Contents (Tentative)
Foreword Kevin K. Kumashiro ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction xv
1. The Role of Teachers and the Purpose of Schools 1
What?s My Job, Again? 1
Teaching Matters: Embracing Different Ways of Knowing, Being, Seeing, and Doing 10
Centering Civic and Community Engagement: The Promise of Democratic Participation in Schools and Communities 12
Key Strategies and Ideas for Doing School Differently 17
2. Building a Relational Culture: The Power of Relational Pedagogy for Teacher Engagement in Schools and Communities 19
Life in Schools: Educating Teachers 19
Collective Possibilities: Envisioning Healthy and Sustainable Schools and Communities 22
Relating Is Relational: How to Rebuild Institutions and Communities by Building Better Relationships 26
A Short Guide to Working in Communities 37
3. Education and Inequality: Why Schools Haven?t Solved Our Social Problems 40
Marching Toward the Light: Working Across Social Boundaries 40
Making the Road by Walking: Accountability on Chicago?s South Side 47
Rebuilding the School: Community Approaches to School Improvement 52
Institutional Resistance: Different Views of Accountability 54
Accountability Reconsidered: Students and Teachers Acting Together 57
Community Power: A Look Back 58
Accountability to Community: Learning Through Action 62
Changing Social Conditions: Final Reflections 65
4. Models for Change: Community as Curriculum and the Promise of Democratic Schooling 69
Why We Need Grassroots School Reform 69
Grassroots Curriculum: The Power of Place 75
Indigenous Leaders: Community Organizing and Teacher Organizers 78
Community as Campus: Community Action Councils and the Shaping of a School 83
Democratic Schooling: The Nova Project 89
5. Making Citizen Teachers: Educational Leaders for Justice and Democracy 95
Rethinking Teacher Education 95
Citizen Teachers and the Democratic Potential of Schools 98
Surviving the War: What Will It Take to Change Our
Schools and Communities? 104
Making Citizen Teachers and the Challenges to Teaching Differently 108
Teaching on the Boundary 112
Possible Futures: Democratic Practices and Community Engagement in Schools 114
The Limits of Alinsky and the Promise of Grassroots Organizing 120
References 125
Index 129
About the Author 137