Dr. Skerrett is known for her work in the areas of secondary English and literacy education in urban contexts, including among transnational youth. Dr. Skerrett’s book, Teaching Transnational Youth: Literacy and Education in a Changing World published by Teachers College Press in 2015, is the first to examine the educational opportunities and challenges arising from increasing numbers of students living and attending school across different countries. Her new book, Teaching Literacy in Troubled Times: Identity, Inquiry and Social Action at the Heart of Instruction, co-authored with past Classroom Caffeine guest Peter Smaroginsky and published by Corwin Press in 2022 showcases teachers and students engaged in developing critical literacies and taking social action to create more just worlds. She is the keynote speaker for the 2023 RISE Caribbean Conference hosted at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida. Allison Skerrett is Professor of Curriculum and Instruction and Director of Teacher Education in the College of Education at The University of Texas at Austin.
To cite this episode:
Persohn, L. (Host). (2023, May. 9). A conversation with Allison Skerrett: RISE Caribbean Special Series (Season 3, No. 24) [Audio podcast episode]. In Classroom Caffeine Podcast series. https://www.classroomcaffeine.com/guests. DOI: 10.5240/9D8C-84C1-8FB6-1C92-61E0-6
Connect with Classroom Caffeine at www.classroomcaffeine.com or on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
Dr. Skerrett is known for her work in the areas of secondary English and literacy education in urban contexts, including among transnational youth. Dr. Skerrett’s book, Teaching Transnational Youth: Literacy and Education in a Changing World published by Teachers College Press in 2015, is the first to examine the educational opportunities and challenges arising from increasing numbers of students living and attending school across different countries. Her new book, Teaching Literacy in Troubled Times: Identity, Inquiry and Social Action at the Heart of Instruction, co-authored with past Classroom Caffeine guest Peter Smaroginsky and published by Corwin Press in 2022 showcases teachers and students engaged in developing critical literacies and taking social action to create more just worlds. She is the keynote speaker for the 2023 RISE Caribbean Conference hosted at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida. Allison Skerrett is Professor of Curriculum and Instruction and Director of Teacher Education in the College of Education at The University of Texas at Austin.
To cite this episode:
Persohn, L. (Host). (2023, May. 9). A conversation with Allison Skerrett: RISE Caribbean Special Series (Season 3, No. 24) [Audio podcast episode]. In Classroom Caffeine Podcast series. https://www.classroomcaffeine.com/guests. DOI: 10.5240/9D8C-84C1-8FB6-1C92-61E0-6
Connect with Classroom Caffeine at www.classroomcaffeine.com or on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
Education research has a problem. The work of brilliant education researchers often doesn't reach the practice of brilliant teachers. Classroom caffeine is here to help. In each episode I talk with a top education researcher or an expert educator about what they have learned from years of research and experiences. Hello classroom caffeine listeners, we are hosting a special series of episodes to share with you some of the work involving past classroom caffeine guest, my colleague and friend Dr. Patriann Smith. This special series is intended to share work associated with an upcoming conference. Specifically, these episodes shine light on research taking place in the Caribbean islands with both specific contextual nuance and universal applicability. Dr. Smith, with many others is involved in the Caribbean Educational Research Initiative officially referred to as the research initiative for supporting education in the Caribbean or RISE Caribbean. This initiative is a partnership between the United States Agency for International Development, the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill campus, the University of South Florida and the eastern Caribbean Joint Board of Teacher Education. The Caribbean Educational Research Center launched as a part of the initiative in 2021 is designed to serve the Eastern Caribbean Islands, which consists of six independent countries Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and also three British Overseas Territories, The Virgin Islands, Montserrat and Anguilla. This center is housed at the University of West Indies Cave Hill campus in Barbados with the capability to generate and utilize robust data for improved decision making and basic education throughout the region. The Caribbean Educational Research Center draws on research expertise from the University of West Indies School of Education, UWI's other campuses the University of South Florida ministries of education and the teacher education divisions of the national Colleges of the Eastern Caribbean and the teachers college in Barbados in harmony with the aim of building research capacity in the region. The center provides assistantships and internships for graduate students pursuing research degrees in education and related fields and staff from the ministries of education and the National colleges who work with classroom teachers to investigate classroom phenomena. The RISE Caribbean initiative is expected to ultimately establish a repository for education data for the countries in the East Caribbean and Barbados. Conduct demand driven research and analysis to inform policy and planning for ministries of education and other stakeholders in education build a capacity for research and training with students and education stakeholders conduct and support comparative and collaborative research with higher education institutions in and outside of the region and strengthen research culture through publications, public lectures, and other means of sharing research findings. One of the major activities of the RISE Caribbean initiative is an annual conference designed to support the Center's research fellows and research assistants to this end, the rise Caribbean 2023 conference, building solidarity across educational communities, cultivating spaces where students thrive, aims to harness the power of community, interconnectedness, and inclusivity in our collective efforts to create and sustain educational spaces for students to succeed. The RISE Caribbean conference includes sessions that imagine possibilities around which we can plan collectively to improve the experiences wellbeing and educational outcomes for all children, especially those for whom achievement, equity and justice have long been withheld. This classroom caffeine special series highlights scholars who are integral to the work of the RISE Caribbean Initiative and the rise Caribbean conference hosted at the University of South Florida Tampa, May 30. Through June first 2023. In this episode, Dr. Alison Skerrett talks to us about literate identities listening to young people, transnational youth and continuous professional learning. Dr. Skerrett is known for her work in the areas of secondary English and literacy education in urban contexts, including among transnational youth Dr. Skerret's book Teaching transnational youth literacy and education in a changing world published by teachers college press in 2015 is the first to examine the educational opportunities and challenges arising from increasing numbers of students living and attending schools across different countries. Her new book teaching literacy in troubled times identity inquiry and social action at the heart of instruction co authored with past classroom caffeine guest Peter smagorinsky and published by Corwin press in 2022. showcases teachers and students engaged in developing critical literacies and taking social action to create more just worlds. She is the keynote speaker for the 2023 RISE Caribbean conference hosted at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida. Alison Skerrett is professor of Curriculum and Instruction and director of teacher education in the College of Education at the University of Texas at Austin. For more information about our guest, stay tuned to the end of this episode. So pour a cup of your favorite drink. And join me your host Lindsay Persohn. For classroom caffeine research to energize your teaching practice. Alison, thank you for joining me. Welcome to the show.
Allison Skerrett:Thank you for having me, Lindsay.
Lindsay Persohn:So from your own experiences and education, will you share with us one or two moments that inform your thinking now,
Allison Skerrett:great, and a great way to start, I would start with my time as a high school teacher and a high school English teacher in Boston public schools. So this is probably not so much a moment, but probably more a season in my professional life. And what strikes me about that time, is how my students and I over the years we've been working together, had managed to build a really close community, we were a really culturally and linguistically diverse group of people, I lived in a community, we connected on a lot of cultural aspects, a lot of community aspects and that sort of thing. And what's striking to me about that time was despite all of these wonderful connections and the community that we have, that when it was time for us to sort of get down to work, if you will, with our curriculum, there seem to be a now I think I can name this this sense of disappointment that my students have sort of maybe entered this space as we were working. And there were days when they would put forth quite a bit of effort to engage with the text that we were reading. And other days when they just were not really feeling up to working within the cannon. So it was interesting to think about the contrast, between the time we were just engaged in conversation talking about our worlds and our interests, when I would allow them to bring in their music and talk about, you know, the the lyrics that they were composing and things like that, that time of joy and community and togetherness and sort of what happened when we began reading our Shakespeare texts and things of that nature. And back then at the time, I think like like most teachers, I was trying to be responsive and trying to engage my students in terms of the activities that I brought in to support this, this reading this curriculum. But overall, it fell far short of what they needed from from me in their language arts curriculum. And so when I entered my doctoral work, even at that time, I think I, I didn't really get into studying issues of literacy as practice and multi literacies and things like that I, I had a wonderful program. And I learned a lot and I think I did some good work within my in my dissertation continuing to look at how language arts teachers thought about the curriculum, in you know, in terms of being responsive to their diverse learners, I but I didn't really have the language that I now apply in my work until I got to my first faculty position where I started doing a study with a colleague, where we went into a reading teacher's classroom, a high school classroom and started working with her as she sought to make her reading curriculum more responsive to her students lives. And these were students who had been labeled as struggling readers. But in fact, they were much like my students that I had taught brilliant and amazing but had not really been given curricular opportunities to thrive. And so in working with both these colleagues, a classroom teacher and my colleague at the university, I came to begin reading about notions of literacy is practice and multi literacies, and that sort of thing. And with the teacher enacting this pedagogy in order to support her students reading practices and strengthening their reading identities, I came to really understand what it was that had been really missing in my own knowledge and understandings and stances as a teacher. And so that is really sort of a defining moment for me. I think my research program around youth and literacy practices really took off from from that experience and I have continued from that time to really center the lives of young people and in the work that I do, and to listen carefully to what they're saying about who they are as literate people out in the world, and to think about what what then that means for the literacy curriculum that we offer them in secondary classrooms. So, so I think that's, that's really a key defining moment. And then the second one is also an, I think, an outgrowth of that study as well. And that's the newer, although it's not so new anymore. But the newer area of my work on transnational Youth. During that time that I worked in that classroom, I came to learn about the lives of a number of students in that focal classroom, who had a beak, this happened in Texas, and they fought the ones who did have ties to other nations, those ties were to Mexico. And I was really interested in how they talked about their literacy practices that spanned borders, these national borders. At the time, I didn't have the language with transnationalism. But I was very interested in understanding how the literacies sort of shifted or had a particular character, because they lead these lives they and their families, families led these lives across borders. And so in writing, about one of the young women who I now know, was a transnational student, I sort of with the help of some really knowledgeable and kind reviewers at one journal that I was trying to publish in, sort of got directed to study the literature on transnationalism. And it was this aha moment, oh, she's a transnational young woman. This is what I'm sort of noticing about her life and her literacies. But then what struck me as I continued to read in that area, and begin to pub publish in that area was not a complete silence. But but almost that, in the literature around black transnational students, we had a lot of literature and continue to have a lot of literature about the experiences of primarily Mexican American border crossing youth, Asian American transnational students to a particular extent, but less so on students who identify as Black or, you know, from other countries. And so because of my own identity and background, as someone who is from the Caribbean, and with a family that has led a transnational life, for as long as I can remember, I began intentionally looking to study the experiences of Black youth with Caribbean origins, who identify as transnational, who they may not personally identify as transnational, but who, based in the literature, I can sort of think about as transnational young people. And I began thinking about what what could we add to the conversation? How can we open up a conversation? What more could we learn and understand if we paid more attention to that particular demographic, and included them in this conversation around transnationalism. And it's through that work at unite, I became very familiar with the work of Patriann Smith, her work on Black immigrant youth and their, their literacies, to translate literacies. And all of the wonderful work that she does in that in that geographical space. And with that, that group of people, young people, and teachers and teacher educators. And so that's been a wonderful connection, and I've just really been enjoying doing work in this area over the last few years.
Lindsay Persohn:Thank you so much for that not only informative, I think, really compelling response to that first question. And just for listeners advantage, Patriann Smith has a fairly recent episode of classroom caffeine that we can link to on your page as well, Allison, but something you said that I think really struck me as a critical part of this conversation is, you talked about, of course, transnational youth, and what literacy means across these borders and boundaries. And as you were talking about that, I was thinking that our borders are largely imagined, right? There's no real line in the sand anywhere. And so for schools to put up these kinds of borders or boundaries for kids, and you know, what they do in one geographical space isn't valued in other geographical spaces. There are so many, again, artificial lines, I think, that are drawn there. That can be really hard for teachers to navigate, I would say, and certainly very hard for students to navigate. Why is one form of literacy valued in one space while it isn't in another? And so I'm hoping that will really help us to unpack that and think about some potential solutions for classroom teachers in response to this next question. So Allison, what do you want listeners to know about your work?
Allison Skerrett:I think one. One way I would like people to understand my work is that it's really centered on listening to the voices of young people. And I like to think that that is a connection to my work as a classroom teacher. And my work as a researcher and also my work As a teacher, educator, someone that prepares English teachers to go out into into classrooms, I think that it's it's really important. And I think lots of us do this as as teachers to think about who our students are, as we sort of imagine and plan for our teaching and learning with them. And I know that it, it can feel sometimes that we were handed a curriculum that we sort of have to implement and in some places in cases that have to is pretty emphatic, it's pretty strong, but I always remind my pre service teachers that there are no no rules or laws against getting to know your students and to creating a space where they can authentically share who they are and, and what they do with with literacy. And from there, we can begin thinking about our our have tos and our musts. And I think one of our musts is really disposition to must, must give our students a place where they can thrive an opportunity to access the curriculum and an opportunity to access becoming stronger literate people. And so I think it takes years for for teachers to develop and finesse this, this practice of understanding how to make deep and authentic connections between who their students are and what they know and what they can do. And what the literacy curriculum is offering them in schools, and it takes years to finesse, what are have to curriculum that's handed to us what that looks like and, and reimagining it in a way that does make these connections. So I do acknowledge that the landscape is hard, and it and depending on where you teach it, you know, can be more challenging than in other places. And I, I'm conscious of the fact that when I taught in classroom back in the 90s, we were in a different landscape than we are now. But when I work with my pre service teachers and within service teachers, I find that there are still opportunities to just learn about who our young people are. And to think about how we can make these connections, I'm always reminded of this beautiful phrase that this reading teacher offered to her students. So she she had had this practice of beginning each year with her students, but she taught half year courses. So we you know, each semester, a couple of semesters, by doing this inquiry with students into the illiterate lives, they had opportunities to think about the definition of literacy. And she because she was informed by notions of literacy as practice, she was able to open up these definitions that they would first offer literacy being, you know, reading and writing to help them think about literacy as meaning making practices and to help them identify the things that they loved. And were literacy lived in them through a variety of practices. And I talk about her quite a bit and her her work in my book, teaching transnational youth. And she would say to her students, you have this line, all literacies are connected, but we have to show how they're connected. And I take that phrase with me because I see her too for herself. Because we would have conversations about this after most of her classes. You know, for her as a teacher, she felt that it was her responsibility to think about how are those literacies connected, so she could make these authentic connections for her students. And so if she needed to, she could explain and advocate with her colleagues or administration, why she was doing what she was doing in the classes because these literacies weren't connected. And I think that's a big part of our work as teachers in classrooms today to think about how are these literacies connected because it becomes advocacy work, it becomes intellectual work for ourselves, right? And for the it has a lot of implications for the work that we're able to do with students.
Lindsay Persohn:I would totally agree with that. And it sounds rather familiar. That's something that I talk with my pre service teachers about is, you know, being able to justify what you're doing. Because if push comes to shove, there are many times that I think having some sort of response to those kinds of critical questions or at minimum, understanding what you're doing so that you can formulate a response to any sort of critical pushback that you may get. I think that is very important. But it also reminds me of just how much teachers have to know in order to be able to do that. And you mentioned earlier this learning journey that teachers are always on with their students. And I couldn't agree more I think that teachers have got to see themselves as learners, continuous learners, lifelong learners, because there is so much to learn and it does change over time. As you alluded to, you know, teaching in the in the 90s is different than teaching pre pandemic is different than than it is now. So, it is an ever Shifting field. But that doesn't mean that we give up everything we know about good practice. But certainly anchoring, what we do and what we know, with the young people who are right in front of us, I think is just it's so critical. And it does really support engagement with learning for both students and for teachers. So this is just it's such critical work to think about how we learn from our students, and then how we make those connections when things seem disconnected. Yes, absolutely. So Allison, what else would you like listeners to know about your work?
Allison Skerrett:Well, I'll go back to what I started talking about in terms of work that really listens to the voices of young people. One defining feature or characteristic of my work is, is that there's there's very little that I published that doesn't have the voices of young people all over it, I think it's really important to create space for educators and policymakers, really stakeholders to hear the voices of young people to hear their stories to hear their reflections on what schooling is like for them what they need, from a literacy classroom, how they're using literacy in their, in their homes and in their communities. So I think we have a lot to learn from young people. And so I think one way that I use my work as a vehicle I hope to create change is is by centering the voices of the young people. And then from there, I also think it's so important to think about that classroom teacher, what does that what does that mean for for them, depending on where they are in their journey as a teacher, where they may be teaching who they may be teaching? So what are the implications for practice, similar populations, different populations, similar spaces, or, you know, or different spaces. So that's, you know, that's really important, you know, to me as well. So I, if I think sort of about the work that I do, and places that I sort of camped out along the way, in terms of a research program, you'll see that in my early years as a scholar, although everything is connected to the language arts curriculum, you'll see more of a focus on on teachers on in service teachers in my early work. And that's because I sort of entered the world of of research thinking very much about the place or the identity that I had just sort of left that of a high school English teacher, who was really grappling to make sense of literacy, curriculum literacy policy, and what that meant for Teaching Diverse Learners. So I've done quite a bit of work around teachers, professional learning, and communities of practice. And this is a thread that I sort of bring into my work now as well. When I think about how do how do teachers learn? And what do teachers? What did teachers need? What kinds of environments do they need in order to learn and to thrive as well? I think that although you know, I've been talking quite a bit about this, this one teacher, you know, and I think back to her, she was sort of a lone wolf out, you know, out there in her school. And she was aware of this, and she intentionally she, she was a sort of your typical language arts teacher, but then because she had been studying in a graduate program, and she really wanted to work with young people at her school to bring to life, some of the things she was learning around literacy and young people as agents of literate lives. And because also, she was beginning to work in an increasingly scrutinized space. And she knew that she would not be able to do the kind of teaching that she most wanted to do. She sort of opted to become a reading teacher at at that school. So while she was a lone wolf, she, she knew she had the space and the freedom as long as the test scores were doing fine. No one would really be concerned about exactly what it was she was doing in there, you know, and so maybe people thought she students were sort of sitting in front of that computer during that reading program for those 50 minute blocks, when in fact, that was not what was going on in her classroom at all. It was what I described earlier, but not all English teachers can escape to those places. And I think you can only be a lone wolf for so long if you can't at all so so one connecting thread, you know, in my early work and teachers, professional learning, communities of practice is how I think now about the work of teachers in terms of coming together to learn also, but also thinking about teachers communities of practice. So I I've done a fair amount of study of English departments and how teachers learn within language arts departments and leadership and language arts departments. But now when I think about, you know, those spaces, I think about it more in terms of our current landscape and notions of advocacy notions of spreading the kinds of practices that I've, I've been describing. So that there, there's just a lot of power, and there's sort of more people to speak back to them that lone teacher in their classroom, then you know, when it can be, I think easier to, to feel fearful and feel frightened and feel intimidated. And if you've got a department, a group of colleagues working together in principled ways to share practice, and so that's, I think, another dimension of of my work that I would, I would like teachers to, to be aware of my colleagues, Peter smagorinsky. And I mentioned Peter, earlier this afternoon, we have a new book that is really about what's called teaching literacy in troubled times. But this is a recent book in which we really take up critical issues and critical topics that that teachers need to be teaching about, within a landscape of great social upheaval and political constraints and threats in public schools. So we really take on this landscape, that it's a troubled time in our society, it's a troubled time in education, but these troubled times really do sort of underscore the need for a critical form of teaching. And I'm really proud of that work. Because for the book, we partnered with literacy teachers across different parts of the country. And we worked with them in terms of developing some different curriculum units, each related to a critical sort of component of literacy. So for example, there's a chapter on teaching racial literacy, and with teachers sort of piloting, adapting this, you know, this curriculum, these different designs, unit designs before their own classes, you know, they taught these units to their students, their students produce some amazing work, the teachers reflected on how things went and the students reflected as well in the work. And so you have this book where you've got teachers, voices, and they're their reflections on this work that they did with their students, you've got students reflections on their learning in terms of learning about racial literacy and inquiring into their global communities and things like that really powerful stuff. So I'm really proud of that, because it just it's a it's a way of showcasing the practices of really courageous and really smart teachers who've found a way to teach critically, within a really troubling landscape. And because we're all still very much living in this landscape right now. I think it's a really a piece of encouragement for teachers. And it's, I think it's sort of shines a light on sort of the possibilities of teaching in ways that our students need us to be teaching, despite all that's going on around us.
Lindsay Persohn:Yes, absolutely. Inspiration, encouragement, you know, and perhaps even some practical ideas as to how folks can get started on that. Or if they're feeling stuck, or, or particularly boxed in by their environment, or the curriculum, it's handed to them really important work to sort of break us out out of that thinking to break us out of someone else's mold, in order to best serve the young people who are right in front of us. So that's great. Thank you so much for that, Allison. And that actually segues really beautifully into this last question, given the challenges of today's educational climate, what message do you want teachers to hear?
Allison Skerrett:Yes, I think you're right. I probably have been sort of addressing this, this question and what I, I was just sort of, in my remarks a few moments ago, I think continuing on that thread. You know, we've been talking about working with pre service teachers, some of the conversations I have with my pre service teachers have to do with this idea that teaching has always been political work. It's always been hard teachers have always had to take a stand. It's, it seems like that dimension of teaching is has a huge underscore, right, right now, but in fact, you know, education has always been political. And so maybe it's more so that for those of us who have perhaps like to feel that we were pretty neutral, or we can be neutral or that we can go about our our work, and not sort of get caught up in the fray maybe for us now, we're feeling a little bit more uncomfortable, because the scrutiny is that much higher and particular people have the language that we we've been using for some time now. And you probably probably wish they didn't know quite as much as they do about the terms that we use to guide our thinking and our practice. And, you know, I'm very much thinking of those of us in higher education as well. It's it's an interesting time because in the past, those of us in higher ed could have looked to our colleagues in the K 12 classroom and say, can you believe what they're telling teachers they can or cannot do. And now we're right in there with with our colleagues in K 12. We have direct messages in many places, telling teacher educators and university professors what they can and cannot teach. So it's a time of speaking to all of us, it's a time of reckoning for all of us in terms of really sort of accepting that our work is is political. So I would go back then to what I was sharing in terms of how to teachers come together to, to advocate for, you know, for their practices, I think, in a lot of cases, the narratives are being constructed for us in terms of what we're teaching and what what we're not teaching the ideas we are forwarding to our students or not. And I I wondering, this is a wondering aloud with all of us, all of us and educators, no matter the level that we teach, I'm wondering, how are we coming together to construct alternative narratives and more authentic narratives about the work that we're doing? And how are we positioning ourselves to get the message these messages out into the political spaces where they need to get out in order to really fight for our practices. And so I think it is a really important time because, as I said, we're no longer those of us in higher ed, we're not we're not excused, we're not safe. We don't have the privilege or the luxury of sort of, let me work alongside the classroom teacher and think about how I can support them. We all share in this great responsibility to think about how do we tell a a more authentic story of what we're teaching and why it's important to teach, what we're teaching? And how do we rally support from our communities, and families, in order to ensure that our students, all of our students sort of get the kind of learning opportunities that they deserve. So that's what I think, really, Lindsay about the moment we're living in right now. And the work that we have to do, some of us are feeling pretty proud and confident in the curriculums that we've developed and the learning opportunities that we've created for our students. But now we're finding we need to protect them, we need to fight for them, we need to be worried about continuing to be able to do what we need to do for the shift. For those of us who have become very curriculum savvy and very sophisticated in our practices, we probably are not as sophisticated and experienced in advocating for teaching in the ways that we want to and it's a set of skills and knowledge and dispositions that we need to be building up at every level of education. I think, and I think this is the new moment that that we're in right now.
Lindsay Persohn:I think you're I think you're so right in several things. She said there, Allison, I think that this really is a very important political moment. Yes, teaching has always been political. But I think that between the pandemic and so much of legislation that's been introduced and passed recently, teachers have really been thrust into a spotlight in already doing a very challenging job, a wonderful, wonderful, but challenging job. And something else you said, really made me think about how did teachers come together to advocate it is my hope that a show like classroom caffeine can give teachers some tools and some path forward to navigate the resources to know the people to have those ideas sort of at the ready, right, whenever they are critically questioned? Or whenever there's pushback, because what I'm finding is that I think so often in the political realm, yes, folks have adopted the language, but they may not have the nuance of understanding of what those terms actually mean, right, or what is right. So I find that often the terms that that we come to understand on a very deep level, end up just sort of being copied and pasted into these conversations, right and into bills that are introduced. And so you know, being prepared, having some sort of response or the situatedness of those ideas, I think can be a great help in that conversation. I don't know that it will fix anything so to speak. But I think it's important that teachers feel they have power in these situations. Yeah, it's it is it is a very challenging time. And certainly teachers do have opportunities to introduce alternative narratives into political spaces. And I hope that's where we're headed. I know it sometimes it all feels pretty overwhelming. When you combine that with the day to day of teaching. We'll keep on keepin on, won't we?
Allison Skerrett:We will. We will and you know We need to I think, to keep our hope we need to keep our inspiration, we need to find the educators that are doing good work, we need to find the allies that are fighting for the work that we're doing as well. So yes, it is, it is a difficult time. But I, I'm of the School of being hopeful, and finding the stories that will energize and inspire without being pollyannish. Of course, if we don't respond and respond in a very smart way, we could lose some ground, at least for some time. So I'm not romanticizing the hope at the moment, but I think we can always choose to adopt a posture of hope and possibility. And so I hope, I hope that's where we can sort of collectively stand right in this
Lindsay Persohn:Absolutely. And I know for me, anytime I feel moment. like I might be losing a bit of hope. I just go talk to a young person, right. They are so inspirational, the way they think about the world and the connections they're already making. So it's an opportunity for us to put some of those pieces together and to help guide them forward in ways that are positive and productive for themselves and for for their peers. So yes. So Allison, I thank you so much for your time today. Thank you for talking with me, and I thank you for your contributions to the field of education.
Allison Skerrett:Thank you so much, Lindsay. It was a pleasure. I enjoyed the conversation, really had a wonderful time, so thank you for having me.
Lindsay Persohn:Thank you. Dr. Allison Skerrett is known for her work in the areas of secondary English and literacy education in urban contexts, including among transnational youth. Professor Skerrett's teaching and research focus on young people's literacy practices, secondary English education and Transnationalism toward educational justice for diverse students. Her publications appear in leading educational journals such as the American Educational Research Journal and reading Research Quarterly, Dr. Skerrett's book, teaching transnational youth literacy and education in a changing world published by teachers college press in 2015 is the first to examine the educational opportunities and challenges arising from increasing numbers of students living and attending schools across different countries. Her new book teaching literacy in troubled times identity inquiry and social action at the heart of instruction, published by Corwin press in 2022, showcases teachers and students engaged in developing critical literacies and taking social action to create more just worlds. She is currently an editor for the Journal of literacy research and serves on other national and international journal editorial review boards. Dr. Skerrett also serves on national and international educational advisory boards including the US National Assessment of Educational Progress Reading Panel, the research advisory committee of the Caribbean Education Council, and Scotland's International Council of Education advisors, Dr. Skerrett has received awards for her research and teaching including the literacy research Association's Early Career Achievement Award, the Edward B fry Book Award, and the Elizabeth Chateau Massey Award for Excellence in teacher education. Alison Skerrett is professor of Curriculum and Instruction and director of teacher education in the College of Education at the University of Texas at Austin. For the good of all students classroom caffeine aims to energize education research and practice. If this show provides you with things to think about, don't keep it a secret. Subscribe, like and review this podcast through your preferred podcast provider. I also invite you to connect with the show through our website at WWW dot classroom caffeine.com where you can learn more about each guest. Find transcripts for many episodes, explore episode topics using our tagging feature, support podcast, research through our survey, request an episode topic or a potential guest or share your own questions that we might respond to through the show. We would love to hear from you. As always, I raised my mug to you teachers. Thanks for joining