Dr. Bettina Love is an educator who teaches, writes, researches, and advocates at the intersection of racism, education, and abolition. She is the author of the book We Want To Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom.
Dr. Love joins the show to discuss what abolitionist teaching means to her, and the work of the Abolitionist Teaching Network, whose mission is "to develop and support those in the struggle for educational liberation by utilizing the intellectual work and direct action of Abolitionists in many forms." She also shares what inspired her to write her new book “Punished for Dreaming.”
Dr. Love and host Shayna Terrell discuss the education reform movement and what it will take to achieve educational equity. They also consider what education reparations could look like and how we can advocate for them.
Finally, Bettina shares how hip-hop can be implemented into education and how schools can be more inclusive of diverse populations.
Dr. Bettina Love:
Dr. Bettina L. Love is the William F. Russell Professor at Teachers College, Columbia University and the bestselling author of We Want To Do More Than Survive. In 2022, the Kennedy Center named Dr. Love one of the Next 50 Leaders making the world more inspired, inclusive, and compassionate. A co-founder of the Abolitionist Teaching Network (ATN), whose mission is to develop and support teachers and parents fighting injustice within their schools and communities, they have granted over $250,000 to abolitionists around the country. She is also a founding member of the Task Force that launched the program In Her Hands, distributing more than $15 million to Black women living in Georgia. In Her Hands is one of the largest guaranteed income pilot programs in the U.S. Dr. Love is a sought-after public speaker on a range of topics, including abolitionist teaching, anti-racism, Hip Hop education, Black girlhood, queer youth, educational reparations, and art-based education to foster youth civic engagement. In 2018, she was granted a resolution by Georgia's House of Representatives for her impact on the field of education. You can preorder her new book Punished for Dreaming: How School Reform Harms Black Children and How We Heal wherever books are sold.