Talking Back and Looking Forward: An Educational Revolution in Poetry and Prose

by Paul C. Gorski (Editor), Rosanna M. Salcedo (Editor), Julie Landsman (Editor)

Overview

The editors assembled this book in order to highlight the voices of those who do have an idea—of people who have experienced or witnessed the impact of educational injustice on the lives of marginalized youth and the educators who advocate for them. They set out to collect writing about people’s experiences--their reflections on social justice and injustice, equity and inequity in and out of schools that influence educational access and opportunity. By sharing stories in poetry and prose and photography, telling truths either as people on the margins or as their partners in struggles for educational justice, it is the editors intentions to expand the narrative of the educational policy and practice.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781475824896
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	03/08/2016
Pages:	226
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Paul C. Gorski is an activist, author, and educator whose life revolves around social justice, environmental justice, and animal rights causes. He teaches in the Social Justice and Human Rights program at George Mason University. He lives in Falls Church, Virginia, with his two cats, Unity and Buster. Rosanna María Salcedo is a Latina artist, writer, educator, parent, and activist. She teaches Spanish and currently holds the position of Dean of Multicultural Affairs at Phillips Exeter Academy, a preparatory school in New England. Julie Landsman is a retired teacher, writer and teacher trainer. Her book A White Teacher Talks About Race is in its third printing. She enjoys working in schools and teaching creative writing to all age groups. Her latest book is Growing Up White: A Veteran Teacher Reflects On Racism. She believes student voices can drive educational change.

Table of Contents

Foreword: Voices for Diversity and Social Justice Antonia Darder xi

Introduction xxvii

Part 1 Troubling Common Sense 1

1 Regrouping the Children Anne Beaton 3

2 Quick Spring Margot Fortunato Galt 7

3 Artifacts Mary Harwell Sayler 9

4 Out of the mouths of scholars Kindel Nash 11

5 Dots, Lines, Spaces, and Math Geetha Durairajan 13

6 Taco Night Paul C. Gorski 17

7 Reflection Questions for Part One: Troubling Common Sense 19

Part 2 Revealing the Cost of Educational Tyranny 21

8 EDU Haiku Mari Ann Roberts 23

9 Standardized Alison Stone 25

10 Act V Kelly Jean Olivas

11 A lesson from an elementary principal Korina Jocson 31

12 Phoenixes Julia Stein 33

13 This Thing of Memory Andrena Zawinski 35

14 Answering the Call Jeff McCullers 37

15 The Auspices of Social Justice Shannon Audley-Piotrowski 39

16 Reflection Questions for Part Two: Revealing the Cost of Educational Tyranny 45

Part 3 Honoring Liberated Voices 47

17 I Apologize Alejandro Jimenez 49

18 Seeds Mayra Evangelista 53

19 A Classroom Assignment María Gabriel 55

20 "Where Are You From?" Hana Alhady 57

21 Felipe Janice Sapigao 59

22 Unpredicted storm Cathi LaMarche 61

23 Reflection Questions for Part Three: Honoring Liberated Voices 63

Part 4 Teaching Against the Grain 65

24 Punk Has Always Been My School Rebekah Cordova Erin Bowers 67

25 Pickled Sarah Warren 71

26 They Are Me and I Am Them: A Memoir of a Social Justice Educator Cherise Martinez-McBride 73

27 Look Elizabeth Harlan-Ferlo 79

28 Teaching from the Margins Monique Cherry-McDaniel 81

29 Peace Walter Enloe 89

30 You Gotta Be Ready for Some Serious Truth to Be Spoken Debra Busman 93

31 Reflection Questions for Part Four: Teaching against the Grain 97

Part 5 Speaking Up and Talking Back 99

32 Through My Eyes Cinthia Suasti 101

33 Playground Futurities James F. Woglom Stephanie Jones 103

34 The Richest Country in the World: A Fable LouAnn Johnson 113

35 Three Spaces of Exclusion: The 21st-century High School Integration of That Girl V. Thandi Sulé 117

36 They Said Sarah Gilbertson 121

37 Language as Weapon: Lessons from the Front Lines Lani T. Montreal 125

38 Starfish (A Practical Exorcism) Kyle "Guante" Tran Myhre 129

39 All the Ways We Learn Sarita Gonzales 131

40 We pull the wool over this rainbow of eyes: the archeology of white people (pts 1 and 2) Paul Thomas 135

41 Use your words! Mary Elizabeth Hayes 137

42 Privileged and Under Yvette A. Schnoeker-Shorb 141

43 The Goddess of Autumn Richard Levine 143

44 Reflection Questions for Part Five: Speaking Up and Talking Back 145

Part 6 Advocacy and Solidarity 147

45 Connecting with Carlos: Reframing Pain into a Model of Resiliency and Activism Amy Vatne Bintliff 149

46 Praise Julie Landsman 153

47 Three Portraits Jehanne Beaton 155

48 Willie Alexander Thomas Turman 169

49 Knowledge as a Function of Freedom Toby Jenkins 173

50 School Talk Stacy Amaral 181

51 Letter to student Sarah Warren 187

52 Reflection Questions for Part Six: Advocacy and Solidarity 189

About the Contributors 191

Editorial Reviews

Poetry, like life itself, is about the world around us, and the world within. In this volume, teachers, students, and activists express with deep feeling what education should be, both in the world around us – our classrooms, schools, and communities – and within us – our hearts, minds, and souls. May all teachers and students hear the powerful messages about social justice, the current state of public education, and what we can do to change it, from the poetry in this heartfelt collection.

Sonia Nieto

In this moment when the narratives and debates about educational “reform” seem only to constrict, we need the arts more than ever to rattle and expand, and this is precisely what we find in this powerfully moving new book by Gorski, Salcedo, and Landsman, who have assembled educators and activists to speak through poetry and prose against the moment and towards a future yet untold. Passionate, illuminating, troubling, and inspiring, their words will sit with you as they stir you to action. Read it today.

Kevin Kumashiro

So-called education reformers have tried to convince the public that neo-liberal policies and no-excuses rhetoric are the answers to the problems of public education, particularly the problem of educational disparities. This volume takes on these so-called palliatives and speaks through the voices of real people to the problems of real people.

Gloria Ladson-Billings

Reading this book was an inspirational breath of fresh air in the often stifling struggle for social justice in education. Hearing from fellow teachers and from students is a much needed break from the dialogue of well-meaning scholars who, though impassioned, are not in the classroom. I can see applications for this book both in my classroom and in my work as a teacher mentor.

Angela Cunningham

Talking Back and Looking Forward is a brilliant counter to lists of best practices that race to the top. This wonderful book evokes the transformational power of the arts to reclaim the identities, experiences, and injuries that standardization-policed-by-testing tries to erase from schools.

Christine Sleeter

Sometimes the spirit of resistance speaks, sometimes it sings—but always in unison with the voices of the oppressed, the excluded and those marginalized by injustices systemic to neoliberal capitalist society. And sometimes this spirit is amplified by educators advocating for them. This is a book in which the spirit of resistance is present in all of its polyvalent glory. It is a book that sings, that laughs, that weeps and that screams in fierce harmony with those forebearers of social justice who have over the decades forged a path towards liberation with both creativity and unyielding resolve. I hear their suffering and their joy echoed throughout every page of this book. I feel the stirrings of a new pedagogy of the heart.

Peter McLaren