Our picks for books and other resources for social justice teaching 29.4
Check out these valuable resources, reviewed by Rethinking Schools editors and Teaching for Change colleagues.
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Saul Alinsky Lives!
People Power: The Community Organizing Tradition of Saul AlinskyEdited by Aaron Schutz and Mike MillerVanderbilt University Press, 2015 Fifteen years ago, I was part of a community organizing effort that […]
When They Tried to Steal Our Classrooms
Teachers learn that the district’s plan for a desperately needed school renovation is based on “100 percent utilization” — teachers will rotate through classrooms, losing the home bases students depend on. They organize to change the plan.
The Problem with Story Problems
A teacher educator critiques the biases of story problems in math textbooks. Teachers around the country offer creative alternatives.
What Happened to Spanish?
A 3rd-grade bilingual teacher describes how administrators’ anxiety about standardized test results erodes both a school’s commitment to Spanish literacy and students’ love for learning.
As a Teacher and a Daughter: The Impact of Islamophobia
A Canadian teacher discusses the impact of Islamophobia on students, especially those who are Muslim and/or from the Middle East.
Ebola: Teaching Science, Race, and the Media
Two teacher educators encourage their students to think about the impact of racial and colonial biases on media coverage of science issues—and on scientists.
The Politics of the Paragraph
The tale of a high school English teacher’s journey into—and out of—formulaic writing programs as her school struggles with high-stakes exams.
Lead Poisoning
Building on the lead-poisoned water scandal in Flint, Michigan, a Chicago chemistry teacher helps her students explore lead poisoning in their own city.
“Kill the Indian, Kill the Deaf”
Parallels in the oppressive history of residential schools for Native American and Deaf children help Deaf students better understand their history and culture.
A Teacher’s Letter to His Future Baby
A teacher writes about his hopes for the person his child will become—and some of the dangers along the way.
Rethinking Identity: Afro-Mexican History
Latina/o students explore the impact of African roots on Mexican culture and history.
Classrooms of Hope and Critique
In the introduction to our book Rethinking Our Classrooms, we quote the late, great Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, who urged teachers to “live part of their dreams within their educational […]
Letters to the Editor 30.4
Personal Cost of War I just finished my second reading of Chris Hawking’s, “Cracking the Box: The Personal Cost of War”(winter 2015-16). Both times his story literally brought tears to my […]
Schools, Land, and Peace in Colombia
Medellín, Colombia—I knew from the invitation that this would not be a normal school visit. My wife, Barbara, and I were to travel into the Andes Mountains to visit an […]
Racial Justice Is Not a Choice
High-stakes tests have not only failed to achieve racial equality in schooling, they’ve also made it worse for students of color.
Rethinking Our Classrooms Among Race and Education Books Censored at Illinois Prison
In late January, authorities at the Danville Correctional Center in east-central Illinois removed more than 200 titles from the prison’s library. One of the books that was confiscated was the Rethinking Schools book Rethinking Our Classrooms: Teaching for Equity and Justice, first published in 1994 and edited by Bill Bigelow, Linda Christensen, Stan Karp, Barbara Miner, and Bob Peterson.
Solar Power Comes to Math Class
A math educator brings data from a friend’s solar panels — and the story to win them in their community — into her 7th-grade classroom to build a bridge between math and climate justice education.
The Green New Deal and Our Schools
So often, the climate crisis is presented in frightening, threatening terms: rising seas, superstorms, raging wildfires, unlivable temperatures, species extinction, disappearing glaciers, dying coral, climate refugees. These are real. But the paradox is that this dystopian possibility is forcing us to imagine an entirely different kind of society. Schools have a central role to play in devising new alternatives and equipping young people to bring those alternatives to life. This is the work we’ve been assigned.
The SAT’s New “Adversity Score”
Students of color with the least advantage in terms of wealth don’t need saviors — they need a more just society.
Time to Get Off the Testing Train
While high-profile tests like the SAT are problematic, Karp argues that we need to end the routine standardized tests that plague students and teachers.
The 2020 Election and the World Our Students Deserve
The central tasks of the 2020 campaign are to defeat Trump and to strengthen the impact of grassroots social movements on the U.S. political system. If we pursue these goals with energy, hope, and passion, we will win a chance to build the world our students deserve.
Macaroni Social Justice
A 3rd-grade teacher uses thousands of pieces of macaroni to facilitate a lesson about fractions and to spur classroom conversations about wealth inequality.
Making Room for Death
Death happens regularly, but a special education teacher describes her own mother’s death to show how schools leave no space for grief and try to hide death from the school community.
Our picks for books, videos, websites, and other social justice resources 33.4
Check out these valuable resources, reviewed by Rethinking Schools editors and Teaching for Change colleagues.