Full Description
As schools grow more and more vulnerable to the whims of profiteers and, as a result, become less and less a sacred public space of learning and justice, the voices of everyday educators and students are increasingly marginalized. This is the tyranny of neoliberal school reform: silence the people who know education, the people committed to equity and justice, and elevate the voices and desires of the privileged few whose knowledge of education is peripheral and profit-driven. Talking Back and Moving Forward: An Education Revolution in Poetry and Prose is a collective response to this tyranny, a collecting rallying cry for reclaiming our schools. It is a chorus of voices from teachers, educators, and educational justice advocates who refuse to be silenced—who are standing up and responding to the imposition of damaging school reform initiatives. Unconfined by the conventions of the traditional scholarly voice, the contributors use poetry, memoir, short stories, and photography, choosing the expressions that most effectively capture their experiences and their demands for educational and social justice.
Contents
Dedication
Foreword
Introduction by Paul C. Gorski, Rosanna Salcedo, and Julie Landsman
Chapter 1: Troubling Common Sense
Regrouping the Children by Anne M. Beaton
Quick Spring by Margot Fortunato Galt
Artifacts by Mary Harwell Sayler
out of the mouths of scholars by Kindel Nash
Dots, Lines, Spaces, and Math by Geetha Durairajan
Taco Night by Paul C. Gorski
Chapter 2: Revealing the Cost of Educational Tyranny
EDU Haiku by Mari Ann Roberts
Standardized by Alison Stone
Act V by Kelly Jean Olivas
a lesson from an elementary principal by Korina Jocson
Phoenixes by Julia Stein
This Thing of Memory by Andrena Zawinski
Answering the Call by J.F. McCullers
The Auspices of Social Justice by Shannon Audley-Piotrowski
Chapter 3: Honoring Liberated Voices
I Apologize by Alejandro Jimenez
A Classroom Assignment by María Gabriel
"Where Are You From?" by Hana Alhady
Felipe by Janice Lobo Sapigao
unpredicted storm by Cathi LaMarche
Chapter 4: Teaching Against the Grain
Punk Has Always Been My School by Rebekah Cordova and Erin Bowers
Pickled by Sarah Warren
They Are Me and I Am Them: A Memoir of A Social Justice Educator by Cherise
Martinez-McBride
Look by Elizabeth Harlan-Ferlo
Teaching from the Margins by Monique Cherry-McDaniel
Peace by Walter Enloe
You Gotta Be Ready for Some Serious Truth to Be Spoken by Debra Busman
Chapter 5: Speaking Up and Talking Back
Playground Futurities by James F. Woglom and Stephanie Jones
The Richest Country in the World: A Fable by LouAnn Johnson
Three Spaces of Exclusion: The 21st Century High School Integration of That Girl
by V. Thandi Sulé
They Said by Sarah Ann Gilbertson
Language as Weapon: Lessons from the Front Lines by Lani T. Montreal
Starfish (A Practical Exorcism) by Kyle "Guante" Tran Myhre
All the Ways We Learn by Sarita Gonzales
we pull the wool over this rainbow of eyes by Paul Thomas
Use your words! by Mary Elizabeth Hayes
Privileged and Under by Yvette A. Schnoeker-Shorb
The Goddess of Autumn by Richard Levine
Chapter 6: Advocacy and Solidarity
Connecting with Carlos by Amy Vatne Bintliff
Praise by Julie Landsman
Three Portraits by Jehanne Beaton
Willie Alexander by Thomas Thurman
Knowledge as a Function of Freedom by Toby Jenkins
School Talk by Stacy Amaral
letter to student by Sarah Warren
Author Bios
