Gloria Ladson-Billings

Gloria Jean Ladson-Billings FBA (born 1947) is an American pedagogical theorist and teacher educator known for her work in the fields of culturally relevant pedagogy and critical race theory, and the pernicious effects of systemic racism and economic inequality on educational opportunities. Her book The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African-American Children is a significant text in the field of education. Ladson-Billings is Professor Emerita and formerly the Kellner Family Distinguished Professor of Urban Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Ladson-Billings served as president of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) in 2005–2006. During the 2005 AERA annual meeting in San Francisco, Ladson-Billings delivered her presidential address, "From the Achievement Gap to the Education Debt: Understanding Achievement in U.S. Schools", in which she outlined what she called the "education debt", highlighting the combination of historical, moral, socio-political, and economic factors that have disproportionately affected African-American, Latino, Asian, and other non-white students. In 2021 she was elected a corresponding fellow of the British Academy.

An autobiographical account of Ladson-Billings's intellectual development is available in the "Acquired Wisdom" section of "Education Review".

Biography Gloria Jean Ladson was born in Philadelphia, Pa. and was educated in the Philadelphia public school system. She obtained her B.S. in education at Morgan State University in 1968 and her M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Washington in 1972. She went on to complete her PhD in Curriculum and Teacher Education at the Stanford Graduate School of Education in 1984. Her dissertation titled Citizenship and values: An ethnographic study of citizenship and values in a black school setting was conducted under the supervision of Richard E. Gross.

In 1995, Ladson-Billings became the first Black woman to be tenured as a professor in UW–Madison's School of Education. prior to her retirement in January 2018. In 2015, Ladson-Billings was awarded the AERA Social Justice in Education Award. Other prestigious awards include the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Benjamin Banneker Association of the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics (2016), the Brock Prize for Education Innovation (2012), and the George and Louise Spindler Award from the Council on Anthropology and Education (2004). Ladson-Billings is an elected member of the National Academy of Education and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Education debt Education debt is a theory developed by Ladson-Billings to attempt to explain the racial achievement gap. As defined by Professor Emeritus Robert Haveman, a colleague of hers, education debt is the "foregone schooling resources that we could have (should have) been investing in (primarily) low income kids, which deficit leads to a variety of social problems (e.g. crime, low productivity, low wages, low labor force participation) that require on-going public investment". The education debt theory has historical, economic, sociopolitical and moral components. Similarly, the Native American population was prevented from obtaining a quality education. After forced labor and genocides, the remaining population was funneled into boarding schools focused on religious teachings and assimilation into European culture.

Sociopolitical component Sociopolitical debt "is the degree to which communities of color are excluded from the civic process" (Ladson-Billings 2006).

Moral component Moral debt is the final component of the education debt and "reflects disparity between what we know is right and what we actually do" (Ladson-Billings 2006). Individual responsibility becomes an unrealistic expectation when a group has been exploited, disenfranchised and oppressed for centuries.

Selected articles Ladson-Billings, G.J. (2005). Is the team all right? Diversity and teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 56(2), 229–234. Ladson-Billings, G.J. (1996). Silences as weapons: Challenges of a Black professor teaching white students. Theory Into Practice, 35(2), 79–85. Ladson-Billings, G.J. (1995). Toward a theory of culturally relevant pedagogy. American Education Research Journal, 35, 465–491. Ladson-Billings, G.J. (1995). Toward a critical race theory of education. Teachers College Record, 97, 47–68. Ladson-Billings, G.J. (1995). But that's just good teaching! The case for culturally relevant pedagogy. Theory Into Practice, 34:3, 159–165.

Chapters in edited texts Ladson-Billings, G. (2000). Racialized discourses and ethnic epistemologies. N. Denzin & Y. Lincoln (eds). Handbook of Qualitative Research (Second edition) . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Ladson-Billings, G.J. (1999). Just what is critical race theory and what's it doing in a nice field like education. In L. Parker, D. Deyhele, S. Villenas (Eds.) Race is…race isn't: Critical race theory and qualitative studies in education (7-30). Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Books Ladson-Billings, G.J. & Tate, W. (2006). Education research in the public interest: Social justice, action, and policy. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Ladson-Billings, G.J. (2005). Beyond the big house: African American educators on teacher education. New York, NY: Teacher College Press. Ladson-Billings, G.J. (2001). Crossing over to Canaan: The journey of new teachers in diverse classrooms. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Ladson-Billings, G.J. (1997). The dreamkeepers: Successful teachers of African-American children. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Grant, C. & Ladson-Billings, G.J. [eds.] (1997). Dictionary of multicultural education. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press.

Keynote and presidential addresses Ladson-Billings, G.J. (2006). Still_black@the_academy.edu. Keynote address at The National Council of Teachers of English Midwinter Research Assembly, Chicago, IL. Ladson-Billings, G.J. (2006). From the Achievement Gap to the Education Debt: Understanding Achievement in U.S. Schools. Presidential address at the American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA. Ladson-Billings, G.J. (2008). Keynote speaker at the Wisconsin state Martin Luther King Day celebration in the state capitol rotunda at Madison.