Teaching on Days After

Alyssa Hadley Dunn is the director of teacher education and a professor of curriculum and instruction at the University of Connecticut.

• Contents Acknowledgments  ix 1.  Introduction  1 Days After That I Remember, as Student and Teacher  4 Teachable Moments in Service of Justice  8 On Silence  9 What This Book Is About  10 Why Teaching on Days After Matters—and Why Now  12 What Is “Days After Pedagogy”?  13 How This Book Is Organized  14 2.  Guiding Frameworks  16 Guiding Frameworks in Context: Today’s Classrooms as Spaces for Days After Pedagogy  16 Asset-Based and Justice-Oriented Pedagogies  18 A Sociopolitical Education  22 Trauma Responsiveness and Socioemotional Learning in the Classroom  27 Conclusion  31 Theories in Practice: A Letter From a Teacher to His Students  31 Student Spotlight: Days After School Shootings  34 Marlena Young, Deidre Gorkowski, Marjorie Wiese 3.  Toward a Purpose for Freedom: Why Teach on Days After  42 Days After Pedagogy Supports Student Agency and Voice  43 Days After Pedagogy Works Against Oppression  48 Days After Teaching Redefines “Relevance”  50 Disrupting Whiteness: Pushing Against “Two Sides” on Days After  51 Days After Pedagogy Responds to Trauma in a Meaningful Way  54 Days After Pedagogy Is a Form of Trauma-Responsive Teaching  55 Days After Pedagogy Offers a Space for Transformative Learning  59 Days After Pedagogy Is Sustaining for Students and Teachers  64 Conclusion  67 Student Spotlight: Days After Community Struggle  68 Roxy Mashkawiziikwe Sprowl, Ella Ritter 4.  Putting Students First: Who We’re Teaching on Days After  72 Days After Pedagogy Is About Knowing Students Deeply  75 Days After Pedagogy Is for All Ages  76 Days After Pedagogy Is for All Content Areas  83 Days After Pedagogy Uses Student-Centered and Humanizing Lessons  86 Conclusion  88 Student Spotlight: Days After the COVID-19 Pandemic  89 Sudeshna Flores 5.  Educators: Who Is Doing the Teaching on Days After?  91 Days After Pedagogy Requires Teachers to Be Vulnerable  92 Days After Pedagogy Pushes Teachers to Be Curricular Risk-Takers  97 Days After Pedagogy Pushes Teachers to Work Through Fears and Challenges  104 Days After Pedagogy Necessitates That Teachers Negotiate Their Positionality  109 Conclusion  116 Student Spotlight: Days After Political Upheaval  117 Corabella Dover, Ana Lucia Ontiveros 6.  The Intersections of Teaching and Politics on Days After  119 Days After Elections  120 Days After Gun Violence  128 Days After Environmental Crises  134 Days After Gender Injustice  138 Student Spotlight: Days After Racial Injustice  141 Camille Dotson, Gabrielle Dotson 7.  The Intersections of Teaching, Racism, and White Supremacy on Days After  144 Days After Racial Violence  145 Days After White Supremacist Events  149 Days After Immigration Injustice  154 Days After Local Racial Injustice  158 Conclusion  163 8.  From “Totally Out of Touch” to “They’ve Got My Back”: Administrators on Days After  164 Silence and Silencing  165 What Administrative Support Can Look Like  167 How Administrators Connected (or Didn’t) Days After Pedagogy and Equity-Centered Trauma-Informed Education  170 Conclusion  171 9.  Conclusion  172 Part 1: Institutionalizing a Space for Days After Pedagogy  172 Part 2: Where Do We Go From Here? Some Final Advice for Teaching on Days After  177 Epilogue: From January 2021 to December 2025  183 Appendix A: A Letter to Educators and Children  185 Appendix B: Methods  187 Appendix C: The Day After: An Ethnodrama About Teachers’ Decision-Making Amidst Silencing School Policies  196 References  216 Index  223 About the Author  229