Adam Jordan is a professor here at the College in the department of teacher education with a specialization in special education, specifically concerning behavior. He got his undergraduate degree in special education in social studies from the University of Georgia, and then went on to complete his postgraduate degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He began teaching at an alternative school in Chapel Hill for grades 6-12, but then moved to Georgia to continue teaching there. Later, he found a job opportunity in Charleston, and has been here since then. He is a frequent contributor to The Bitter Southerner where he writes about education in the South, and he also has written multiple articles for Mouth of the South which is a blog attached to the All Y’all Social Justice Collective.

Dr. Jordan was born and raised in the South, so he has a deep connection to the area. He acknowledges that there are both good and bad things about the region, saying, “There is a duality of the South, and I like that duality.” Despite the negative stereotypes of the South, there are also many positive goods, like the fact that the Civil Rights movement started down in the South. He feels that it is important to address the issues we face, like Charleston being one of the most gentrified and racially segregated cities in the present day. He also helped found and now run the All Y’all Social Justice Collective, as mentioned previously, which is “a nonprofit focused on teacher professional development around issues of justice for teachers in the South.” Its main focus is to work with teachers for professional development, rather than “to” them and making them pay large sums of money.

— by Kevin Riley