What Does It Mean to Educate Beyond the Classroom? | Ashley Toussaint

What if being an educator is about more than what happens inside a classroom? In this episode of QNA: Questions Need Answers, James “Munch” Mungin II sits down with longtime educator, coach, mentor, and community advocate Ashley Toussaint for a conversation about education, identity, mentorship, youth development, community building, and what it means to pour back into the places that helped shape you. With more than two decades in education, Ashley reflects on a career that has taken him from Miami to New York and into classrooms serving students from a wide range of backgrounds and circumstances. His philosophy starts with seeing the whole child—understanding who they are, what they're experiencing, and what they need before reducing education to content, testing, and academic performance. Throughout the conversation, we discuss: Seeing the whole child as an educator Building meaningful relationships with students Mentoring and supporting younger teachers Coaching as another form of education Why educators shouldn't “hoard” young people Ashley's experiences teaching in Miami and New York Haitian-American identity and growing up in Miami Using running and movement to build community Bringing what he learned elsewhere back home The changing landscape of Little Haiti His experience with the Little Haiti Revitalization Trust Creating opportunities for youth and families Why civic engagement matters at the neighborhood level Preserving the communities that helped shape us Ashley also reflects on becoming a veteran educator and intentionally supporting younger teachers differently than he was treated early in his career. For him, teaching means recognizing that families are entrusting educators with their most precious responsibility—their children. But his idea of education extends well beyond school. Ashley describes using running to intentionally build community in Black neighborhoods and eventually bringing that same philosophy back to Miami. That commitment also shaped his involvement with the Little Haiti Revitalization Trust, where conversations about development continually came back to a basic question: What's in it for the community? From advocating for scholarships to encouraging people to understand the civic institutions shaping their neighborhoods, Ashley's story raises a larger question: What does it mean to educate beyond the classroom?