Teaching for Social Justice
3 total works
Written by activist educators, Worth Striking For speaks to teachers and teachers-to-be about the drastic changes in the landscape of public education in recent decades, and focuses on what they need to know about the debates and complex issues of reform affecting their lives and professions. The book identifies the most significant shifts in education policy, including how policy has helped or hindered the broader educational purposes of schools. Using the 2012 Chicago teachers strike as a framing device, the authors demonstrate how each of the policy areas addressed is critically important to teachers' lives and work. Each chapter describes one of the Chicago teachers' demands, and then explores a related policy arena through the lens of an associated philosophical purpose of education. The text features individually authored vignettes that juxtapose the authors' personal experiences with the issues, bringing policy and policy activism to life. This hopeful book will inspire and empower teachers to take action in their schools, communities, districts, and states.
In this time of narrowed curricula and high-stakes accountability, Gregory Michie's tales of struggle and triumph are as relevant as ever. Since it was first published in 1999, Holler has become essential reading for new and seasoned teachers alike, and an inspiring read for many others. Weaving back and forth between Michie's awakening as a teacher and the first-person stories of his students, this highly acclaimed book paints an intimate and compassionate portrait of teaching and learning in urban America. While the popular notion of what it's like to teach in city schools is dominated by horror stories and hero tales, Michie and his students reside somewhere in between these extremes - 'between the miracles and the metal detectors'.
Gregory Michie's first bestseller, Holler If You Hear Me, put him on the map as a courageous and passionate voice in urban education. In his new book, Michie turns his attention to young teachers of colour, and once again provides readers with a unique and penetrating look inside school classrooms. Featuring portraits of five young teachers (two African Americans, two Latinas, and one Asian American) who are 'working for change', Michie weaves the teachers' powerful voices with classroom vignettes and his own experiences. Along the way, he examines what motivates and sustains these teachers, as well as what they see as the challenges and possibilities of public education.