Identity-Conscious Teaching, Learning, and Curriculum

Liza Talusan, PhD, is an educator, speaker, leader, writer, coach, and parent. She has over 27 years of experience in PreK-20 education and is currently a faculty member in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Her book, The Identity Conscious Educator: Building Habits and Skills for a More Inclusive School, published by Solution Tree Press, is the 2023 Gold Medal Recipient of IPPY Awards. She is also the author of Identity-Conscious Practice in Action: Shaping Equitable Schools and Classrooms (Routledge, 2025).

“Identity-Conscious Teaching, Learning, and Curriculum is a brilliant, practical roadmap for educators committed to joyful, identity-affirming classrooms. This book shows us how to honor and center students’ identities and move from reflection to sustained action for equity.”—Dr. Dena Simmons, author, scholar, and founder of LiberatED"Liza Talusan’s work is soul work. It does not simply ask educators to think—it asks us to feel, to reckon, to remember who we are and who we have been taught to be. To become identity-conscious is not a strategy; it is an act of self-love, and like all real love, it demands truth. Her latest book, Identity-Conscious Teaching, Learning, and Curriculum, is a guide to joy and love, offering beautiful prompts and activities that call us to show up whole and committed to transformation. Let Liza’s storytelling, coaching, and teaching guide you home. She is one of our greatest teachers."—Dr. Bettina Love, Abolitionist + Freedom Dreamer"Too often, we want to believe that what we teach and how we teach it are neutral processes, existing outside ourselves. Dr. Liza Talusan reminds us that we each bring a lens to them based on our identity, cultural reference points, and social privilege based on race, gender, and economics that influences our practice. In Identity Conscious Teaching, Learning, and Curriculum, she offers a powerful process for leveraging identity consciousness as an engine for liberatory education that disrupts deep-rooted biases gripping our school systems."—Zaretta Hammond, teacher educator and author of Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain and Rebuilding Students’ Learning Power: Teaching for Instructional Equity and Cognitive Justice“In her latest book, Identity-Conscious Teaching, Learning and Curriculum, Dr. Liza Talusan expertly holds the flashlight for us to keep doing the good work of building knowledge, establishing a reflective practice, and most of all—taking action to build the schools our students deserve. Every bookshelf should hold space for this gem.”—Jennifer De Leon, tenured professor, author of Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From, and co-founder of Story Bridge

• Part I: An introduction to an Identity Conscious Practice Part II: IDENTITY-CONSCIOUS TEACHING Part III: IDENTITY-CONSCIOUS LEARNING Part IV: IDENTITY-CONSCIOUS CURRICULUM Part V: BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER