The Educator Summer Collaborative is a partnership between the Dudley Flood Center for Educational Equity & Opportunity and Elon University’s Black Lumen Project. The program provides a critical dialogic space for classroom teachers to examine their pedagogy, positionality, and potential to increase student social and academic success through an examination of the writings of James Baldwin. Through the collaborative educators receive support as they navigate the pedagogical struggles of teaching and engaging race in the classroom. The support provided, helps to build educators’ capacity to make sound and culturally relevant instructional decisions.
Educators will complete the program prepared to:
- Further expand their capacity to facilitate difficult conversations about race.
- Continue to examine their racial identities and how this impacts the teaching and learning process.
- Equip students to think critically about the world by examining the work of James Baldwin.
The 2023 Educator Summer Collaborative studied The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin. The study was facilitated by Marlene Harrison-Reid, Dr. Cherrel Miller Dyce, and Dr. Deanna Townsend-Smith.
To apply for the 2024 Educator Summer Collaborative Cohort please complete this form.
Dr. Cherrel Miller Dyce is an Associate Professor and Executive Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the School of Education at Elon University. With twenty years of experience in social justice work, she is a fierce social justice advocate, K-20 researcher, mentor, and social theorist. Dr. Dyce believes in uplifting marginalized communities through education. She emphasizes racial equity, social justice, and critical self-reflection in all research projects. Dr. Dyce is a diversity, equity, and inclusion consultant who provides professional development in the areas of racial equity for public and charter schools, higher education institutions, and private organizations. She has published many journal articles and two books. Her recent co-authored book is Black Males Matter: A Blueprint for Creating School and Classroom Environments to Support Their Academic and Social Development. Dr. Dyce’s faith is central to how she navigates her personal, professional, and academic endeavors. Her mission statement is, “I want my work to resonate in the souls of humanity, cast down inferiorities, mute institutions of power, capsulate privilege and discrimination, and eradicate racism.”
Marlene Harrison-Reid has been teaching Social Studies and or English Language Arts for the past 29 years. She earned her B. Ed. in Middles Grades (Social Studies and Reading) from Western Carolina University. She then pursued a M.A. in Education at Wake Forest University. She is currently pursuing doctoral studies in Curriculum and Instructions. She was the 2016-2017 Teacher of the Year at her school. During her tenure she has done several courses in Special Education and is also certified to teach academically gifted children. She has been an educator in the Guilford County Schools system for the past 17 years.

