Dignity-Affirming Education

The word “dignity” is not typically used in education, yet it is at the core of strong pedagogy. This book names the concept and shows readers what education looks like when it is centered on students’ dignity. By bringing together a collection of chapters written by authors with wide-ranging expertise, this volume presents a powerful approach to education that reminds people of their somebodiness—the premise that each person inherently possesses the intellectual acumen and creative resources to pursue development on their own terms. This timely book brings dignity into sharper focus, moving the field toward a language that captures what is required for oppressed communities to recognize their potential. It synthesizes research for educators, school leaders, and educational activists to help them make sense of what they are working for and against: dignity and the numerous affronts to it. Dignity-Affirming Education is important reading for anyone who works with students of any age, including nontraditional or adult learners, in formal and informal educational contexts.

Book Features:

• Provides a clear picture of how educators can affirm students’ dignity in their everyday practice.
• Outlines an approach to social-emotional learning (SEL) that takes social processes such as stigma, exclusion, and marginalization into account.
• Offers vivid portraits of what dignity-affirming education can be for a variety of settings.
• Contributes to a new vocabulary for seeing educational processes as students experience them.
• Presents rigorous research in a way that is digestible for policymakers, practitioners, and scholars alike.
• Provides a base for emerging study and sets the stage for additional inquiry and research.

Decoteau J. Irby is an associate professor in the Department of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Illinois Chicago. Charity Anderson is senior research associate at the Joseph C. Cornwall Center for Metropolitan Studies, Rutgers University–Newark. Charles M. Payne is the Henry Rutgers Distinguished Professor of African American Studies and director of the Joseph C. Cornwall Center for Metropolitan Research at Rutgers University–Newark.

“This volume begins by providing a definition of human dignity that helps to explain the anger, frustration, and resistance of people of color to most formal education in the United States. It then goes on to provide rich examples of educational initiatives from elementary schools, high schools, and colleges built on the core principle of human dignity. The authors show how these initiatives provide students of color with the tools and motivation to overcome the barriers they face in our troubled society.”
— Richard J. Murnane, Thompson Research Professor, Harvard Graduate School of Education

"Without dignity, how can our children learn? These seasoned author-educators have done an invaluable service to the field of educational scholarship by collecting together a wonderful book of essays by researcher-activists who share their wisdom and knowledge around the value of dignity-based education."
—Ebony McGee, professor, Vanderbilt University

Contents

Preface: Dignity at the Forefront vii
Acknowledgments xi

1. I Am, We Are Somebodies: An Introduction to the Idea of Dignity 1
Decoteau J. Irby

Part I: IMAGINING AND ORGANIZING DIGNITY-AFFIRMING SCHOOLS AND EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS

2. The Radical Affirmation of Dignity: Septima Clark, Ella Baker, and Educating the Disenfranchised 23
Charity Anderson and Charles M. Payne

3. Contradictions and the Dignity of Resistance: Truth and Reckoning at a Social Justice School 42
Daniel Morales-Doyle and David Stovall

4. Breathing Dignity Into a Community College Success Course 59
Jacqueline Robinson

Part II: DIGNITY-AFFIRMING EXPERIENCES

5. ÒYou’re Gonna Get Respected, Listened to, and Your Opinion Will Be RespectedÓ: Dignity Affirmation in the Clemente Course in the Humanities 81
Charity Anderson

6. Power Lifting: Being Somebody, Becoming Significant 96
Eric K. Grimes/Brother Shomari

7. "Teachers Don’t Like Me Because You Have to Earn My Respect": Deference and Dignity in the Classroom 111
Crystal V. Breedlove

8. "The Protests Made Me Feel So Proud of Us": Racial Literacies and Bearing Witness to the Movement for Black Lives 128
Samuel Finesurrey, Arnaldo Rodriguez, Alondra Contreras, Aidan Lam, and Michelle Fine, with the S2 Alumni Research Collective: Joel Almonte, Nathan Boissier, Samantha Bruno, Noah Campbell, Noel Columna, Ashley Cruz, Jesslin Hiraldo, Mya Laporte, Brandon Mendoza, Naomi Pabon, Sheylany Paulino, Ariana Pe–a Ram’rez, Lauren Santos, Siarra Savinon, and Alyssa Victoria

9. Subverting Invisibility: Connectivity as Dignity-Affirming Pedagogy 143
Manali J. Sheth and Ayako Takamori

Part III: DIGNITY-AFFIRMING SOCIAL AND EDUCATION POLICY

10. Threaten to Close?: Alternative Schools of Dignity, Recognition, and Transformation Under Constant Neoliberal Assault 163
Mica Baum-Tuccillo, Varnica Arora, Evin Orfila, Christyl Rodriguez, and Michelle Fine

11. "It’s Powerful. There’s Nothing Punitive About It; You’re Just Listening": Restorative Justice as a Dignity-Affirming Practice 182
Elisabeth H. Kim and Priscilla Wohlstetter

12. Taking Pride in Our Languages, Taking Pride in Ourselves: Dual Language Education as Dignity-Affirming Spaces for Latinx Communities 200
Ramona Alcal‡ and P. Zitlali Morales

Conclusion: Centering Dignity 219
Charity Anderson, Charles M. Payne, and Decoteau J. Irby

Notes 227

Index 229

About the Editors and the Contributors 239

2022 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Honorable Mention in Education