Kristien Zenkov – författare

Frustrated by the challenge of opening teacher education students to a genuine understanding of the social justice concepts vital for creating an equitable learning environment?Do your students ever resist accepting that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer people experience bias or oppression, or that their experiences even belong in a conversation about “diversity,” “multiculturalism,” or “social justice?”Recognizing these are common experiences for teacher educators, the contributors to this book present their struggles and achievements in developing approaches that have successfully guided students to complex understandings of such threshold concepts as White privilege, homophobia, and heteronormativity, overcoming the “bottlenecks” that impede progress toward bigger learning goals and understandings. The authors initiate a conversation – one largely absent in the social justice education literature and the discourse – about the common content- and pedagogy-related challenges that social justice educators face in their work, particularly for those doing this work in relative or literal isolation, where collegial understanding cannot be found down the hall or around the corner. In doing so they hope not only to help individual teachers in their practice, but also strengthen social justice teacher education more systemically. Each contributor identifies a learning bottleneck related to one or two specific threshold concepts that they have struggled to help their students learn. Each chapter is a narrative about individual efforts toward sometimes profound pedagogical adjustment, about ambiguity and cognitive dissonance and resistance, about trial and error, and about how these educators found ways to facilitate foundational social justice learning among a diversity of education students. Although this is not intended to be a “how-to” manual, or to provide five easy steps to enable straight students to “get” heteronormativity, each chapter does describe practical strategies that teachers might adapt as part of their own practice.

Frustrated by the challenge of opening teacher education students to a genuine understanding of the social justice concepts vital for creating an equitable learning environment?Do your students ever resist accepting that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer people experience bias or oppression, or that their experiences even belong in a conversation about “diversity,” “multiculturalism,” or “social justice?”Recognizing these are common experiences for teacher educators, the contributors to this book present their struggles and achievements in developing approaches that have successfully guided students to complex understandings of such threshold concepts as White privilege, homophobia, and heteronormativity, overcoming the “bottlenecks” that impede progress toward bigger learning goals and understandings. The authors initiate a conversation – one largely absent in the social justice education literature and the discourse – about the common content- and pedagogy-related challenges that social justice educators face in their work, particularly for those doing this work in relative or literal isolation, where collegial understanding cannot be found down the hall or around the corner. In doing so they hope not only to help individual teachers in their practice, but also strengthen social justice teacher education more systemically. Each contributor identifies a learning bottleneck related to one or two specific threshold concepts that they have struggled to help their students learn. Each chapter is a narrative about individual efforts toward sometimes profound pedagogical adjustment, about ambiguity and cognitive dissonance and resistance, about trial and error, and about how these educators found ways to facilitate foundational social justice learning among a diversity of education students. Although this is not intended to be a “how-to” manual, or to provide five easy steps to enable straight students to “get” heteronormativity, each chapter does describe practical strategies that teachers might adapt as part of their own practice.

How can teachers help students navigate tough topics in an increasingly politicized world? Featuring perspectives from teachers and students across the country, this unique book provides hope, applicable knowledge, and practical skills for teachers to address a range of current issues—including race, LGBTQIA+ advocacy, diversity and equity, civic engagement, ability and disability, school safety, social-emotional learning, immigration, and environmental justice.

Each chapter addresses one of those controversial issues and examines how teachers are grappling with it in their own classrooms. Each chapter is also informed by youths’ insights, drawn from the authors’ work with the Youth Research Council and the Through Students’ Eyes project. Features include suggested resources, reflection questions, and talking points to support teachers in framing discussions of the topic positively and accurately.

With the voices and skills in this book, you’ll be able to work with these issues no matter your own teaching contexts.

How can teachers help students navigate tough topics in an increasingly politicized world? Featuring perspectives from teachers and students across the country, this unique book provides hope, applicable knowledge, and practical skills for teachers to address a range of current issues—including race, LGBTQIA+ advocacy, diversity and equity, civic engagement, ability and disability, school safety, social-emotional learning, immigration, and environmental justice.

Each chapter addresses one of those controversial issues and examines how teachers are grappling with it in their own classrooms. Each chapter is also informed by youths’ insights, drawn from the authors’ work with the Youth Research Council and the Through Students’ Eyes project. Features include suggested resources, reflection questions, and talking points to support teachers in framing discussions of the topic positively and accurately.

With the voices and skills in this book, you’ll be able to work with these issues no matter your own teaching contexts.

The Big Lies of School Reform provides a critical interruption to the ongoing policy conversations taking place around public education in the United States today. By analyzing the discourse employed by politicians, lobbyists, think tanks, and special interest groups, the authors uncover the hidden assumptions that often underlie popular statements about school reform, and demonstrate how misinformation or half-truths have been used to reshape public education in ways that serve the interests of private enterprise.

Through a thoughtful series of essays that each identify one “lie“ about popular school reform initiatives, the authors of this collection reveal the concrete impacts of these falsehoods—from directing funding to shaping curricula to defining student achievement. Luminary contributors including Deborah Meier, Jeannie Oakes, Gloria Ladson-Billings, and Jim Cummins explain how reform movements affect teachers and administrators, and how widely-accepted mistruths can hinder genuine efforts to keep public education equitable, effective, and above all, truly public. Topics covered include common core standards, tracking, alternative paths to licensure, and the disempowerment of teachers’ unions. Beyond critically examining the popular rhetoric, the contributors offer visions for improving educational access, opportunity, and outcomes for all students and educators, and for protecting public education as a common good.

The Big Lies of School Reform provides a critical interruption to the ongoing policy conversations taking place around public education in the United States today. By analyzing the discourse employed by politicians, lobbyists, think tanks, and special interest groups, the authors uncover the hidden assumptions that often underlie popular statements about school reform, and demonstrate how misinformation or half-truths have been used to reshape public education in ways that serve the interests of private enterprise.

Through a thoughtful series of essays that each identify one “lie“ about popular school reform initiatives, the authors of this collection reveal the concrete impacts of these falsehoods—from directing funding to shaping curricula to defining student achievement. Luminary contributors including Deborah Meier, Jeannie Oakes, Gloria Ladson-Billings, and Jim Cummins explain how reform movements affect teachers and administrators, and how widely-accepted mistruths can hinder genuine efforts to keep public education equitable, effective, and above all, truly public. Topics covered include common core standards, tracking, alternative paths to licensure, and the disempowerment of teachers’ unions. Beyond critically examining the popular rhetoric, the contributors offer visions for improving educational access, opportunity, and outcomes for all students and educators, and for protecting public education as a common good.

Responding to multiple scholarly, policy, and practical calls for a greater focus on clinical teacher preparation, this volume operates on the assumption that few experiences in future teachers’ training are more important than their field experiences. This text introduces the model of critical, project-based (CPB) clinical experiences, which provides teacher candidates with exemplary on-the-ground training, honors veteran teachers as school-based teacher educators, and offers university-based teacher educators new roles that ensure their practices and scholarship are explicitly relevant to all of schools’ constituents. Answering the call for relevant, high quality, clinically-based teacher education, this volume will offer scholarly and narrative examinations of examples of CPB clinical experiences that will be of interest to all involved in and impacted by educator preparation programs.

Responding to multiple scholarly, policy, and practical calls for a greater focus on clinical teacher preparation, this volume operates on the assumption that few experiences in future teachers’ training are more important than their field experiences. This text introduces the model of critical, project-based (CPB) clinical experiences, which provides teacher candidates with exemplary on-the-ground training, honors veteran teachers as school-based teacher educators, and offers university-based teacher educators new roles that ensure their practices and scholarship are explicitly relevant to all of schools’ constituents. Answering the call for relevant, high quality, clinically-based teacher education, this volume will offer scholarly and narrative examinations of examples of CPB clinical experiences that will be of interest to all involved in and impacted by educator preparation programs.