What if some of the practices we consider "normal" in schools were never designed with every student in mind? From classroom expectations to curriculum and teacher preparation, many aspects of our education system have deep historical roots that continue to shape student experiences today. But how often do we stop to ask why? In this episode of Teaching in Color, Brandon Jenkins sits down with educator, researcher, and keynote speaker De'Ana Forbes to explore the history behind our education system and challenge some of the assumptions we've accepted without question. Together, they discuss culturally responsive teaching, Black history education, teacher preparation, educational equity, and what it really means to create classrooms where every student feels seen, valued, and empowered to succeed. This conversation isn't about assigning blame—it's about understanding our history so we can build a better future for every learner. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ De'Ana Forbes is a master social studies teacher, educational consultant, and keynote speaker from Gwinnett County, Georgia. She is a graduate fellow with the University at Buffalo's Center for K–12 Black History and Racial Literacy, where she has co-taught the Teaching Black History Microcredential. Her work focuses on culturally responsive education, Black history, and helping educators create meaningful learning experiences for all students. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📚 The hidden history behind today's school system 🏫 Why teacher preparation doesn't always match the realities of the classroom ✊🏾 What culturally responsive teaching actually looks like 📖 Why Black history should be integrated throughout the school year 💭 The questions every educator should be asking about their classroom 🌎 How understanding history helps us create better schools for every student ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Teaching in Color is a conversation podcast exploring the intersection of education, culture, and community. Hosted by Brandon Jenkins, each episode features authentic conversations with educators, authors, creators, researchers, advocates, and changemakers who are shaping the future of education. 🎙️ New episodes every Thursday. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📸 Instagram:https://instagram.com/allabout.brandon 🎵 TikTok:https://tiktok.com/@allabout.brandon ▶️ YouTube:https://youtube.com/@allabout.brandon ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📸 Instagram:https://instagram.com/teachingincolor.podcast ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📸 Instagram: (Insert) 🌐 Website: (Insert) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 💬 QUESTION OF THE WEEK What's one thing you think schools should rethink or do differently for today's students? Let's continue the conversation in the comments. If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to Like, Subscribe, and Share this conversation with someone who is passionate about the future of education. #TeachingInColor #Education #BlackHistory #Teaching #Teachers #EducationPodcast #Community #BrandonJenkins
