What Keeps Teachers Going?

What helps great public school teachers persevere—in spite of everything? Sonia Nieto, a renowned teacher educator, takes a close look at what can be learned from veteran teachers who not only continue to teach but also manage to remain enthusiastic about it. This inspirational volume provides much-needed advice on how some urban teachers are solving the everyday challenges of student learning. Nieto collaborates with experienced teachers in urban schools who are especially effective working with students of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds—students who are among the most marginalized in our public schools. Offering an alternative vision of what’s important in teaching and learning, Nieto concludes with an urgent call to advance new national priorities for public education.

• Teaching as Evolution
• Teaching as Autobiography
• Teaching as Love
• Teaching as Hope and Possibility
• Teaching as Anger and Desperation
• Teaching as Intellectual Work
• Teaching as Democratic Practice
• Teaching as Shaping Futures
• Final Thoughts:

What Keeps Teachers Going in Spite of Everything?

Sonia Nieto is professor emerita of language, literacy, and culture at the College of Education, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is the bestselling author of The Light in Their Eyes, 10th Anniversary Edition, Why We Teach, and What Keeps Teachers Going? She is the recipient of the 2019 LRA Distinguished Scholar Lifetime Achievement Award and the 2021 Mass Humanities Governor's Award.

“This moving and important book has reminded me of why I have stayed in public school teaching for over 40 years. It is an inspiration to experienced educators, beginning teachers, and all of us who care about equity and the importance of every child's life.”
— Herbert Kohl is Director of the Institute for Social Justice and Education at the University of San Francisco and author of The Discipline of Hope and 36 Children.

Sonia Nieto, Winner, 2019 LRA Distinguished Scholar Lifetime Achievement Award