Gloria Ladson Billings named 2012 Brock International Prize in Education Laureate

Monday, November 7, 2011

Gloria Ladson Billings with the University of Wisconsin-Madison has been named the Brock International Prize in Education Laureate for pioneering the adoption of culturally responsive teaching strategies among educators. Ladson Billings, Kellner Family Professor of Urban Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at UW, will be formally honored at the 2012 Brock Symposium on Excellence in Education set for March 29, 2012, at the University of Tulsa.

“Gloria is a leader-scholar who has raised ethical questions about education; challenged teachers and administrators as well as fellow higher education professors to make a difference in the field while keeping at the forefront the idea that inequities in education result in inequities in our society,” said Dr. Khaula Murtadha, who nominated Ladson Billings for the Brock prize. Murtadha is Associate Vice Chancellor for Lifelong Learning in the School of Education at Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis. She was on the jury of educators and education advocates who selected Ladson Billings for the honor.

Murtadha describes Ladson Billings as an educator who understands that leadership is an influencing relationship that insists upon enriching and improving the learning organization. “It involves critical questioning, engagement with the field of educational practitioners and theorists, while uplifting and sustaining commitments to goals of societal improvement. This is the work of Dr. Gloria Ladson Billings.”

“As an educator myself,” Murtadha added, “I appreciate Gloria for asking the hard questions and providing educators with responsive answers. Questions such as, ‘What must we do and how must we act, with urgency, to make an impact on the educational outcomes of children who live in the margins, in poverty, children who are African American—how will we take on the challenge?’ Her research, teaching and civic engagement is making a difference in every school of education across the country that prepares educators to address issues of excellence in teaching, culture and diversity, social justice and equity.”

Ladson Billings is the author of three critically acclaimed books, including “The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children” and “Crossing Over to Canaan: The Journey of New Teachers in Diverse Classrooms.” She is credited with coining the term "culturally responsive pedagogy," and is one of the leaders in the field of culturally relevant teaching.

Her most recent book “Beyond the Big House: African American Educators on Teacher Education” (2005), profiles seven prominent African American teacher educators—Cherry McGee Banks, Lisa Delpit, Geneva Gay, Carl Grant, Joyce King, Jacqueline Jordan Irvine, and William Tate—developing an understanding of how these African American scholars have shaped their relationship with the academy.

Ladson Billings is a past president of the American Educational Research Association. As AERA president, she redefined the “achievement gap” as “educational debt”—highlighting the social, political and economic factors that have disproportionately affected children of color in U.S. schools.

Elected to membership in the National Academy of Education, Ladson Billings has been a senior fellow in urban education at the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University.

She earned an M.A. in education at the University of Washington and a Ph.D. in curriculum and teacher education at Stanford University. Her scholarly awards include the H. I. Romnes Faculty Fellowship, the Palmer O. Johnson outstanding research award, a fellowship at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, and the George and Louise Spindler Award from the Council on Anthropology and Education for significant and ongoing contributions to the field of educational anthropology.

The Brock International Prize in Education recognizes an individual who has made a specific innovation or contribution resulting in a significant impact on the practice or understanding of the field of education. The $40,000 prize is awarded annually and includes a certificate denoting the honor and a bust of legendary Native American educator Sequoyah. The prize is endowed by the John and Donnie Brock Foundation through the Brock Family Community Foundation to ensure its perpetuity.
For more information about registering for the 2012 Brock Symposium on Excellence in Education, go to http://brockinternationalprize.org/ or contact Brock Prize Executive Director Dr. Ed Harris at ed.harris@okstate.edu.