A608 After Hours Podcast Episode featuring Malika Ali

A608 After Hours Podcast

Malika Ali joined hosts Uche Amaechi and Monica C. Higgins for the January 26, 2023 episode of A608 After Hours, a podcast from the Leadership, Entrepreneurship, and Learning Course out of Harvard University.

The podcast aims to bring voices from the field into the classroom to inspire, inform and ignite leadership dedicated to wrestling with today’s stacked challenges. Each week they interview a guest that is doing this important work and discuss how course concepts come to life in the field. Guests span multiple roles across different sectors and institutions, and come from varied backgrounds.

Click here to listen to the full episode.

from the episode

Exciting Work We’re Supporting in Schools

“We know from the research that kids in identity-safe classrooms who feel a sense of trust and belonging do better, their outcomes improve…It’s not just about a toolbox of strategies anymore. It’s really connecting to our kids’ humanity, allowing them to feel seen, understood, and valued, and to understand that we’re all in this together.” 

– Malika Ali, 1-26-23 Episode, A608 After Hours Podcast

On Education & Purpose

“Education is not just a path to social mobility or a way out of poverty. It is about wonder, curiosity, seeing the beauty in the world, and making the world better by improving our own surroundings.

We are a team of learners, not just in service of the task at hand, but because there are so many beautiful things in the world to learn about. We nurture that at Highlander Institute, and that translates into our work with schools, districts, and kids.”

– Malika Ali

ABOUT MALIKA

Malika Ali is passionate about community-driven change management to scale and sustain culturally responsive education driven by a liberatory data approach. As Chief Innovation Officer at Highlander Institute, Malika leads program visioning articulated through a comprehensive model for school change. She was a Rhode Island District Teacher of the Year, served on Governor Raimondo’s STEAM & Equity in Educator Preparation and was named one of the nation’s top emerging and inspirational Black leaders in edtech by LearnLaunch. As a daughter of strong and brilliant Eritrean refugees, she has spent her life critiquing the systems that perpetuate educational inequity and is proud to be part of the struggle to ensure that all children have access to and can take advantage of an empowering education.

Windows and Mirrors: Malika Ali featured on Education Suspended Podcast

Education Suspended: Windows & Mirrors with Malika Ali

Malika Ali joined hosts Jessica Pfeiffer and Steve Graner for Episode 49 of Education Suspended, a podcast focused on exploring, engaging, and dialoguing with those in education who are passionate about changing the status quo and evolving the archaic system we have inherited.

The podcast explores Malika’s transgenerational story, which is rooted in the pursuit of education and drives her own desire to empower students. Malika discusses the importance of instruction that is relevant to students and curriculum that provides both windows and mirrors — for students to see themselves in lessons and better understand how they fit into the world.

from the episode

Defining Relevance

“Relevance is about: 1) Not just having the learning be abstract; and 2) Not just centered on dominant groups…We have everyone look at their curriculum, audit it for relevance, see does it affirm student identities and elevate non-dominant perspectives, and create space for students to have the windows (to see other cultures and ways of being) and mirrors (to see themselves reflected in the curricula).” 

– Malika Ali, Episode 49: Windows and Mirrors, Education Suspended Podcast

How to Design More Equitable Schools

“I believe that communities have the power and capacity within them to successfully and effectively solve whatever challenges come up. We need to build the spaces for them to collaborate, to learn, to design, to do, and to lead. The more those spaces exist, the more we see innovative, relevant, meaningful change happen for school communities by school communities. I love that concept of ‘nothing about us without us’. So we never want to be coming in saying ‘this is what people should do’. We can come in and bring resources, tools, research, and support. We can empower and provide spaces of learning and in facilitating that, find that the brilliance is there – and it’s always been there. People just want the spaces to talk.”

– Malika Ali

About Malika

Malika is passionate about community-driven change management to scale and sustain culturally responsive education driven by a liberatory data approach. As the Chief Innovation Officer at Highlander Institute, she leads program visioning articulated through a comprehensive model for school change. She was a Rhode Island District Teacher of the Year, served on Governor Raimondo’s STEAM and Equity in Educator Preparation Committee, and was named one of the nation’s top emerging and inspirational Black leaders in education innovation by Learn Launch. Malika holds an M.Ed. in Education Policy and Management from Harvard Graduate School of Education and a B.A. in Public Health from Brown University.

As a daughter of strong and brilliant Eritrean refugees, Malika has spent her life critiquing the systems that perpetuate educational inequity, and she is proud to be a part of the struggle to ensure that all children have access to, and can take advantage of, an empowering education.