City University of Seattle Library: Social Justice Resources: Teach

Teach

Overview

On this page we've included several social justice and antiracism resources focused on pedagogy and praxis. The first section includes books available in the CityU Library, which offer a range of teaching perspectives and practices. The second section is devoted to peer-reviewed and popular articles that offer insight into promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in face-to-face and virtual classrooms. The final section of this page provides links to online guides and toolkits with an emphasis on inclusive, antiracist, and trauma-informed teaching and learning.

Books

Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher by Stephen D. Brookfield
ISBN: 9781119050650
Publication Date: 2017-01-18
A practical guide to the essential practice that builds better teachers. Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher is the landmark guide to critical reflection, providing expert insight and practical tools to facilitate a journey of constructive self-critique. Stephen Brookfield shows how you can uncover and assess your assumptions about practice by viewing them through the lens of your students' eyes, your colleagues' perceptions, relevant theory and research, and your own personal experience. This fully revised second edition features a wealth of new material, including new chapters on critical reflection in the context of social media, teaching race and racism, leadership in a critically reflective key, and team teaching as critical reflection. In addition, all chapters have been thoroughly updated and expanded to align with today's classrooms, whether online or face-to-face, in large lecture formats or small groups. illustrate the clear benefits of critical reflection.
Critical Race Theory (Third Edition) by Richard Delgado; Jean Stefancic; Angela Harris (Foreword by)
ISBN: 9781479846368
Publication Date: 2017-03-07
Critical Race Theory is essential for understanding developments in this burgeoning field, which has spread to other disciplines and countries. The new edition also covers the ways in which other societies and disciplines adapt its teachings and, for readers wanting to advance a progressive race agenda, includes new questions for discussion, aimed at outlining practical steps to achieve this objective.
Culturally Responsive Teaching by Geneva Gay
ISBN: 9780807750780
Publication Date: 2010-04-15
The achievement of students of colour continues to be disproportionately low at all levels of education. More than ever, Geneva Gay's foundational book on culturally responsive teaching is essential reading in addressing the needs of today's diverse student population. Combining insights from multicultural education theory and research with real-life classroom stories, Gay demonstrates that all students will perform better on multiple measures of achievement when teaching is filtered through their own cultural experiences. This bestselling text has been extensively revised to include: expanded coverage of student ethnic groups; a new section on standards and diversity; new examples of culturally diverse curriculum content; more examples of programs and techniques that exemplify culturally responsive teaching; an emphasis on positive, action-driven possibilities in student-teacher relationships; and new material on culturally diverse communication.
Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies by Django Paris; H. Samy Alim
ISBN: 9780807775707
Publication Date: 2017-01-01
Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies raises fundamental questions about the purpose of schooling in changing societies. Bringing together an intergenerational group of prominent educators and researchers, this volume engages and extends the concept of culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP)—teaching that perpetuates and fosters linguistic, literate, and cultural pluralism as part of schooling for positive social transformation. The authors propose that schooling should be a site for sustaining the cultural practices of communities of color, rather than eradicating them. (Synopsis from publisher's site).
Difficult Subjects by Badia Ahad-Legardy (Editor); OiYan A. Poon (Editor); Lori Patton Davis (Foreword by)
ISBN: 9781620367933
Publication Date: 2018-05-31
Difficult Subjects: Insights and Strategies for Teaching about Race, Sexuality and Genderis a collection of essays from scholars across disciplines, institutions, and ranks that offers diverse and multi-faceted approaches to teaching about subjects that prove both challenging and often uncomfortable for both the professor and the student. It encourages college educators to engage in forms of practice that do not pretend that teachers and students are unaffected by world events and incidents that highlight social inequalities. Readers will find the collected essays useful for identifying new approaches to taking on the "difficult subjects" of race, gender, and sexuality.
Grading for Equity : What It Is, Why It Matters, and How It Can Transform Schools and Classrooms by Joe Feldman
ISBN: 9781506391601
Publication Date: 2018-09-25 (print version)
With Grading for Equity, Joe Feldman cuts to the core of the conversation, revealing how grading practices that are accurate, bias-resistant, and motivational will improve learning, minimize grade inflation, reduce failure rates, and become a lever for creating stronger teacher-student relationships and more caring classrooms. Essential reading for schoolwide and individual book study or for student advocates, Grading for Equity provides A critical historical backdrop, describing how our inherited system of grading was originally set up as a sorting mechanism to provide or deny opportunity, control students, and endorse a "fixed mindset" about students’ academic potential—practices that are still in place a century later. (From ProQuest Ebooks).
The Handbook of Critical Literacies by Jessica Zacher Pandya (Editor); Raúl Alberto Mora (Editor); Jennifer Helen Alford (Editor); Noah Asher Golden (Editor); Roberto Santiago de Roock (Editor)
ISBN: 9781000430899
Publication Date: 2021-09-07
The Handbook of Critical Literacies aims to answer the timely question: what are the social responsibilities of critical literacy academics, researchers, and teachers in today's world? Critical literacies are classically understood as ways to interrogate texts and contexts to address injustices and they are an essential literacy practice. Organized into thematic and regional sections, this handbook provides substantive definitions of critical literacies across fields and geographies, surveys of critical literacy work in over 23 countries and regions, and overviews of research, practice, and conceptual connections to established and emerging theoretical frameworks.
Inclusive Education by Vicky Plows (Volume Editor); Ben Whitburn (Volume Editor)
ISBN: 9789463008662
Publication Date: 2017-01-01
Contributions to this edited collection represent diverse perspectives, yet share a commitment to challenging existing forms of educational marginalisation through policy, practice, theory and pedagogy. The chapters emerged from discussions at the inaugural Inclusive Education Summit that was held at Victoria University, Australia in 2015. They present research that was conducted in Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Spain and the UK--illustrating transnational interests and diverse approaches to practice.
Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire; Myra Bergman Ramos (Translator)
ISBN: 0826412769
Publication Date: 2000-09-01
First published in Portuguese in 1968, Pedagogy of the Oppressed was translated and published in English in 1970. The methodology of the late Paulo Freire has helped to empower countless impoverished and illiterate people throughout the world. Freire's work has taken on especial urgency in the United States and Western Europe, where the creation of a permanent underclass among the underprivileged and minorities in cities and urban centers is increasingly accepted as the norm. With a substantive new introduction on Freire's life and the remarkable impact of this book by writer and Freire confidant and authority Donaldo Macedo, this anniversary edition of Pedagogy of the Oppressed will inspire a new generation of educators, students, and general readers for years to come.
Teaching Critical Thinking by bell hooks
ISBN: 9780203869192
Publication Date: 2013-02-01
Renowned cultural critic and progressive educator bell hooks addresses some of the most compelling issues facing teachers in and out of the classroom today. Addressing questions of race, gender, and class in this work, hooks discusses the complex balance that allows us to teach, value, and learn from works written by racist and sexist authors. Highlighting the importance of reading, she insists on the primacy of free speech, a democratic education of literacy. Throughout these essays, she celebrates the transformative power of critical thinking. This is provocative, powerful, and joyful intellectual work. It is a must read for anyone who is at all interested in education today.
Transformative Approaches to Social Justice Education by Nana Osei-Kofi (Editor); Bradley Boovy (Editor); Kali Furman (Editor)
ISBN: 9781000351453
Publication Date: 2021-08-04
Transformative Approaches to Social Justice Education is a book for anyone with an interest in teaching and learning in higher education from a social justice perspective and with a commitment to teaching all students. This text offers a breadth of disciplinary perspectives on how to center difference, power, and systemic oppression in pedagogical practice, arguing that these elements are essential to knowledge formation and to teaching.
Writing Beyond Race by bell hooks
ISBN: 9781136266041
Publication Date: 2012-11-12
What are the conditions needed for our nation to bridge cultural and racial divides? By "writing beyond race," noted cultural critic bell hooks models the constructive ways scholars, activists, and readers can challenge and change systems of domination. This new collection of compelling essays interrogates contemporary cultural notions of race, gender, and class. From the films Precious and Crash to recent biographies of Malcolm X and Henrietta Lacks, hooks offers provocative insights into the way race is being talked about in this "post-racial" era.

Articles

10 Ways to Tackle Linguistic Bias in Our Classrooms
It's time for us as faculty members to recognize and combat our prejudices when it comes to how our students speak and write, argues Catherine Savini. It is not enough to create room for dialectical diversity in the classroom; we must also combat linguistic prejudice by revealing it.
The Continued Relevance Of 'Teaching To Transgress: Education As The Practice Of Freedom'
In 1994, bell hooks‟ work, Teaching to Transgress - Education as the Practice of Freedom was first published and this work re-examines it for its intent to counter the devaluation of teaching and on the basis that it addresses the urgent need for changes in teaching practices. Because of the intransience of racism and the various “isms” that are part of our everyday culture, hooks‟ work remains relevant, particularly for those who find themselves in the position of the lone soldier in the war to effect equitable system change – forever conspiring and scheming in order to accomplish equity in education.
Inclusive Design and Design Justice: Strategies to Shape Our Classes and Communities
We engage in design in many ways at educational institutions: from instructional design, to curricular design, to classroom design, and more. Yet design processes are often obscured or kept private as individuals or groups make decisions—for example, about how they will teach courses or which technologies will be used to support teaching and learning. There are few processes that encourage us to look critically at our designs and design processes. We know that uncritical design approaches—designs that do not intentionally attend to the experiences of marginalized and disenfranchised learners—perpetuate and even exacerbate inequities.
Intellectual Activism: The Praxis of Dr. Anna Julia Cooper as a Blueprint for Equity-Based Pedagogy
Among African Americans, education has long served as a mechanism to facilitate societal transformation--the form of transformation that addresses social inequities. For many African Americans, however, educational access was an elusive proposition because the entanglements of race, gender, and class placed them at a disadvantage. Dr. Anna Julia Cooper is an educator who rose from slavery to become the fourth African-American female to receive a PhD degree. Through an exploration of Cooper's life and praxis, this paper serves as a blueprint for scholars invested in merging theory and social action to enact what I label intellectual activism.
Strategies for Antiracist and Decolonized Teaching
In the wake of the 2020 summer of racial reckoning, faculty and educators have increasingly felt the pressure to examine the role of institutions of higher education and their teaching in challenging white supremacy and oppression. Many educational institutions and academic associations published statements condemning police brutality and racism; signaling that academia was embarking on a journey of self-reflection and renascence. Despite the efforts of many faculty across the United States to display their commitment to racial justice, curricular and campus reforms have been slow to come.
What is Social Justice Education Anyway?
The notion of social justice pedagogy has become pertinent in education, especially in urban communities that have a history of being oppressed through schooling. To practice social justice teaching and learning practices is to truly see students for who they are and where they come from. But what does it mean to see students? Seeing students requires teachers to recognize them as valuable contributors to the classroom space, as opposed to social, cultural, and academic burdens on the so-called master in the room—the teacher.
Whose pedagogy is it anyway? Decolonizing the syllabus through a critical embrace of difference
Diversity and transnationalism are present in the classroom through the increased numbers of students and instructors who are international and/or non-White-identifying. However, syllabi in media, communication, and cultural studies remain centered around an orthodox body of literature that has come to be conceived of as the canon, consisting of scholars who are mostly white, male, and U.S.-American or European. This essay brings communication, culture, and media studies theories into conversation with critical pedagogy to suggest changes in the organization of syllabi and class activities.
What Anti-Racist Teachers Do Differently
Anti-racist teachers take black students seriously. They create a curriculum with black students in mind, and they carefully read students’ work to understand what they are expressing. This might sound fairly standard, but making black students feel valued goes beyond general “good teaching.” It requires educators to view the success of black students as central to the success of their own teaching. This is a paradigm shift: Instead of only asking black students who are not doing well in class to start identifying with school, we also ask teachers whose black students are not doing well in their classes to start identifying with those students.

Resources and Tools

Teaching Guides and Toolkits

Anti-Racist Discussion Pedagogy: An introductory guide to building an anti-racist pedagogy in any discipline through instructor reflection, clear communication guidelines, and inquiry-based discussion. Because this guide is in pdf format and may not be fully accessible, please contact us, if you would prefer an alternative format.

Antiracist Praxis: A LibGuide created by American University Librarians with outstanding content and resources for teaching and researching race, racism, intersectionality, and a range of other vital topics.

Faculty Toolkit on Digital Inclusion: New York University's open toolkit with inclusive remote teaching practices, inclusive curriculum design and assessment practices, and more.

How and Why to Humanize Your Online Class: An infograph for inclusive, culturally responsive teaching.

Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Anti-Racism (IDEA) in Open Publishing Guide: A guide from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley library on DEI in open publishing.

Inclusive Teaching Toolkit: Western Washington University's open toolkit offering a multitude of digital resources for creating more inclusive learning environments.

Open Pedagogy Toolkit: University of British Columbia's toolkit promoting open pedagogy, an inclusive praxis focused on collaboration, transparency, sharing, and community.

Raceworks Toolkit: Stanford University's open toolkit featuring videos, lessons, and other matierals for teaching race.

The Safe Zone Project: Curriculum: 2-to-3-hour curriculum from The Safe Zone Project. It is recommended for all groups to introduce them to core concepts of marginalized genders and sexualities. Includes participant packet and facilitator guide.

Teaching While White: Extensive website featuring a blog, podcast, and numerous resources for antiracist teaching and learning.

Trauma-Informed Practices for Postsecondary Education: A guide created by Shannon Davidson at Education Northwest to "raise awareness of trauma in postsecondary education institutions, help educators understand how trauma affects learning and development, and provide practical advice for how to work effectively with college students who have been exposed to trauma" (p. 3). Because this guide is in pdf format and may not be fully accessible, please contact us, if you would prefer an alternative format.

Trauma-Informed Teaching and Learning: A blog created by Janice Carello with several resources, including an annotated syllabus, principles, and practices.