Picower’s call to action to become co-conspirators in abolitionist teaching should be required reading for teacher-preparation professors, teachers, principals, and superintendents . . . Picower’s honest introspection about her own positionality builds an ethos of racial humility and dedication to dismantling racism in education.”
—Booklist
“Picower’s book [is] nothing less than a handbook for White people to relinquish power to people of color while also committing to laboring for justice in cross-racial educational communities.”
—The Christian Century
“This is a must-read for all future and current teachers interested in racial justice in the classroom.”
—Wayne Au, editor of Rethinking Schools
“A necessary provocation for conversations about the racist ideologies that teachers can unwittingly bring into the classroom and the real consequences of those ideologies for children of color. Perhaps most importantly, the book suggests meaningful ways that teacher prep programs can reframe their pedagogy to disrupt white supremacy rather than perpetuate it.”
—Eve L. Ewing, author of Electric Arches
“This book is essential reading for teachers, parents, and everyday citizens looking to dismantle White supremacy and expand justice.”
—Marc Lamont Hill, author of Nobody: Casualties of America’s War on the Vulnerable, from Ferguson to Flint and Beyond
“Picower has decades of commitment and experience in racial justice education, and it comes through in every page of this book. With both passion and precision, she makes the default of whiteness in school curriculum visible. I felt captivated by every page and heartened that such an accessible and transformative resource is available to teachers.”
—Robin DiAngelo, New York Times bestselling author of White Fragility
“If you consider yourself an ally in the struggle for racial justice, you cannot turn away from this book!”
—David Stovall, author of Born Out of Struggle: Critical Race Theory, School Creation, and the Politics of Interruption
“With powerful insights and concrete suggestions for transformation, Reading, Writing, and Racism is certain to help teachers, teacher educators, and administrators rethink their roles in preparing the nation’s teachers.”
—Sonia Nieto, author of Brooklyn Dreams: My Life in Public Education
“Coupling an urgent call to action with the practical supports required to act, this book offers a vision for and examples of the kind of humanizing, healing practices that successfully prepare teachers to struggle for racial justice through their everyday work. For those committed to rooting out the curricular violence of Whiteness, this book is right on time.”
—Carla Shalaby, author of Troublemakers: Lessons in Freedom from Young Children at School
“Reading, Writing, and Racism is a clearly written, no-holds-barred gem of a book that every teacher educator must read. Drawing on her incisive critique of curriculum and teacher ideology, along with interviews with racial justice teacher educators, Picower cogently frames how whiteness works in teacher education, while showing us how to upend it.”
—Christine Sleeter, coauthor of Transformative Ethnic Studies in Schools: Curriculum, Pedagogy, and Research
“The egregious, racist actions of a subset of school teachers that have gone viral on social media may seem like outliers in an otherwise just system and profession, but they are not, as argued compellingly in Reading, Writing, and Racism. What and how we teach, and who teaches, and how we prepare them should not be presumed to be somehow immune from the long legacies of white supremacy and colonialism that have shaped US schooling from its very beginning. Reframing and reorienting more forcefully toward racial justice requires tackling these legacies head-on in programs that prepare, support, connect, celebrate, and hold accountable educators—and Bree Picower offers us frameworks, models, and hope for doing precisely that, when the need could not be more great.”
—Kevin Kumashiro, author of Bad Teacher! How Blaming Teachers Distorts the Bigger Picture
★ 04/16/2021
Picower (teaching and learning, Montclair State Univ.; Practice What You Teach) examines K—12 education in the United States and argues that it perpetuates systemic racist curricula. The author uses the "Curricular Tools of Whiteness," a framework she developed, to explain how teaching practices can uphold white supremacy. Citing examples of racist lessons that have gone viral on social media, this book pinpoints two problems in teaching: lack of cultural proficiency, and the centering of Whiteness in education. Picower writes case studies of four pre-service teachers, who reflect on their own experiences with race and the influences of socialization, lack of exposure, and bias on their teaching. Picower also highlights particular pre-service teacher education programs in the U.S. that she believes effectively center racial justice, and discusses inclusive, responsive education practices that can lead to student learning, engagement, and success. Like Dr. Bettina Love's Abolitionist Teaching and Dr. Gholdy Muhammad's Cultivating Genius, this well-written, accessible book pushes educators to reexamine standard instructional practices. VERDICT Classroom teachers, curriculum instructors, and administrators, especially those eager to implement culturally responsive teaching strategies, will find this title essential to starting conversations about antiracist pedagogy.—Tiffeni Fontno, Boston Coll.
