Author Interview

Click Here To Listen To Our Interview With Dr. Kimberly Parker! 

Transcript of Interview Below:

Q. Do you think if you wrote this book years before or after 2020 how different would it be? any additions? anything you would take out?

A.  Oh, that's a great question. You know what? I think that I would focus even more on community building. And also, how do you build community when kids are dysregulated, when grownups are dysregulated? How do you continue to have really high expectations for kids and yourself? And what does that look like? I think that since the pandemic, it's been much more challenging for people. I I think I would have focused much more on that piece. The other pieces will still remain, but I would definitely add to that for sure. 

Q. How did you come up with the 5 Foundational Beliefs? Your own moral ethics? Your experience in the field?

A. Yeah, probably it's a combination of both. I think I lived through those principles all the time as a practitioner and working with young people and grownups, and then others are ones... I think it's a combination also of who I want us to be. And then there are just things that I know to be true, and I believe. If I were I can only pick five, what would they be? These are them. And I think that they're timely, or they're not timeless, because I think things are often in need of revision. But I think that they offer a really good foundation for what you build, to come back, and to revise, and to reflect on. 

Q. Your Two beliefs you mentioned in chapter 1: “that young people needed to read what they wanted and that they also needed to read "classics." In my mind, both of those beliefs could exist, and for a while, they actually did.” What advice based on your experience after including your own journey to seek and others to seek out and share texts that were written and illustrated by Black authors and illustrators, while also guiding my understanding and development of IPOC authors and illustrators, LGBTQIA+, and authors and illustrators with disabilities would you give future educators and students themselves? 

A. I think that, one, we have to be readers anyway. I think I'm really sad by the number of literacy folks who don't read or write. They go together. So both of those. And I think that we have to go on terrible journeys.We have to be well-read in our own experience and experiences of others. And that's always a learning process. It's always happening. I'm in a library, one, because I want my child to have that experience, and two, because I'm always looking for more books that reflect my experience for also open up to others. And so I think that that's what educators have to do, is they have to think about what are our experiences growing up, what were the books we read, do the audits of what we have in our classroom libraries, and what we are putting in front of kids. And if really there are classes, and classes are taking over, which they do. And we know that teachers continue to teach classes, even when kids aren't reading them, even when they're not relevant Even when there are books that are written by diverse authors that actually tell those stories or those themes much more compellingly, we still don't read them. So that's the question. Why? And what's our responsibility? We can't change it. We just choose not to.

Q. “Critical and sociopolitical literacies are the most important literacies. Students are problem solvers.” I really liked the point you made with this state, afterwards, you quote Ladson-Billings so I was wondering if you would want to go more in-depth on this. 

A. Yeah. I think we take shortcuts and not ask the kids about how they are experiencing their own realities and how to fix it? I do think we can be adult and we can think that we know better than young people. And also sometimes problem solving takes time. And that's always the thing that as educators, we're like, We don't have enough of. I I do think that kids need space to really talk about issues that are relevant to them and to think about, one, what's the worldwide response if it's something like what's happening around the world, for example? And then also, how would they put it? We need to invite them in the conversation so they can know that they have the power to actually change the world and then try to do something based on what they say. Not to be frivolous with their responses or their hearts, but to say, Okay, so then in your capacity of where you are and where you sit, what can you do? And then help them to do it.

Q. “A culturally relevant intentional literacy community (CRILC) is a space where educators work deliberately with students to create a literacy environment that systematically normalizes the high achievement of everyone within that community.” How can one make this outside the classroom? 

A. Oh, yeah. They can flourish anywhere. Again, I'm in a library, which is probably... They're fine here. This is a great place, but not necessarily. If it's a place where teams don't feel welcome, then you have a really nice invitation to work with the kids who are there to invite other kids in and to think about what are the ways that we can bring those foundational beliefs of the CRL..ILC. It doesn't just flow off the tongue. But I think any place is in need of community that doesn't have one. Any place that might have community might need some sprucing up. Any place as possible. And I think that that's what I always think about, is where is the possibility? Who's already doing the work? And how can I help?

Q. How did you come up with #BlackBoyLit? You mention your son in the book, however I did not know if there was a deeper meaning in terms of representation of why you created that padlet resource?

A. Yeah, I've always been interested in working with Black boys. That's been research interests, a deeper buy interest. I've always had a really... My results have always been... All of those metrics have been really strong with Black boys. Again, I see the possibilities. I help them working in collaboration with them. I'm not afraid of them like many people are. They're amazing human beings. I do have a black boy myself, and I know how it's really easy to stereotype them, adultify them, and all these other things. And so I intentionally seek out books to help us to tell different stories about black boys and all of their black boyness. Books that preserve black childhood, that help boys see masculinity and gender expansiveness, that let them see themselves in the world in all these different capacities. So that's how the # came to be, and then I periodically try to add books to it. It's working right now just because I've been doing other things, but it's a good architect. Yeah.

Q. How do you deal with anti-blackness and overall racism in the education field? 

A. Well, I mean, how much time do you have? Oh, my goodness. First of all, you have to name it. You have to name it in yourself because it's in all of us. And then you have to name it where you see it. I think white folks can do a lot, speak up and to say this is what's happening, right? Also to think about it, where does it happen in populations of Blackness? I live in an immigrant community in Boston, and so no one wants to be African-American, unless those of us are African-American. And so that's the anti-blackness. And also affirming. I think so many people are anti-black. And then I just always think of the kids who are black, we have to live in this world. How do they see themselves? Where are the ways that we can always affirm and to look up that are not trauma-based narratives? And then how do we deal with structured policies? Discipline. Always go to discipline. Discipline policies, because that's a great place to start with anti-blackness. Look at our systems, how are we getting kids into advanced classes? Usually, anti-blackness is there. It is there. It's not useful if it is. But those fine-tuned or fine-tuned ways of looking at what we're doing will help us see the anti and get rid of it. It's not enough to notice it, but we have to eradicate it while also uplifting and affirming black children and other children so they can see. We have to humanize black kids and black people and our black colleagues so that they know that they're not alone.