Contents Introduction ?1 1. ?Facing a New World in Teaching and Learning ?7 Sonia Nieto Part I: Identity, Family, and Community 2. ?You Lead Who You Are ?27 Sonie Felix 3. ?Who Is That in the Mirror? A Journey of Self-Discovery, Resilience, and Pride ?39 Nadla Tavares Smith 4. ?Cabo Verdean Kriolu, From the Community to the Classroom ?47 Ambrizeth H. Lima, Dawna Marie Thomas, Abel Djassi Amado, Marlyse Baptista, and Lourenco Garcia Part II: Love and Affirming Practices 5. ?The Art of Intention ?65 Odalis Amparo 6. ?From Prescriptions to Descriptions: Shaping Teacher Practice for Equity and Justice Through Aesthetic Experience ?75 Suzanna Dali-Parker 7. ?Journey Onward, Beloved Educators ?95 Mary Jade Haney Part III: The Many Faces of Social Justice 8. ?Slowing Down, Learning from Canaries, and Listening to Resistance ?107 Beth Wohlleb Adel 9. ?Running on Empty: Using Empathy and Kindness to Challenge Classroom Practices ?117 Adriana Martinez Part IV: Teaching and Activism in the Classroom and Beyond 10. ?The Winding Road to Educational Activism ?133 Laurie Garcia 11. ?Write to the City: Practicing Humanizing Pedagogy and Ethnic Studies in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles ?147 Jorge Lopez 12. ?Finding My Place in the Education Ecosystem: From Classroom Teacher to Teacherpreneur ?171 Heather Robertson-Devine Part V: Teaching, Heartbreak, and Redemption 13. ?Why Are We Here?: The Power of Being Seen and of Belonging ?193 Yahaira D. Marquez 14. ?Why I Still Teach: High School Is a Haunted House, but My Students Are Ghostbusters ?205 Seth Peterson 15. ?Developing a Humane Pedagogy in Order to Live in the Sticky Promises of Hope ?225 Kerrita K. Mayfield 16. ?Love, Hope, Empathy, and the Way Forward ?237 Alicia Lopez Nieto About the Editors and Contributors ?249 Index ?255
In the past several years, we have witnessed unprecedented political, racial, economic, and health-related ruptures in society. The resulting turmoil has had an inevitable and negative impact on students, teachers, the profession of education, and especially marginalized and vulnerable populations. Academics and policymakers have had their say on how to address today's volatile issues, but teachers and other practitioners closest to students have not had the same visibility or access. This volume is an attempt to remedy that absence, resulting in a compelling picture of education today. Chapters highlight essays written by a diverse group of K-12 classroom teachers who share their visions for education and describe their empowering classroom practices. At times hopeful and full of joy, at other times angry and full of frustration, these essays speak to what classrooms and schools based on social justice might mean for our nation. Teachers Speak Up! presents a bold vision of what education could be if teachers were to have a more direct influence on the purpose and aims of learning and teaching. Book Features: Offers grounded accounts about creating classrooms filled with hope and promise amid the many challenges to everyday practice. Addresses the harm done by universal school closures due to the pandemic, growing political divisions, the ugly specter of racism, book bans, and more. Gives voice to classroom teachers who describe their vision for education, as well as their successful practice teaching diverse students. Includes chapter authors who are diverse in their identities, the subject matter they teach, and their time in the profession.
Sonia Nieto is professor emerita of language, literacy, and culture at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her books include The Light in Their Eyes, Why We Teach, and Why We Teach Now. She received the 2024 Multistate Association for Bilingual Education (MABE) Lifetime Service Award. In 2024, she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Alicia Lopez Nieto is an ELL teacher in the Amherst Public Schools, Massachusetts. Together, they are the authors of Teaching, A Life's Work: A Mother-Daughter Dialogue.