“It’s the Genius for Me” - Empowering Youth Through Education

In this throwback episode from season one of the Building the Black Educator Pipeline Podcast, Dr. Gholdy Muhammad joined the show to break down the rich history of Black educational excellence and how it can help reframe the way we think about curriculum and instruction today. Dr. Gholnecsar (Gholdy) Muhammad is an Associate Professor of Literacy, Language, and Culture at the University of Illinois Chicago, where she studies Black historical excellence within educational communities. Dr. Muhammad’s scholarship has appeared in leading academic journals and books, including Research in the Teaching of English, Urban Education, Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, Language Arts, and Written Communication. She has led a federal grant with the United States Department of Education to study culturally and historically responsive literacy in STEM classrooms.Dr. Muhammad is also the author of Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy, in which she presents the concept of Historically Responsive Literacy, derived from the study of literacy development within 19th-century Black literacy societies. In this episode, Dr. Muhammad explains how this framework is essential and universal for all students, especially youth of color, who traditionally have been marginalized in learning standards, school policies, and classroom practices.