CUIN Doctoral Student and Mom Influences Publisher - University of Houston
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CUIN Doctoral Student and Mom Influences Publisher

Roni Dean-Burren and her son CobyCurriculum & Instruction Ph.D. candidate Roni Dean-Burren is an African American mother who is changing the world through education one step at a time.  Her son Coby, a Pearland High School ninth-grader found an error in the wording in a McGraw-Hill World Geography Textbook that called African slaves "workers" and "immigrants."  He immediately texted the error to his mother, a former high school English teacher.  Dean- Burren noted that the language was nuanced and that “workers implies wages . . . yes?”

Dean-Burren immediately took to Facebook posting comments and a video.  In the video she showed the cover of the book with the name of the editor (McGraw-Hill).  She also showed the example of the error in the book – the video reached nearly two million views.  On a map of the U.S., the text read “The Atlantic Slave Trade between the 1500s and 1800s brought millions of workers from Africa to the southern United States to work on agricultural plantations.” On the page next to the map the authors explained “an influx of English and other European peoples, many of whom came as indentured servants to work for little or no pay.” But how the Africans came to the country was never explained.

After Dean-Burren’s social media posts went viral, McGraw-Hill heard the outcry and agreed to correct the error.   The edited text will first appear in an online version of the book and then in the next publication of the textbook. 

Even though some do not feel the changes are enough (many want the book recalled and replaced by new copies in schools who can’t afford to replace them), Dean-Burren posted on Facebook: “This is change people!!! This is why your voices matter!!!"   

Dean-Burren agrees that the rewrite means that social media activism is a very real and very viable platform. “It means that lives of my ancestors mattered.  Using that word ‘worker’ was a form of erasure,” said Dean-Burren.  “It was lessening the value of those lives. It was taking the brutality of the ‘peculiar institution’ of American Slavery and making light of it.”

Dean-Burren is happy she was granted a national platform to bring attention to education.  She appeared on the following local channels: 13 (ABC), 2 (NBC), 39 and 9 (FOX).  Nationally, she was on CNN and The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore.

“Roni epitomizes the idea that one person can make a difference,” said CUIN clinical professor Margaret Hale. “By listening to her son’s concerns and then voicing those publicly, she has affected change with a major textbook publisher and shown not only students, but adults as well, that words matter.  Her advocacy and a passion are a model for all of us in education.”

When asked what it means to have done her job to change the world through education, Dean-Burren responded, “I don’t know if I’ve done my job per se, I think the work is ongoing. For me it means to never ever, ever quit. It means that I have to keep talking about the things that matter.”

Dean-Burren’s Ph.D. studies focus on the relationship that Black boys have with literacy and how that relationship is connected to the school-to-prison pipeline. “The research in this area is somewhat lacking, and with mass incarcerations being traced back to juvenalian contact with the law, I feel this is a massively important topic in education,” she said.

To read more about Roni Dean-Burren’s story please see the following links:

CNN

McGraw-Hill to rewrite textbook after mom's complaint

The Washington Post (includes Dean-Burren’s video)

‘Workers’ or slaves? Textbook maker backtracks after mother’s online complaint.

The New York Times

Texas Mother Teaches Textbook Company a Lesson on Accuracy

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