Anti-Oppressive Education in "Elite" Schools

This collection of groundbreaking essays brings together a diverse group of experts who are researching, theorizing, and enacting anti-oppressive education in “elite” schooling environments—that is, schools imbued with wealth and whiteness. This volume explores how those who are in a position of power can be educated to take active steps that reduce and disrupt oppression. Each essayist, writing with practitioners in mind, responds to one of four guiding questions from their unique point of view as an educator, student, or researcher: Why does this work matter? What is needed to start and sustain it? What does it look like in practice? What are the common pitfalls and how can they be avoided? Readers are encouraged to mull over various perspectives and experiences to find answers that fit their own contexts. This important book addresses the need to educate for social justice within economically privileged settings where power can be leveraged and repurposed for the benefit of a diverse society.

Book Features:

• Identifies ethical and effective pedagogical and curricular approaches to use with students in “elite” school settings.
• Examines what it means to work or learn in “elite” educational spaces for those who hold nondominant identities.
• Explores the special obligations and responsibilities these schools require furthering justice.
• Looks at how teachers can navigate the unique challenges that arise, the conditions needed to support them, and what counts as success for anti-oppressive education in “elite” schools.

Katy Swalwell is a former classroom teacher and professor who currently serves as lead equity specialist with the Equity Literacy Institute. Daniel Spikes is an academic and K-12 educator. Together, they cofacilitate sustained professional development nationwide on critical consciousness and the instructional, curricular, and systemic changes needed to work toward equity and justice in education.

“I’d like to thank Katy Swalwell, Daniel Spikes, and the contributors to Anti-Oppressive Education in 'Elite' Schools for their humility, wisdom, and truth-telling. I am a better educator for having read it. I aspire to the book’s integrity.”
—From the Afterword by Paul C. Gorski, founder of EdChange

Contents

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction: One Way to Make Change?  1
Katy Swalwell

PART I: WHAT’S THE POINT? JUSTIFYING AND FRAMING ANTI-OPPRESSIVE EDUCATION IN “ELITE” SCHOOLS 13

1.  Combating the Pathology of Class Privilege: A Critical Education for the Elites 15
Quentin Wheeler-Bell

2.  Intrinsic Aspects of Class Privilege 27
Adam Howard

3.  Is Becoming an Oppressor Ever a Privilege? “Elite” Schools and Social Justice as Mutual Aid 39
Nicolas Tanchuk, Tomas Rocha, and Marc Kruse

PART II: CAUTIONARY TALES: PROBLEMATIC MODELS OF SOCIAL JUSTICE EDUCATION IN “ELITE” SCHOOLS 51

4.  Beyond Wokeness: How White Educators Can Work Toward Dismantling Whiteness and White Supremacy in Suburban Schools 53
Gabriel Rodriguez

5.  Dead Ends and Paths Forward: White Teachers Committed to Anti-Racist Teaching in White Spaces 63
Petra Lange and Callie Kane

6.  Unspoken Rules, White Communication Styles, and White Blinders: Why “Elite” Independent Schools Can’t Retain Black and Brown Faculty 73
Ayo Magwood

7.  Critical Service Learning: Moving from Transactional Experiences of Service Toward a Social Justice Praxis 85
Tania D. Mitchell

8.  The “Duality of Life” in “Elite” Sustainability Education: Tensions, Pitfalls, and Possibilities 97
Kristin Sinclair, Ashley Akerberg, and Brady Wheatley

9.  The Possibility of Critical Language Awareness Through Volunteer English Teaching Abroad 109
Cori Jakubiak

PART III: PROMISING PRACTICES? IDEAS FOR ENACTING ANTI-OPPRESSIVE EDUCATION IN “ELITE” SCHOOLS 121

10.  Living Up to Our Legacy: One School’s Effort to Build Momentum, Capacity, and Commitment to Social Justice 123
Christiane M. Connors, Steven Lee, Stacy Smith, and Damian R. Jones

11.  Facilitating Socially Just Discussions in Elite Schools 135
Lisa Sibbett

12.  Mobilizing Privileged Youth and Teachers for Justice-Oriented Work in Science and Education 147
Alexa Schindel, Brandon Grossman, and Sara Tolbert

13.  Opening the Proverbial Can O’ Worms: Teaching Social Justice to Educated Elites in Suburban Detroit 159
Robin Moten

14.  Intersectional Feminist and Political Education with Privileged Girls 169
Beth Cooper Benjamin, Amira Proweller, Beth Catlett, Andrea Jacobs, and Sonya Crabtree-Nelson

15.  “Not Me!” Anticipating, Preventing, and Working with Pushback to Social Justice Education 181
Diane Goodman and Rebecca Drago

PART IV: CONVERSATIONS WITH COLLEAGUES 193

16.  Out of This Chaos, Beauty Comes: Democratic Schooling in a Progressive Independent Middle School 195
Allen Cross

17.  We Are Afraid They Won’t Feel Bad: Using Simulations to Teach for Social Justice at the Elementary Level 201
Gabby Arca and Nina Sethi

18.  Harnessing the Curiosity of Rich People’s Children: International Travel as a Tool of Anti-Oppressive Education 207
Alethea Tyner Paradis

19.  Building a Class: The Role of Admissions in Anti-Oppressive Education 213
Sherry Smith

20.  “It Shouldn’t Be that Hard”: Student Activists’ Frustrations and Demands 219
Julia Chen, Haley Hamilton, Vidya Iyer, Alfreda Jarue, Catalina Samaniego, Catreena Wang, and Jenna Woodsmall

Afterword 229
Paul Gorski

About the Editors and Contributors 235

Index 243