Learning to Relearn - A Conversation with Kwame Sarfo-Mensah

Jun 28, 2025

Kwame Sarfo-Mensah, founder of Identity Talk Consulting, specializes in transforming K-12 educators into identity-affirming teachers. He discusses the pressing need to rethink traditional educational methods and assessments, advocating for approaches that celebrate diverse identities. Kwame highlights the shift towards community-driven education and the importance of collective intelligence in addressing complex challenges. His insights encourage teachers to embrace their roles as transformative agents in a post-pandemic world, fostering equity and inclusivity.

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INSIGHT

Education Needs Reflexive Humanity

Effective education involves being reflexive about our humanity and identity in learning spaces.
Openness to unlearning and relearning is essential for responding to new challenges like AI.

INSIGHT

Education's Roots in Exclusion

The current education system was deliberately structured excluding Black and brown people.
Many oppressive practices like dress codes echo historical assimilation tactics from colonial times.

INSIGHT

Schools Enforce Identity Separation

Schools demand separation of identity from learning, leading to cultural erasure.
Current educational scripts enforce limiting, isolating roles on teachers and students.

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This week it is a huge pleasure to be able to bring you this cross-over episode with Kwame Sarfo-Mensah and his fantastic channel, #IdentityTalk4EducatorsLIVE (https://www.identitytalk4educators.com/podcast). Kwame's work is full of insights gained through his own practice as a maths teacher and educational coach and consultant, and through his over 200 conversations with amazing educators and leaders.

Kwame Sarfo-Mensah is the founder of Identity Talk Consulting, LLC, a global educational consulting firm that specializes in developing K-12 teachers into identity-affirming educators. Additionally, Identity Talk Consulting, LLC is licensed as a DESE-approved professional development provider and a Minority Owned Enterprise within the Commonwealth for Massachusetts. Prior to starting his firm, he served as a middle school math teacher in Philadelphia, PA and Boston, MA for nine years. Kwame holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics and a Master’s Degree in Elementary Education from Temple University.

As a staunch ambassador and advocate for teacher empowerment, Kwame has spoken at numerous national education conferences and worked diligently to support the recruitment and retention of teachers of colour in the education system. In January 2019, he was one of 35 Massachusetts teachers of colour selected by Commissioner Jeff Riley to be in the inaugural cohort of the InSPIRED (In-Service Professionals Increasing Racial and Ethnic Diversity) Fellowship, an initiative organized by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary & Secondary Education (DESE) for veteran teachers of colour to recruit students of colour at the high school, undergraduate, and graduate levels to teach in targeted districts within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. As an InSPIRED Teaching Fellow, he facilitated professional development workshops for aspiring teachers at universities such as Boston College, UMass Boston, and Worcester State University and has served as a guest speaker for non-profit teacher pipeline programs such as Teach Western Mass, Generation Teach and Worcester Public Schools’ Future Teachers Academy.

Throughout his 17-year education career as a classroom teacher, author, and consultant, Kwame has earned numerous accolades for this work, which include being honored as the 2019 National Member of the Year by Black Educators Rock, Inc. and being recognized as a Top Education Influencer by brightbeam, Inc. in 2021 and 2022. His work has been featured in Education Week, WGBH News, Edutopia, Ed Post, The International Educator (TIE), Teaching Channel, and The Tavis Smiley Show.

His latest book, "Learning to Relearn: Supporting Identity in a Culturally Affirming Classroom" (https://learning2relearn.com/), received the 2025 IPPY Awards Gold Medal for Education (https://ippyawards.com/blog/2025-medalists-categories-35-65) and the 2024 Foreword INDIES Award for Education Book of the Year (https://www.forewordreviews.com/awards/finalists/2024/education/)!

Kwame has also authored 'From "Inaction" to "In Action": Creating a New Normal for Urban Educators' (2020) and 'Shaping the Teacher Identity: 8 Lessons That Will Help Define the Teacher in You' (2018).

Connect with Kwame:

https://www.identitytalk4educators.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kwame-sarfo-mensah/

https://www.instagram.com/kwam_the_identity_shaper/