Susi Long

Showcasing day-to-day literacy practices, Dr. Long's presentation will help elementary school teachers understand their role in dismantling the imbalance of privilege in literacy education. She highlights classrooms where participants will see, hear, and feel decolonizing and humanizing culturally relevant pedagogies as students learn literacy and a critical stance through musical literacies, oral histories, heritage lessons, and building a critical consciousness. Dr. Long shares strategies to help teachers examine their own educational spaces, start the school year in culturally relevant ways, build reciprocal relationships with families and communities, and teach within standards and testing mandates while challenging unjust systems. Practices are brought to life through students, families, and community members who voice the realities of pedagogical privilege and oppression and urge educators to take action for change.