This week, we welcome Ashley Houston-King to the Further Forward Podcast! We explore identity, colorism, and the history of Black literacy- from slave codes to modern “reading crisis” headlines. AHK details her dissertation as we connect policy to practice, unpacking how testing, zero-tolerance legacies, and curriculum politics land on real kids, and why after-school, third-space, and community-led programs are essential. Part history lesson, part blueprint for action, and a love letter to teachers, ancestors, and the future we’re writing together.

Ashley Houston-King is a Ph.D. student at Boston University studying Language and Literacy in Education. Ashley is also a reading specialist in a K-6 Boston Public School, and a former classroom teacher. Her research interests include exploring the intersections of literacy instruction, identity, and disrupting anti-Blackness in education. She is interested in studying in-and-out-of-school literacy spaces to better understand how youth navigate injustice and work toward collective liberation. 

Follow her on Instagram: @ashley_althea4

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Further Forward: Honest Conversations on the Art of Becoming, is hosted by Ashley Mitchell.

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