Edited by: Peter Williamson, Deborah Appleman
Foreword by: H. Samy Alim
Publication Date: May 28, 2021
Pages: 168
This important volume examines how and why increasing numbers of students, disproportionately youth of color, are being taken from our schools and put into our prisons. Williamson and Appleman, along with a collection of scholars, teacher educators, K–12 teachers, an administrator, and an incarcerated student, offer their perspectives on how schooling can be restructured to disrupt this flow and dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline. They present clearly articulated strategies on curriculum, pedagogy, and disciplinary practices that can help redirect our collective efforts away from carceral practices. By considering chapters from prison educators and an essay by a currently incarcerated student (the end of the pipeline), readers will plainly see the disciplinary and curricular issues that need to be addressed in our schools. The text includes examples of meaningful ways to engage students that could be incorporated into a variety of classrooms, from social studies to science to English language arts.
Book Features:
Peter Williamson is an associate professor at Stanford University and faculty director of the Stanford Teacher Education Program (STEP) for secondary teachers. Deborah Appleman is the Hollis L. Caswell Professor of educational studies at Carleton College and author of Critical Encounters in Secondary English: Teaching Literary Theory to Adolescents, Third Edition.
“ School, Not Jail directly addresses a systemic social ill that literally destroys lives, and is worthy of the highest recommendation for public, college, and professional library Education collections.”
—Midwest Book Review
"The educators in this book add meaning to a lifetime by giving us glimpses of the abolitionist teaching that we need. More than that, they urge the field of education to work towards abolishing the systems designed to control and contain Communities of Color, from school disciplinary practices to school policing and beyond."
—From the Foreword by H. Samy Alim, professor, University of California, Los Angeles
“Weaving together the voices of educators, administrators, researchers, and those who have been incarcerated, this timely volume addresses the urgent issues of school pushout and mass incarceration that plague our nation and perpetuate the inequities we confront in our society today. In the face of daunting challenges, these contributors also offer stories of hope that point the way to a brighter future.”
—Linda Darling-Hammond, president, Learning Policy Institute; professor emeritus, Stanford University School of Education
“School, Not Jail does a masterful job of offering both razor-sharp analysis and concrete suggestions for educators. In presenting critical perspectives on often-unexamined concepts like the school-to-prison pipeline and rehabilitative prison education, Williamson and Appleman and their contributors provide a valuable framework for thinking through what it means to engage in antiracist, equitable, and loving educational praxis.”
—Rebecca Ginsburg, associate professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; director, the Education Justice Project
“School, Not Jail offers a bold and timely look at the ways schooling and incarceration intersect. It sheds light not only on the toxic forces that contribute to the school-to-prison nexus, but also on teaching and school practices that can help break this nexus apart. An eye-opening read for any educator who wants to support all students’ positive development.”
—Michael Sadowski, associate professor, Bard College Master of Arts in Teaching Program
Contents (Tentative)
Foreword
Introduction
Peter Williamson & Deborah Appleman
Part i: Disrupting Pushout
1. More Than a Pipeline: Growing Movements to Dismantle the Carceral State
Tess Landon & Erica Meiners
2. Transformative Justice in Education: A Necessary Paradigm Shift in the United States
Maisha T. Winn & Lawrence T. Winn
3. Critical Literacy and the School-to-Prison Pipeline
Ernest Morrell & Jodene Morrell
4. Teacher Preparation and Disrupting School Pushout and Mass Incarceration
Peter Williamson
Part ii: What Educators Can Do
5. Still I Rise: Student Voices in Juvenile Hall
Meagan Mercurio & Constance Walker
6. Education Leadership With and for the Incarcerated
Chris Lanier
7. Prison Pedagogy
Deborah Appleman
Epilogue: This Is the End of the Pipeline, But It Isn’t:
A View From the Inside
Zeke Caliguiri
About the Contributors
Index
Professors: Request an Exam Copy
Print copies available for US orders only. For orders outside the US, see our international distributors.