A compilation of leading education scholars on reenvisioning and creating equitable, inclusive, and democratic public schools
Against the backdrop of a rising tide of authoritarianism and white nationalism, a new and virulent strain of education politics has arisen, making public schools a primary site of political contention.
Educating in Dangerous Times raises the central question: How should we reenvision public schools and collectively create the public schools we need? The heart of the book centers on short, personal, and engaging chapters authored by leading education scholars who teach, study, and write about learning, school leadership, and the politics of education. Featured scholars include Antero Garcia (Stanford), Julian Vasquez Heilig (Western MI), Pedro Noguera (California), Marcelle Haddix (UW- Madison), and many others.
Issues are wide ranging and stretch from supporting marginalized youth to the rise of authoritarianism to rethinking English language arts and mathematics instruction.
Each chapter will reenvision a different future beyond the constrictions and threats we are facing now and propose a path forward for public schools in regard to the chapter focus.
This book illuminates the many educators, students, parents, and community leaders who desire more equitable, inclusive, and democratic schools—schools that affirm the value of each student and foster feelings of safety and belonging, and support development toward students’ aspirations.
“This is a powerful and timely collection that refuses to look away from the challenges facing public education while offering bold, humanizing visions for what schools can become. Drawing on the voices of leading scholars, it invites readers to reimagine schools as spaces of equity, dignity, and democratic possibility. Urgent, thoughtful, and deeply inspiring, this book is essential reading for anyone committed to the future of public education.”
—Douglas Fisher, coauthor of The Illustrated Guide to Teacher Clarity
“Education is not only in danger but in need of direction—a direction that is bold, inclusive, and relentless in pursuit of justice. Educating in Dangerous Times is exactly that. Each chapter serves as a North Star. In times like these, books like this guide us toward the world that is possible. I am excited to use this book in my classes; I feel it is necessary.”
—Bettina L. Love, author of Punished for Dreaming: How School Reform Harms Black Children and How We Heal
“In a moment when public education is under coordinated attack—from censorship laws to privatization schemes—Educating in Dangerous Times is a powerful declaration that schools are not neutral spaces but sites of struggle over truth, dignity, and justice. For anyone committed to teaching truth and transforming public schools into sites of democratic possibility, this book is a compelling invitation to organize for the future our students deserve. Read this book—and then join the resistance.”
—Jesse Hagopian, author of Teach Truth: The Struggle for Antiracist Education
“George Theoharis and John Rogers have served up a delicious collection of brilliant minds, gorgeous writers with big hearts and powerful imaginations, with scoops of resources and provocative questions, a book that warms the soul with hope and provokes our educational conscience with unapologetic mandates. The volume is luscious.”
—Michelle Fine, Distinguished Professor, CUNY Graduate Center
“This is the book we need right now. Part personal reflection, part dreaming, part prescriptions for policy and practice, this volume helps us think bigger and more ambitiously about the education systems that we need to prepare young people for the future. It is an invitation to keep our collective attention on what matters most and to redesign schools to do the important work of making society anew.”
—Na’ilah Suad Nasir, president of the Spencer Foundation
“John Rogers, George Theoharis, and their colleagues ask us to reject fighting a defensive struggle that would take us back to an imagined lesser evil; they inspire us to reenvision and reimagine what free people need our public schools to become, and then to commit to a battle to rebuild education with a robust vision of what’s worth fighting for. The stakes are high, and Educating in Dangerous Times is an essential text for understanding both the dimensions of the crisis we face and a strategy to fight for the schools we deserve.”
—Bill Ayers, author of When Freedom Is the Question, Abolition Is the Answer: Reflections on Collective Liberation
“This is a powerful book of hard truths about our nation and its schools. Collectively, the authors deem educational inequities and injustices unacceptable. More importantly, they offer useful ideas for Americans who are committed to ensuring that schools eradicate, not exacerbate, catastrophic threats to our democracy.”
—Shaun Harper, author of Let’s Talk About DEI: Productive Disagreements About America’s Most Polarizing Topics
CHAPTER 1
The Purpose of Public Education in Dangerous Times
—John Rogers and George Theoharis
SECTION 1: ASSERTING THE BRILLIANCE OF ALL STUDENTS
CHAPTER 2
Dignity and Beautiful Learning Environments
—Manuel Espinoza
CHAPTER 3
Leveraging the Collective Power of Young People’s Mathematical Ideas
—Megan Franke
CHAPTER 4
All Really Means All:
Recommitting to Inclusive Education During Dangerous Times
—Christine Ashby and Beth Myers
CHAPTER 5
Seeing the Genius in Those Labeled “System Impacted”
—Julissa Muñiz and Tyrone C. Howard
CHAPTER 6
Beyond Classroom Borders and Undocumented Schooling
—Antero Garcia, Christián Pena, and Alix Dick
SECTION 2: AFFIRMING DIVERSE STUDENTS AND LEVERAGING DIFFERENCE
CHAPTER 7
Searching for a Safe Space in an Unsafe System:
Black Queer Youth and Schooling in the Twenty-First Century and Beyond
—Judy A. Alston
CHAPTER 8
What Schools Cannot Hold:
Muslim Students and the Promise of Learning Otherwise
—Arshad Imtiaz Ali
CHAPTER 9
A Menace to Society:
Anti-Trans, Anti-Democratic Education Policy
—Mollie T. McQuillan and Kevin Lawrence Henry Jr.
CHAPTER 10
The Compass and the Algorithm:
Navigating Uncertainty in the AI Age
—Vincent Cho and Katie Davis
CHAPTER 11
We’ve Been Here Before:
Reflections on Being a Black Woman Leader in Education Today
—Marcelle M. Haddix
SECTION 3: LEANING INTO PROBLEMS
CHAPTER 12
Learning for a New World:
Reimagining Education for a More Just and Sustainable Future
—Pedro A. Noguera
CHAPTER 13
Reenvisioning Powerful Literacy Education
—Nicole Mirra
CHAPTER 14
Political Education, Repression, and the Purposes of Learning
—Shirin Vossoughi
CHAPTER 15
Learning Alongside Creative Artists:
Improvised Music as a Process of Storying Relations
—Ananda Marin, Lindsay Lindberg, and Shivani Davé
CHAPTER 16
Theorizing Back:
Reenvisioning Schools as Sites for Democratizing World-Building
—Miguel Casar
CHAPTER 17
Teaching for Democracy in a Time of Democratic Collapse
—Joel Westheimer
SECTION 4: REASSERTING PUBLIC AND COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY
CHAPTER 18
The Danger of Privatization and Neoliberalism in Public Education
—Julian Vasquez Heilig and Nallely Gecik
CHAPTER 19
Threats to Humanity: Reimagining K–12 Leadership
—Muhammad Khalifa
CHAPTER 20
When Choice Becomes No Choice: School Boards, Democracy, and the Fight for Public Schools
—Carrie Sampson
CHAPTER 21
Educating Against Disempowerment:
Freedom Schools as an Educational Model
—Vandeen A. Campbell, Margaret Goldman, and Charles M. Payne
CHAPTER 22
Lead Like Democracy Depends on It:
Leadership for Justice and the Public Good
—Michelle D. Young
SECTION 5: CONCLUSION
CHAPTER 23
“It’s Our Damn Job”:
Imagining and Building the Schools We Need
—John Rogers and George Theoharis
Acknowledgements
Editor Bios
Contributor Bios
Notes
Index