Half an Inch from the Edge: Teacher Education, Teaching, and Student Learning for Social Transformation

Half an Inch from the Edge: Teacher Education, Teaching, and Student Learning for Social Transformation is a book about the tensions and opportunities reflected in today’s public school classrooms in the U.S. Through detailed case studies of four classrooms, the authors explore socially transformative pedagogy in action. The result is a narrative that intertwines a critical social analysis of our educational system with real-life examples from K-12 classrooms. The four teachers highlighted in the book are new, urban, socially-conscious educators of Color who strive to make their classrooms something new and something different—spaces where youth can learn about and express their own cultural identities as a part of the curriculum. These stories are told through the creation, implementation, analysis, and assessment of teachers’ action research projects as they complete their Masters degrees and begin their first years as full-time teachers. Central to each of the case studies—which span multiple grade levels and content areas—is a focus on self-reflection, a deep desire to build meaningful relationships with students, and a quest to make learning relevant to students’ lived experiences. Also painfully clear is the role of failure, and the tremendous creativity, ingenuity, and persistence of these new teachers, as they learn alongside their students and together fight the injustices inherent in their schools, districts, and the national system of education. Ultimately, the portraits of these teachers show that amidst all of the forces working against them and their students, there is hope—hope that the great experiment of American public education can transform into a system that serves all students.

Table of Contents:
Foreword Preface Introduction: Socially transformative teaching: Disrupting White supremacy Chapter One: Notes to Mr. G: Making an entirely new story Chapter Two: Reflections on Mr. G: Humanizing connections through relevant data Chapter Three: Autoethnographies with Esther: Building community and self-discipline Chapter Four: Reflections on Esther: Assessment – authentic vs. repressive Chapter Five: Reading the World and the Word with Sharim and Cam: The power of performance poetry Chapter Six: Reflections on Sharim and Cam: Youth voice, student literacies Chapter Seven: Routines for liberation with Ms. A: Classroom community in third grade Chapter Eight: Reflections on Ms. A: Revisiting the purpose of schooling Chapter Nine: Socially transformative pedagogy and the tasks for urban teachers References About the Authors

About the Author :
Noah Borrero’s scholarship is grounded in the belief that the cultural strengths of communities provide unique opportunities for teaching, learning, and social transformation. He teaches courses in bilingual education, critical pedagogy, action research, learning theory, and teaching for diversity and social justice. Patrick Camangian engages in grassroots and professional efforts to advocate for humanizing, socially transformative education as a university professor, district and school-based educator, and community organizer. Currently, he is turning to both critical theory and research in the health sciences to inform his research findings on systemic harm, social resistance, and health and well-being in education. Rick Ayers’ research and writing focuses on social justice and critical pedagogy in education. He is author or co-author of a number of books, including Teaching the Taboo, An Empty Seat in Class: Teaching and Learning After the Death of a Student, and You can’t fire the bad ones: And 18 other myths about teachers, teachers unions, and public education. Sharim Hannegan-Martinez is a first generation doctoral candidate in Education at UCLA. Her research, which is heavily influenced by her experiences as a Chicana growing up on the San Diego/Tijuana border and her time as a teacher in Oakland, focuses primarily on the role of loving relationships in helping young people cope with, navigate and heal from traumatic stressors in the context of urban classrooms. Esther Flores is a teacher committed to continuously improving her practice in order to provide young people with a relevant and rigorous education that empowers them to build a more just society. She currently teaches Ethnic Studies and World History at Mission High School in San Francisco. She earned her Masters in Teaching and single-subject bilingual Social Science teaching credential from the Urban Education and Social Justice program at the University of San Francisco in 2014.

Review :
This wonderfully readable, highly insightful, text gets at the heart of socially transformative pedagogy. Written with affectionate regard for both the lives of early-career teachers and their students, the key is a critical pedagogy of self-reflection and analysis that leads them to invest deeply in their students’ lives, and in so doing, re-define teaching as less a career and more a way of life where radical hope and possibility reside. Half an Inch from the Edge offers powerful insights of socially transformative approaches to data collection, assessment, classroom management, and pedagogy – a must read by all stakeholders concerned with treating teachers and students as critical and organic intellectuals. This powerhouse team of authors has provided a tremendous gift to those of us concerned with preparing the next generation of social justice educators. By pulling back the curtains of their graduates’ k-12 classrooms, they have shown us the impact that liberatory urban teacher preparation has on young, dedicated teachers and the students who they stand beside on a daily basis. Providing vision, reflection, and action, this book clears a path to support, or to become, urban educators who build authentic relationships and transform injustice in their schools. This book is a must read for teachers whose work is rooted in education for social change and justice.