Worth Striking For

Written by activist educators, Worth Striking For speaks to teachers and teachers-to-be about the drastic changes in the landscape of public education in recent decades and focuses on what they need to know about the debates and complex issues of reform affecting their lives and professions.

The book identifies the most significant shifts in education policy, including how policy has helped or hindered the broader educational purposes of schools. Using the 2012 Chicago teachers strike as a framing device, the authors demonstrate how each of the policy areas addressed is critically important to teachers’ lives and work. Each chapter describes one of the Chicago teachers’ demands, and then explores a related policy arena through the lens of an associated philosophical purpose of education. The text features individually authored vignettes that juxtapose the authors’ personal experiences with the issues, bringing policy and policy activism to life. This hopeful book will inspire and empower teachers to take action in their schools, communities, districts, and states.

Book Features:

• An accessible introduction to education policy for classroom teachers.
• Grounded in the day-to-day human experience of the teachers and students affected by education policy.
• An engaging style that presents research and argument in a way that invites reflection and conversation, perfect for courses.
• A clear explanation of policy issues and their relevance to teachers, helping them feel confident to have a voice in the broader conversation about education.

Isabel Nuñez is an associate professor in the Center for Policy Studies and Social Justice at Concordia University Chicago, coeditor of Diving In: Bill Ayers and the Art of Teaching into the Contradiction, and an associate editor for Multicultural Perspectives. Gregory Michie is a public school teacher in Chicago, senior research associate at the Center for Policy Studies and Social Justice at Concordia University Chicago, and author of Holler if You Hear Me, Second Edition. Pamela Konkol is an associate professor of educational foundations and social policy and director of the Center for Policy Studies and Social Justice at Concordia University Chicago.

"In each of the subsequent chapters, the authors grapple with the demand of Chicago teachers, exploring its relation to education policy and philosophy. In doing so this book provides a rich, rigorous, and wide-ranging analysis of what is at stake in the war over public education as it relates to the search for a democratic, egalitarian, and socially just society" (238).

-Peter Brogan, Labour/Le Travail 77 (Spring 2016)

"This book, written by teachers who have been at the forefront of the battle to stop market-based reform, is yet another step in the effort to reclaim the reform agenda.
It goes beyond the strike to explore teacher perspectives on a broader set of education policy issues, and in so doing it elevates the voices of teachers in a way that few publications or arenas have allowed"
--From the Foreword by Pedro Noguera, New York University

"Grounded in Chicago-based education activism, Nuñez, Michie, and Konkol provide compelling lessons for urban education across the country. From union reform to diversifying the teaching force to challenging school closings, the analyses and narratives of these Chicago activist-scholars are a much needed guide for the rest of us. Spread the word!"
—Gary Anderson, New York University

"As a future teacher, I am so thankful that this book exists. Worth Striking For's empowering lessons are rarely taught to preservice teachers like myself. Reading this book has reminded me that impacting our students' lives is not limited to what we do inside the classroom, but what we fight for outside of it, too. It's a must read for anyone who believes the future of education and our youth are worth fighting for. "
—Stephanie Rivera, future teacher and graduate student, Rutgers University

2016 Society of Professors of Education Book Award