Sciographies is a radio show and podcast about the people who make science happen, presented by The Faculty of Science and campus-community radio station CKDU 88.1 FM. This is the seventh article in a series that features excerpts from each new episode released this fall.
In this week鈥檚 special alumni episode, we talk to Karen Hudson (MES鈥�02), the principal of Auburn Drive High School in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, and the founder of the Africentric Math Cohort.
Hudson, who holds degrees from 蘑菇AV, Saint Mary鈥檚 University, and Mount Saint Vincent University, is a pioneering leader in education, committed to breaking down barriers and inspiring future generations.
Through years of dedicated research, she has developed a program that weaves Afrocentric perspectives into curriculum, equipping students with the tools to succeed in any path they choose.
Karen Hudson鈥檚 graduation from 蘑菇AV. (Submitted photo)
She also reflects on her time at 蘑菇AV, her enduring commitment to student engagement and community connection.
Shown right: Karen Hudson as a student at 蘑菇AV.
Here are some excerpts from the podcast, edited for clarity and length.
Barclay: I read you are one of the top principals in Canada. I have to know, how does that happen?
Hudson: In 2019 I received a national award for Canada's Outstanding Principal. They said it was for my 鈥榞round-breaking work on embedding Afrocentricity into mathematics.鈥� The goal was to get students who are not pursuing higher level math classes get them to actually see themselves in those classes. And not just see themselves but to feel that they can actually be successful. Whatever success looks like for them, for them not to give up the opportunity to try those high-level math classes. My goal was to basically look at the data, and the data was telling me a different.
Barclay: And what did it tell you?
Hudson: That these students, students of African ancestry, need an opportunity and a chance to actually take these high-level classes. Obviously, I think we encounter at all levels of education and all topics, really, is this idea of bias, the bias, the internal bias.
Barclay: You talked about looking at the data and that motivating some of the decision making in terms of creating the Africentric Math Cohort. Can you give us some detail on that?
Hudson: We went back and looked at data from 2015, 2016, 2017. From there we could see many students of African ancestry were taking courses that were low level. You could count on one hand, even less than that in terms of pre-count calculus and advanced placement calculus. Based on our research, we felt that we need to do something a little bit more, not just about math, but also about how we get students to feel good about themselves. That's when we started talking about culture and understanding that it鈥檚 an imperative in terms of who you are.
Barclay: What's the secret ingredient to get students to go to the level they don't think they can go to?
Hudson: I want students and parents to feel that they're limitless, that they have opportunities that are out there and that math is used in every aspect of our lives.
Barclay: And the next part of the task is to tailor the curriculum and make the subjects, like you said, it's an Afrocentric mathematical curriculum. Is that correct?
Hudson: Somewhat. You can't take every aspect of it and change it. Maybe you鈥檙e looking at understanding the black communities. Maybe you do an exercise that looks at triangles in terms of communities or distance from one community to another and understand how they connect.
And then people start to say, 鈥淥h, I never knew we even had about 52 black communities within Nova Scotia. What about some of their leaders? Did they contribute anything?鈥�
Listen to the entire episode of Sciographies at 4:30 PM today on in Halifax or find it on , ,听and other popular podcasting platforms. You can also listen to previous Sciographies episodes on the same platforms and at dal.ca/sciographies.
Also in this series
- Meet Dr. Shannon Johnson & Dr. Alissa Pencer: Psychologists and co鈥慸irectors at 蘑菇AV's Centre for Psychological Health
- Meet Dr. Alex Veinot, chemist
- Meet Drs. Michael Metzger and Chongyin Yang, physicists and battery experts
- Meet Saurabh Chitnis, synthetic chemist
- Meet Aaron MacNeil, marine biologist
- Meet Dr. Sian Kou鈥慓iesbrecht, biogeochemist