-11-27.
  12. ↑ "Exceptional Educators – bbamath" . Retrieved 2022-11-27.
  13. ↑ Network, Best Ideas. "Past Laureates". The Brock Institute. Retrieved 2022-11-27.
  14. ↑ "George and Louise Spindler Award | Council on Anthropology and Education" . Retrieved 2022-11-27.
  15. ↑ "Gloria Ladson-Billings". National Academy of Education. Retrieved 2022-11-27.
  16. ↑ "Gloria Ladson-Billings". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 2022-11-27.
  17. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Ladson-Billings, Gloria (October 2006). "From the Achievement Gap to the Education Debt: Understanding Achievement in U.S. Schools". Educational Researcher. 35 (7): 3–12. doi:10.3102/0013189X035007003. JSTOR   3876731. S2CID   145286865.
  18. ↑ Bertocchi, Graziella; Dimico, Arcangelo (November 2012). "The racial gap in education and the legacy of slavery". Journal of Comparative Economics. 40 (4): 581–595. doi:10.1016/j.jce.2012.04.001. S2CID   54798451.
  19. ↑ Libassi, C. J. (23 May 2018). "The Neglected College Race Gap: Racial Disparities Among College Completers". Center for American Progress. Retrieved 2019-12-19.
  20. ↑ Woodruff, Darren; Bowen, William G.; Bok, Derek (1999). "The Shape of the River: Long-Term Consequences of Considering Race in College and University Admissions". The Journal of Negro Education. 68 (1): 122–124. doi:10.2307/2668215. JSTOR   2668215. S2CID   143573837.
  21. ↑ Robinson, Randall (2000). The debt: What America owes to Blacks. Dutton Books.
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