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Teaching in the Cracks

Openings and Opportunities for Student-Centered, Action-Focused Curriculum

Brian D. Schultz

Foreword by: Deborah Meier

Afterword by: William Ayers

Publication Date: April 14, 2017

Pages: 144

Available Formats
PAPERBACK
ISBN: 9780807758311
$29.95
EBOOK
ISBN: 9780807775684
$29.95$23.96
Teaching in the Cracks 9780807758311
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  • Description
  • Author
  • Reviews
  • Contents

Description+

This engaging book shows how teachers and schools are creating emergent, democratic, progressive education amidst the current context of high stakes accountability. In this follow-up to his bestseller, Spectacular Things Happen Along the Way, Schultz explores how today’s rhetoric and restrictive mandates result in curriculum that fails to capture the attention of students. For meaningful learning that develops transferable skills and engages students, teachers and sometimes whole schools need to find spaces to “teach in the cracks” so that students can connect with issues relevant to their lives. Teaching in the Cracks provides both a theoretical and practical foundation for incorporating an action-focused curriculum that meets academic standards and provides students with opportunities for agency and to use their voices in their own learning.

Book Features:

  • Specific tools and strategies to help teachers engage students in democratic participation and action.
  • Examples from varied teaching contexts, including elementary and secondary classrooms and independent, charter, and public schools.
  • Recommended organizations and resources for integrating justice-oriented civic engagement in classrooms.

Author+

Brian D. Schultz is Bernard J. Brommel Distinguished Research Professor and department chair of educational inquiry and curriculum studies at the Daniel L. Goodwin College of Education at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago. He is the author of Spectacular Things Happen Along the Way: Lessons from an Urban Classroom.

Reviews+

“ Teaching in the Cracks creates a ‘big tent’ for ‘student-centered, action-focused curriculum.’ Teachers will likely find some version of their school context portrayed to help them imagine how social action curricula could take root in their classrooms.”

—Urban Education

“Schultz acknowledges that his proposal sounds great on paper but is hard to implement in the classroom, and so throughout he offers numerous practical examples of proposed curricula and how they are working around the nation. Examples vary, covering everything from a single classroom, the entire school’s curriculum, forming close partnerships with surrounding communities, and specific topics, to teacher preparation. Together they make this book an invaluable reference for field educators.”

—The Wabash Center Journal on Teaching

“It does an exceptional job of providing information on progressive education and is a welcome contribution to the field…a tight and efficiently written exploration of progressive teaching in action...(the book) presents many dynamic thoughts for how to educate and prepare students to participate actively in a democratic society."

—Mid-Western Educational Researcher

“Through compelling examples, Brian shares how educators can help students use their powers. The stories he shares are of teachers disrupting the all-too-common top-down approach for an alternative, an alternative that allows students’ ideas to guide action, to engage in democratic processes and disagreement, and to make changes in their communities.”
—From the Foreword by Deborah Meier

"This book is an invitation—an invitation to rethink teaching from top to bottom, to dive into classroom life as a passionate adventure in discovery and surprise, and to explore an approach to teaching that’s grounded first and foremost in the lives and experiences of children."
—From the afterword by William Ayers, bestselling author of Teaching the Taboo: Courage and Imagination in the Classroom (with Rick Ayers)

“In this hopeful and creative new book, Brian Schultz offers strategies that come directly from practitioners on how to provide an education that engages, motivates, and stimulates students. For teachers who genuinely seek to make a difference through their work, this book will be a helpful resource.”
—Pedro A. Noguera, University of California, Los Angeles

“This book reminds us that curriculum should be conceived and practiced as dynamic, living, evolving, and responsive to the very essence of students’ identity and being. Emerging from real teachers working with students in classrooms, this book shepherds readers into reimagining an 'expected curriculum' that carefully examines what is taught and why in a complex political landscape. Curriculum scholars interested in deepening their understanding and knowledge of the micro-, meso-, and macrolevel issues that influence students’ opportunities to learn should read this book!”
—H. Richard Milner IV, University of Pittsburgh

“Brian Schultz has done it again. His unique ability to realistically and informatively engage with teachers about curriculum that inspires students’ learning is exceptional.”
—Carl Grant, University of Wisconsin-Madison

"In this inspirational and invaluable book, Brian Schultz and a group of invigorating teachers, scholars, and activists invite us to keep the interests of our students at heart. It calls on us to teach with courage, hope, and love in spite of the increasingly oppressive demands, absurdities, and impossibilities we experience daily in this trembling world." --Ming Fang He, Georgia Southern University

Contents+

Table of Contents

Foreword by Deborah Meier

Preface and Acknowledgments

Chapter 1. Finding Opportunities and Teaching in the Cracks
   Learning Democratic Processes
   A Framework for Making It Happen
   Reflecting on Experiences
   Highlighting Practitioners' Perspectives

Chapter 2. Working Toward an Alternative: Progressive Education in Action
with Christina E. Martin
   Contemporary Anti-Progressive Pressure
   An Approach for Resisting Schooling as Usual
   Living Democratic Practices
   Emergent Curriculum and Play-, Project-, and Problem-Based Learning
   Authentic Assessment and Process Over Product
   The Rhetoric of Rigor and Need to Keep Pushing Toward Justice

Chapter 3. Inverting the Curriculum, Finding Cracks, and Engaging Students
Brian D. Schultz, Jennifer McSurley, and Milli Salguero
   To Teach into Curricular Cracks
   Narrative Points-of-Entry
   Developing Spaces to Engage
   Embracing, Negotiating, and Revisiting Challenges

Chapter 4. The Localizing Ebola Project: A Student-Led Emergent Curriculum
An Interview with Teacher Will Hudson
   Choosing a Topic
   Connecting to Current Events
   Shifting Local and Taking Action
   Developing Awareness and Engaging Others
   Letting Students Lead and Spinning the Plates
   Sustaining Emergent Curriculum and Transferring Skills

Chapter 5. The Sustainable Democracy Project: In Partnership with the Community
   Building Sustainable Democracy at PACHS
   Agitating Students
   Picking the Project
   The Sustainable Democracy Project
   Pushing Beyond the Predictable

Chapter 6. Becoming the Teacher I Want to Be: Finding Support to Teach in the Cracks
   Finding Ways to Connect Amid the High Stakes
   Facing History and Ourselves: Helping to Navigate the Mandates or Expectations
   Still Finding Cracks: Student Voice Committees to Advocate for Change
   Shackling Teachers: (Mis)use of the Tyler Rationale in Schools Today

Chapter 7. Turning the Corner: Techniques, Resources, and Tools for Taking Action
   Techniques for Participation
   Organizations and Their Resources
   Tools Related to Taking Action
   Reflect, Contemplate, and Find Inspiration

Afterword by William Ayers

References

Index

About the Author

$29.95

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Print copies available for US orders only. For orders outside the US, see our international distributors.

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