Foreword by: Ericka Huggins
Publication Date: July 22, 2022
Pages: 144
In a thriving education system, students experience learning that prepares them as the vital keepers of a just and democratic society. Teachers as professionals and experts, not cogs in a machine, are essential to this goal. Sparks Into Fire offers design principles for facilitating effective professional learning in which teachers are active learners engaging in experiential learning, discussing problems, analyzing student work, and sharing their expertise with one another. The author introduces each principle with a compelling and illuminating story from his extensive experience teaching students and facilitating teacher learning in Providence, RI; Oakland, CA; and South Korea. These narratives, along with specific practices, show the reader not just what to do but how to do it. Whether you are a school leader, lead teacher, PD facilitator, or teacher educator, you can apply the ideas in this book to design collaborative experiences that revitalize teacher practice and, in turn, spark a fire in the hearts and minds of students.
Book Features:
Young Whan Choi is a lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley where he teaches the next generation of social studies educators. He has been a teacher in South Korea, New York City, Providence, RI, and Oakland, CA, during which time he developed expertise in project-based learning, curriculum design, and culturally relevant teaching. He produces and hosts The Young and the Woke podcast.
“Throughout this book, Young Whan Choi shows us how to facilitate interactions among teachers that are caring, thoughtful, intentional, and relational. In turn, educators can go about the work of creating learning environments that center students’ lives.”
—From the Foreword by Ericka Huggins, activist, writer, and educator
“Young Whan Choi’s timely offering is truly a healing gift of fire that provides a range of stories, questions, and practices to reignite and restore our individual and collective purpose as educators in a time of traumatizing burnout. He takes us to the beautiful streets of East Oakland, South Providence, New York City, and Seoul to remind us that authentic teaching and learning must always begin with a spark that can only be fueled by our willingness to exercise courage, vulnerability, and empathy, and to engage in shared humanity with our students, each other, and ourselves.”
—Christina "V" Villarreal, lecturer, Harvard Graduate School of Education
“Young Whan Choi’s Sparks Into Fire courageously challenges us to rethink how we approach teacher learning, from the life-draining, sit-and-get-banking model of PD to fueling a guided development process that centers purpose and the principle of collectivism. Young Whan’s weaving of storytelling with praxis offers us a ‘counter-manual’ that deconstructs the systems that breed linear, neoliberal teaching while also providing detailed and applicable offerings that can be used in our practice tomorrow.”
—Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales, professor, San Francisco State University
Contents
Foreword Ericka Huggins vii
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Part I: Fueling the Fire 1
1. From Margins to Center: Telling Stories of Purpose 3
Purpose in Teacher Learning 4
Practices That Leverage Purpose 5
Conclusion: The Power of Telling Stories of Purpose 15
Reflection Questions 16
2. Your Mission: Active Learning as Countersocialization 17
Active Teacher Learning 19
Practices in Active Teacher Learning 20
Conclusion: We Can’t Teach Where We Won’t Go 26
Reflection Questions 27
3. “Why didn’t you push me harder?”: Learning From Students 29
The Role of Students in Teacher Learning 31
Practices in Centering Students 32
Conclusion: Students Make Us Better Teachers 44
Reflection Questions 44
4. “Please, come in”: Listening to and Leading With Teachers 47
Listening to Teachers to Inform Teacher Learning 48
Practices That Recognize Teacher Expertise 49
Conclusion: Listen to Learn 59
Reflection Questions 60
Part II: Tending to the Fire 61
5. Walking to the Sea: A Journey Towards Collectivism 63
Collectivism in Teacher Learning 66
Practices to Foster Collectivism 68
Conclusion: Collectivism is Both a Process and a Goal 78
Reflection Questions 79
6. Throwing Away Baggage: The Power of Vulnerability 81
Vulnerability in Teacher Learning 82
Practices in Vulnerability That Nurture Learning 85
Conclusion: Vulnerability Is Essential to Learning 97
Reflection Questions 98
7. “We haaaaated you”: A Lesson in Empathy 99
Empathy in Teacher Learning 100
Empathy Practices 102
Conclusion: Empathy Is Personal and Professional 110
Reflection Questions 112
Conclusion 113
References 115
Index 117
About the Author 125
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