Controversies in the Classroom: A Radical Teacher Reader

by Joseph B. Entin (Editor), Robert C. Rosen (Editor), Leonard Vogt (Editor)

This book features the most important and exciting writing from the past 15 years of Radical Teacher magazine. Focusing on the personal experience of teachers and the practical realities of teaching, the essays cover Teaching About War; Teaching About Globalization; Teaching About Race, Ethnicity, and Language; Teaching About Gender and Sexualities; and Threats to Public Testing, Tracking, and Privatization . This is a must read for all teachers who are committed to creative pedagogy and social justice. Contributors : Bernadette Anand, Nancy Barnes, Lilia I. Bartolomé, Bill Bigelow, Lawrence Blum, Marjorie Feld, Michelle Fine, H. Bruce Franklin, Stan Karp, Kevin K. Kumashiro, Pepi Leistyna, Arthur MacEwan, Sarah Napier, Bob Peterson, Nicole Polier, Patti Capel Swartz, Maria Sweeney, Rita Verma, and Kathleen Weiler. "For the many teachers who bring dreams of a better world to their classrooms, these richly helpful pages teach us how to do our work better."
― Ira Shor , Graduate Center, City University of New York
“The radical teachers who tell their stories and present their ideas in this collection…are hoping to engage the young in inquiries that they didn’t ever imagine might interest them, and leave them wanting more.”
―From the Foreword by Deborah Meier , educational reformer, writer, and activist
“In a time of ongoing conservative attacks on critically democratic education, more than ever we need resources to remind us of what the dangers we face are and what we can do about them.”
― Michael W. Apple , University of Wisconsin, Madison
“For teachers with the courage and conviction to address the most important and controversial issues of our time, this book will be a source of inspiration and guidance.”
― Pedro A. Noguera , Executive Director, Metropolitan Center for Urban Education, New York University
“This powerful collection of essays on teaching about war, globalization, race, sexuality, and threats to public education is a wake-up call to educators at all We can make a difference!”
― Jean Anyon , Graduate Center of the City University of New York, author of Radical Possibilities
“Controversial issues are precisely among the topics that young people need to learn about, explore, and debate if they are to become productive and hopeful citizens. Controversies in the Classroom is a gold mine of ideas and strategies to help them do just that.”
― Sonia Nieto , Professor Emerita, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Genres: Education

208 pages, Paperback

First published September 15, 2008

Reviews

[Katherine · Rating 1 out of 5]

Starts off promising, but ultimately turns into "how to force your political views down kids' throats."

Also, like all teachers, I'm looking for practical applications and lessons that I can easily apply to my classroom. The first chapter starts out with a great lesson that could easily be applied in the classroom. After that, however, the chapters become more 'lecture-based' and theoretical and lose the practical 'how-to-implement' part that is so invaluable to busy teachers. The authors make some good points about the evils of globalization, ongoing discrimination, etc., and these topics are certainly worth considering with students. As a teacher tool, however, I don't feel that the book is effective because teachers simply don't have time to wade through all the theory, and then figure out how to design a complex unit plan based on those theories, and then, of course, tackle the challenge of integrating it into the standard curriculum).