“The Future of Our Schools: Teachers Unions and Social Justice,” has informed activity in dozens of teachers union locals (Haymarket Press) . In highly readable language the book explains how why and how teachers need democratic unions that redefine teachers’ interests and their mission, centering social justice, to protect the profession, public education, and children from the global project to dismantle systems of education as a public good.
Building on my last book, as well as subsequent research, I am examining a new, chilling, mostly unrecognized attack on public education. What is at stake is control over what is taught and how – and who decides. While the well-entrenched and highly successful project to privatize public education through unregulated growth of charter schools and funding formulas continues, ominous new policies welcome for-profit tech companies, bankrolled by private equity and venture capital, to embed educational technology in schools, their profits paid for by our taxes and our data about our children, freely given. As has been true since standardized testing became the only measure of student learning, use of platforms and software that harvest student data and deliver huge profits to tech giants is advanced with rhetoric that it equalizes academic outcomes. Since COVID new kinds of inaccurate claims are made for adopting software and platforms: supporting children’s social and emotional learning (SEL).
Readers can find the first chapter of my (stalled, sorry!) forthcoming book, in New Politics, here. The second was published by Tempest. My latest research explores the untapped potential of teachers organized as workers, working along with social justice activists, to develop a vision of what public education should do to help all children to flourish. I invite readers to contact me with information about my new research.
A GLOBAL PROJECT
Although systems of education are under the control of national governments, most of the policies that are harming children and the teaching profession are global and have their origins in policies advanced by transnational corporations and powerful elites, often through world financial organizations, in particular the World Bank. In “The Global Assault on Teaching, Teachers, and Their Unions,” Mary Compton and I collected evidence of the global project which has devastated public schools throughout the world. Mary Compton created a website to continue this work, to share information and build solidarity among teachers and their unions throughout the world, a project she maintained until her death early in 2018. Although Mary’s comprehensive knowledge of the global attack on education under capitalism is irreplaceable, the site still welcomes contributions in the form of news stories and research articles.
A ROMANCE I HOPE TO HELP OTHERS SHARE – TEACHING IN CITY SCHOOLS …
Now in its third edition, “Urban Teaching: The Essentials,” my book of advice for new and prospective city teachers, has been used widely in programs of teacher education. Written in first-person to be accessible, “Urban Teaching” distills and applies research I conducted for my dissertation at Harvard Graduate School of Education, as well as drawing on my experiences as a career teacher. This newest edition was revised with co-author, Daniel Jerome, an experienced New York City teacher and social justice activist, who brings his insights as a practicing teacher, long-involved in racial justice work in the city and its schools. We are looking at the possibility of revising the book as so much has changed since we wrote this edition.
AND THE RESEARCH ON WHICH THE ADVICE IS BASED
“Preparing Teachers for Urban Schools: Lessons from Thirty Years of School Reform” (Teachers College Press) was based on my dissertation at Harvard Graduate School of Education and won the American Educational Research Association (AERA) award for scholarship in teacher education.