Our guest today is Dr. Katherine Cumings Mansfield and she walks us through a fascinating glimpse into the research behind the historical, political, and socio-cultural roles of education, and the way it all intersects with race, ethnicity, gender, religion, and language. We know that you’re going to enjoy this episode!

Dr. Katherine Cumings Mansfield is a seasoned school teacher and program administrator and has been certified to teach in four states due to her husband’s prior military status. Dr. Mansfield has served in a number of different roles, including time spent as an elementary school teacher, a gifted program administrator, and an educator for medically-impaired children at a medical center.

Dr. Mansfield is interested in policy and politics and is currently an Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in the Department of Educational Leadership and Cultural Foundations.

Show Highlights:

• The coronavirus pandemic has become a magnifying glass that has helped us to hone in and see the disparities in education.
• Dr. Mansfield discusses some of the distance learning issues that she has been hearing about from various parents.
• More parents need to go to the school board meetings and push the administrators to do things differently, instead of just giving up.
• Dr. Mansfield shares her thoughts on asking students how best to improve the schools.
• We need to teach students how to be part of a civic community.
• At first glance, it may seem neutral, but when viewed through racial, gender, poverty, or disability lenses, you find that so much of our education policy is actually skewed.
• As Dr. Mansfield explains, not a lot of research takes place on kids with special needs or IEPs where the researchers actually speak with the students, so she thinks it would be interesting if researchers started asking these students with IEPs what they thought about their placements.
• A public school that treats every student as gifted is what Dr. Mansfield’s current emphasis on research is based on.

Referenced Netflix Documentary:

Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution

Links/Resources:

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