"Teachable Moments," a Minute of Education for Students and Parents

On this episode of Speaking Of…College of Charleston we talk to Dr. Rénard Harris, associate professor of management in the School of Business. Dr. Harris is the host of Teachable Moments, a radio program about education topics for parents and students on South Carolina Public Radio.

Teachable Moments airs every Friday at 6:44 a.m., 8:44 a.m., 1:33 p.m., and 4:48 p.m., but you can listen any time on South Carolina Public Radio.org or today.charleston.edu/podcast.

Launched in April 2024, Teachable Moments covers topics that range from cell phones in the classroom to getting ready for college to teacher shortages. This is a great partnership between the College of Charleston and South Carolina Public Radio for many reasons, one of which is the opportunity to showcase the expertise of our faculty to the 315,000 weekly listeners across the state. 

“The College of Charleston is proud to partner with S.C. Public Radio on educational content that will inform and, maybe, even entertain its listeners,” says President Andrew Hsu. “Professor Harris is a gifted teacher-scholar and he can pack a lot in only a minute of instruction!”

Dr. Harris says he loves hosting Teachable Moments because each episode is a conversation with the wider community. “It’s not about high-end research. Nobody’s going to get tested on it, nobody’s going to fail, we’re just having a conversation in the studio,” he says. “It’s a teachable moment that hopefully inspires listeners to talk about with their neighbor, family and community and hopefully those discussions will make those spaces better.”

Sean Birch, director of South Carolina public radio, says Teachable Moments aligns with their mission to keep South Carolinians informed and connected to the world around them in a way that’s entertaining and accessible. 

 “Dr. Harris’ energy and positivity – not to mention the tasty licks of his harmonica – are a natural fit for our public radio style. We are proud to partner with the whole College of Charleston team and look forward to growing our shared efforts in the future.”

Featured on this episode:

Dr. Rénard Harris is an Associate Professor of Management in the School of Business at the College of Charleston. He holds an Ed.D in teacher education. Since his time at the College of Charleston and several years prior, he has explored multicultural education, diversity, equity and inclusion, storytelling, cultural relevance and leadership. He is often called upon to serve as a keynote speaker, inclusion facilitator and consultant for businesses and educational institutions.

Resources from this episode:

·      S.C. Public Radio and the College of Charleston launches “Teachable Moments”

·      Teachable Moments

·      Teacher Shortages episode

·      School of Buisness

·      School of Education

·      Rénard Harris Celebrates International Blues Day on Harmonica

·      MTA's 'Music Under New York' program

Transcript

Unknown: 0:01

You're rolling.

amy stockwell: 0:04

Hello and Welcome to Speaking of College of Charleston. I'm Amy Stockwell, associate director of public information and media relations and Podcast Producer in the Office of University Marketing and Communications. I'm here with Dr. Renard Harris, Associate Professor of Management at the college. We're in the studio today because we're thrilled to announce that Dr. Harris is the host of teachable moments, a one minute radio program about education topics for parents and students. teachable moments is aired every

Friday at 6:44am 8:44am 1: 0:39

33pm and 4:48pm. But you can listen anytime on South Carolina public radio.org or today.charleston.edu/podcast. teachable moments was launched in April 2024, covering topics that range from cell phones in the classroom to teacher shortages. This is a great partnership between the College of Charleston and South Carolina public radio for many reasons, one of which is the opportunity to showcase the expertise of our faculty to the 315,000 weekly listeners across the state. We're so grateful to Dr. Harris for contributing not only his dulcet voice, but his harmonica music to teachable moments. So without further ado, let me turn the mic over to Renard. Stop. That doesn't make sense, because I still have another question. So can I record just that last sentence?

Unknown: 1:47

Yeah. Oh, yeah. You don't? Yeah, I can. I can edit. Okay, so the flow is that we're going to have Bernard play

amy stockwell: 1:56

after I yeah, I just. Okay. Can we start with? We're so grateful. Yes. So let's see. We're so grateful to Dr. Lynch. teachable moments period. Dr. Yours. Thanks so much for Yeah, then I want to jump to Dr. Harris recording a

Unknown: 2:18

short clip. Could you play? Yeah, right. Better with we're so grateful.

amy stockwell: 2:24

Okay. Okay. We're so grateful to Dr. Harris for contributing not only his dulcet voice, but his harmonica music to teachable moments. Dr. Harris, thank you so much for joining us on speaking of the College of Charleston, we just finished recording new episodes of teachable moments that will air in July and August. Your harmonica playing is featured in the intro and outro of teachable moments. But it's a short clip. And I'm sure listeners would love to hear a little more. Could you play a little for us? Sure. Thank you for that I love it's really fun to listen and watch you play. And just so listeners know we're recording video so that the listeners will get to see you in action playing. Can you tell us a little bit about your musical background?

Unknown: 3:43

Yeah, definitely. So it's been great. I'm a huge lover of music, but I think I'd probably have to give credit to my mother probably we used to have a brother and sister and she would wake us up in the morning we would get dressed to music, she would crank the radio and we would get dressed dancing and dancing to music and and that was like the 70s the 60s and 70s. So r&b was huge. Funk was huge, right? And Michael Jackson and Gladys Knight so I grew up around that but also growing up around one grandmother that was Amazon, one grandmother that was Baptist, and then a rural Mississippi, and I went to a Catholic school. So I had everything coming at me at the same time from Ave Maria to wade in the water to lining, you know, on your knees for long. So it's just, I just been around music and sound for so many years. That became part of me and my mother bought us a piano she went to the pawn shop and bought me a trumpet and I've tried guitar and so just been around music and sound is to me music is just absolutely beautiful. So I'm a part of it's a part of me.

amy stockwell: 4:43

What a great way to wake up. I think that all parents should should use that to get their kids going in the morning. Like what a great way to get going.

Unknown: 4:50

I agree. You know grew up around Soul Train and dancing and making a soul train in your house. It's just it's healthy, right? It's a healthy way to get dressed and get ready for school.

amy stockwell: 4:58

Do any of your siblings play music? No,

Unknown: 5:00

we all play around music right? People ask me if I play something and we tripped over a lot of instruments so we can all dabble in different things, but I think it hit me the most to move it further. But we've all like sound we all like dancing and music, though. And then

amy stockwell: 5:13

did you didn't Did you specifically study music ever in college? It's all self taught. So

Unknown: 5:20

yes, awesome. So I even you know, being a bit of a bit of a wanderer, I think I changed my major like five times in college and it was I was a music major once investor knew nothing about music, but just in love with music, but no, never really formally studied enough to know. I think even when I tried to self teach myself like theory, I'll get to page six and quit. So just the sound it's more about feel for me. I know a little bit around music, but it's just the feel and the sound the communication. And then do you

amy stockwell: 5:46

play at all like in do you go and play with bands or clubs or anything like

Unknown: 5:51

that. So before I'm coming to South Carolina, living in Tennessee, and Tennessee was a great place to be around music. So start off in blues jams going to bars and jams and I played in a band for 10 years, and I lived in Knoxville, I played on the subway for years, I lived in New York City. Well, wait, stop

amy stockwell: 6:05

there. Say that, again.

Unknown: 6:06

I've played the last part, I lived in Harlem I played there's a New York City, this is some years ago, you could audition to play on the subway, and you would send in a tape or CD. And they would invite you and they would have auditions once a year in Grand Central Station. And they see you they put you behind this room. There's all types of artists in this one room, all types, and they will call you out and the newspapers would be there and TV stations, and you'd have five minutes to do what you do. And they will send you a letter and accept you or not to play on the subway that

amy stockwell: 6:36

is so Oh, I had no idea. It was like actually, like regulated. Yeah, and

Unknown: 6:42

Music Under New York mun why they will give you a little sign you still busking but they will give you a sign and a place to play on the subway? And I did that and it was I would never give that time back. Amazing. That

amy stockwell: 6:54

that is very, very cool. Yeah. What a great experience for sure. Way to put yourself out there and be vulnerable in front of just random strangers,

Unknown: 7:03

I think so in your in your you're playing for change, right. So they might give you a quarter they might give you a download. But you're you're out there busking for money and communicating with people a lot of conversation in New York City, you haven't 1000s of people walk past you. And so yeah, it's you decide if you love it or not by doing.

amy stockwell: 7:21

So from there, then what led you to to education?

Unknown: 7:24

Yes, I think they both happen at the same time. So growing up around music and ending up, get my master's in education in Tennessee. And so Tennessee is great for storytelling and music. And so I think it was all happening at the same time that these things marry, I fell in love with blues and a friend told me I think you're as interested in the culture of blues as you are the music as much. I think he's right, that whole story of African Americans and that having nothing but having power at the same time. And being in Tennessee with all the storytelling so to kind of my professor kind of led me down that path. So that's what led me to teaching and multicultural education and culturally relevant pedagogy was all happening at the same time. So I'm going to use my harmonica and that that route as a kind of like the sword I wield through all of this, because it's all connected to me. Music story, narrative culture, it's all one big space for me. So they kind of marry each other at the same time, as I developed as an educator.

amy stockwell: 8:19

And then from Tennessee, how did you end up at the college?

Unknown: 8:23

Right? So I went to a conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the College of Charleston had a booth there. And I was I just finished my doctorate getting ready to finish my doctorate. And I met some professors here and I gave them my CV and they said, why don't you come in interview at the College of Charleston. And I flew in to interview and fell in love with it. I mean, the people the place the energy of the students, the liberal arts idea, I just fell in love with it. Unfortunately, they invited me to fourth position at the College of Charleston. So I came here, you know, and became a professor so a lot what when was that? How long ago? 2005 2005. Wow, so good here since

amy stockwell: 8:58

and, and your path has your path has kind of changed a little bit recently at the college. Your doctorates in teacher education, but you're now teaching a class on one class on leadership and another on managing diversity at the business school. So what is that? Like? Tell us about that your new role over there.

Unknown: 9:19

So I was fortunate to be in administration here at the College of Charleston, from teacher education to administration. So I had the privilege of working under amazing presidents here at the college. So after telling the last president, I worked on it, I wanted to return to faculty. Well, where do you go after this experience of being in leadership, and the Dean of the School of Business, Dean Schwager, and the associate dean, Dr. Kerry muscles. So we may have a place for you over here, in terms of, you know, meeting our accreditation, but we think we have a place in terms of leadership and of course call managing diversity. But of course, you had to be vetted by your colleagues and professors and I had to meet with them and then go through a few steps. But they were kind enough to accept me into the department. It's been fantastic because I've always been around education So now I'm around business majors, right? But but at the same time, you're still teaching. And that's where the power is. And so the idea of teaching leadership, so I have all these experiences, working in administration at the college, all these stories, and connecting them to a text, and taking this text and saying, I've got a story that fits with that. So I'm able to go in and out of my personal experience and leadership, and this tax in these books and different sources we use to teach them. So that's been amazing. At the same time, I have amazing students who are getting ready to walk out the door. And you don't have to be at a you know, a high end industry to be a leader, you can do a right now you can explore some of these concepts. So that's been fascinating to have that conversation with students. And then of course, managing diversity is which definitely my lane, it's the same type conversation, but with business students about how you navigate where everyone feels seen, with no matter what industry, you're a part of where everyone takes their culture as a resource to navigate the world. So it's that conversation, it's a positive conversation, it's not a negative conversation, because diversity is a powerful positive thing, not a negative.

amy stockwell: 11:03

And how do you? How do you facilitate that? Like, do you have speakers come into your classroom,

Unknown: 11:09

public speakers are fantastic, I adopted a course I'm Dr. Carrie missile, and she had speakers prior. And I continue to do that. And when we look at the feedback from the students, students love speakers who play in those spaces. So I continue to do that I've had some amazing speakers that have come in and share their knowledge as volunteer, they're sharing their time and space, and knowledge. So that's been great. And also from speakers to personal experiences, to connecting it with texts. And so these courses, leadership and managing diversity are things that start almost with you, as an individual as a human being, I try not to explore much into the politics and the macro, because it's about you now. And so it's not about what you can be what you will be what you might change this about right now, the ownership, you have to engage with these topics, leadership and diversity to separate courses. But you can play with the now and explore now. So no matter what you do, when you walk out this door, you have that tool and resource in your in your in your bailiwick. And

amy stockwell: 12:05

I would think those those classes could be taught in any school at the college and that they're applicable to students across the entire college those skills are our necessary skills to be successful.

Unknown: 12:17

Yeah, I think you're spot on, I think I think you're spot on and think because I'm in the School of Business, I use business, you know, journals and ideas and concepts. But you're right, these ideas fit anywhere, but you're trying to fit it within the context. So students can connect the dots to finance to to accounting, but it's there. If they put me in the School of Music, it would be that through music, right. So it moves an educator moves within the context, but the same core is there. I agree with that. That's interesting.

amy stockwell: 12:43

Yeah. Yeah. So to move a little bit to teachable moments to segue, because we're so excited about launching this program with South Carolina public radio. You are our host. And so you're speaking on a variety of topics that go from teacher shortages to what kind of Corona type you are, we talked about all sorts of things. And one of the topics that we recently covered is teacher shortages that are happening across the whole country. So from your perspective, as a teacher, what advice would you give a student who's interested in teaching, but maybe has concerns about some of the challenges?

Unknown: 13:31

That's a great question, I think you have to be careful what you hear about education, because there is a there's a business side of education with administrations and districts, etc. But the art of teaching is something different. The art of teaching is if you're interested in engaging and taking something inanimate, from a piece of paper, from a digital side, however you look at it, and make it live to a human being to make it part of their life, if you want to explore that skill set that I can take what we're reading, and communicate to you in such a way and build such a relationship with you that this is part of your life now. And I've helped you kind of cultivate that as you move forward. That's what teaching is it no matter how you look at It's about relationship and communication and engulfing this information so that you are better than you were the day before. If you look at it that way, yes, there's a lot of politics, etc, about teaching, but the art of teaching is about that. And it's an art, it's a skill set is something you explore, you never get to the last page of that exploration. It's always it's almost, it's pretty competitive, because I want to get to you as a student, and I want you to get to me. And although there may be 1520 30 people in this classroom, this is about you and me, this is about you and me, it's the next person, this is about me and you and you're doing it all at the same time. So it's a bit of a paradox that happens, but it's about that relationship to develop as a human being. That's how can you how can that be a bad thing that is powerful and beautiful. There is another side politics, etc. But the teaching art, that there's power in that so for whoever's interested in that exploration, I would encourage Judy get involved with teaching. That's

amy stockwell: 15:01

beautiful. That's very encouraging. And I think it just makes me think about all of the the people that you remember when you're going through a certain moment of your life, if you're graduating from college or something, and you're reflecting on your life about who mentors and people who have really meant something to you. So often, we think of those teachers who, in our lives who were really meaningful, who did something said something that stuck with us that we hold on to, there's

Unknown: 15:29

something powerful in that, because I mean, you realize that your ego has been put outside the door, you're not looking for immediate satisfaction, you know, did I do something on my part of your life, it happens later down the road, you know, when you're doing something like I remember Mr. or Mrs, or such and such, then how they influenced me to do that. So it's not about you and your ego. And it's not about if I had if it hadn't been for me, this wouldn't have happened to you simply not true. You just on someone's journey, you're part of someone's journey, and they are stopping in momentarily to explore that with you. And hopefully, if you do it right, you will impact that journey positively. And they'll move on. And so it's not about who did what for whom it's about being a part of someone's journey and doing your part to make it better. There's power in that, that's, it's empowering. It's an empowering field.

amy stockwell: 16:10

That's beautiful. That's really beautiful. And so we're getting close to the end of our time. We've all been in the studio for a long time this morning. But I want to close with just asking you, what what's been fun. What do you enjoy about being the host of teachable moments, and this is something that we are, we're so grateful that you agreed to do this for us too, because it's it's time consuming. And we come into the studio, a you know, every couple of months and record a bunch of sessions and we send them up to Colombia. And you're doing this out of the generous SNESs of your heart. And so what what do you like about it and have any of your we've only started, we launched in April. So it, it hasn't been happening for too long. But has anyone any of your friends or family stopped you and said, Hey, I heard you, Andre. Yeah.

Unknown: 17:01

I've gotten calls from family members, like, I wish with like a cell phone from my knee, you know, my daughter? Yeah. conversations like that. But I gotta be honest with you, this is, you know, I'm working with you. You're fantastic. You know, got Jesse is producing is that the term is that the proper term? Jesse producing, engineering, engineering. You know, this is the epitome of collaboration, you know, it is because it's, there's three of us in this space, and this could have gone anyway, of course, you you do your part, you read your you do your role. But it's it's, it's, it's free, it's conversation. And more importantly, for teachable moments. This is higher ed, but we're communicating with our local community and beyond it's conversation, it's not about the high end research. It's not about, you know, what cited, what review, it's about human beings driving down the street or listening saying, I've been thinking about that, you know, or smiling or questioning or creating a discussion. So it's nothing you have to run to your computer to check. It's about that conversation, that we all have those teachable moments that we question that we need to know more about. So for me, it's just beauty in the core of humanity, right? We were just having a conversation, nobody's gonna test on it, nobody's gonna fail, nobody's gonna pass. It's just that, hey, this is a teachable moment. Let's talk about it. And so the way it's crafted the way it's written, it's just the way you write them. It's just for me, it's powerful. Because we're not trying to challenge you, we're not trying to argue with you, we're just dropping things on you, that are teachable moments that maybe you should consider discussing with yourself with your neighbor with your community, and hopefully making those spaces better. So one of the reasons I love it is because it's all plus plus, plus, there's no negative in it. It's all how can we add to the community, to develop a community for our neighbors to make things better, that you can call me in for that at any time. Sign me up for that, in terms of family and friends, I've gotten calls and it's been fun. people reaching out and saying it, I heard your voice like I think that's him, you know, because I know people but it's just been it's just been fun. And they're fun to listen to for me too. It's fun, because you know, to sit here and develop it with you, but then hear hear it later on such a powerful network. Right. So kind of a public radio. I mean, who who hasn't wrapped their arms around NPR before and said, this is this is healthy. So it's just it's good all around 100%. Well,

amy stockwell: 19:12

we agree 100% Me and Jesse that this has been equally, equally fun and inspiring for us in so many ways.

Unknown: 19:21

I just want to say before we close, you and Jesse are atop my book, I think, again, I don't know who I'd be working with them. They asked me to do this, but this is the perfect trifecta. And you you two of you are fantastic. So thank

amy stockwell: 19:33

you and we're gonna go on the road. Yeah,

Unknown: 19:36

we should take this. We could do a live podcast. We should. We should tour the universities. You know, I'm thinking from food trucks in this podcast truck. Just go to different festivals. Just roll up the size. That's right, and just drop them teachable moments. That'd be nice. I

amy stockwell: 19:57

love it. I love it. Thank you. So I think you've been such a great such a great morning thank you quite welcome thank

Unknown: 20:04

you oh thank you yeah