As schools grow more and more vulnerable to the whims of profiteers and, as a result, become less and less a sacred public space of learning and justice, the voices of everyday educators and students are increasingly marginalized. This is the tyranny of neoliberal school reform: silence the people who know education, the people committed to equity and justice, and elevate the voices and desires of the privileged few whose knowledge of education is peripheral and profit-driven. Talking Back and Moving Forward: An Education Revolution in Poetry and Prose is a collective response to this tyranny, a collecting rallying cry for reclaiming our schools. It is a chorus of voices from teachers, educators, and educational justice advocates who refuse to be silenced-who are standing up and responding to the imposition of damaging school reform initiatives. Unconfined by the conventions of the traditional scholarly voice, the contributors use poetry, memoir, short stories, and photography, choosing the expressions that most effectively capture their experiences and their demands for educational and social justice.
Dedication Foreword Introduction by Paul C. Gorski, Rosanna Salcedo, and Julie Landsman Chapter 1: Troubling Common Sense Regrouping the Children by Anne M. Beaton Quick Spring by Margot Fortunato Galt Artifacts by Mary Harwell Sayler out of the mouths of scholars by Kindel Nash Dots, Lines, Spaces, and Math by Geetha Durairajan Taco Night by Paul C. Gorski Chapter 2: Revealing the Cost of Educational Tyranny EDU Haiku by Mari Ann Roberts Standardized by Alison Stone Act V by Kelly Jean Olivas a lesson from an elementary principal by Korina Jocson Phoenixes by Julia Stein This Thing of Memory by Andrena Zawinski Answering the Call by J.F. McCullers The Auspices of Social Justice by Shannon Audley-Piotrowski Chapter 3: Honoring Liberated Voices I Apologize by Alejandro Jimenez A Classroom Assignment by Maria Gabriel "Where Are You From?" by Hana Alhady Felipe by Janice Lobo Sapigao unpredicted storm by Cathi LaMarche Chapter 4: Teaching Against the Grain Punk Has Always Been My School by Rebekah Cordova and Erin Bowers Pickled by Sarah Warren They Are Me and I Am Them: A Memoir of A Social Justice Educator by Cherise Martinez-McBride Look by Elizabeth Harlan-Ferlo Teaching from the Margins by Monique Cherry-McDaniel Peace by Walter Enloe You Gotta Be Ready for Some Serious Truth to Be Spoken by Debra Busman Chapter 5: Speaking Up and Talking Back Playground Futurities by James F. Woglom and Stephanie Jones The Richest Country in the World: A Fable by LouAnn Johnson Three Spaces of Exclusion: The 21st Century High School Integration of That Girl by V. Thandi Sule They Said by Sarah Ann Gilbertson Language as Weapon: Lessons from the Front Lines by Lani T. Montreal Starfish (A Practical Exorcism) by Kyle "Guante" Tran Myhre All the Ways We Learn by Sarita Gonzales we pull the wool over this rainbow of eyes by Paul Thomas Use your words! by Mary Elizabeth Hayes Privileged and Under by Yvette A. Schnoeker-Shorb The Goddess of Autumn by Richard Levine Chapter 6: Advocacy and Solidarity Connecting with Carlos by Amy Vatne Bintliff Praise by Julie Landsman Three Portraits by Jehanne Beaton Willie Alexander by Thomas Thurman Knowledge as a Function of Freedom by Toby Jenkins School Talk by Stacy Amaral letter to student by Sarah Warren Author Bios
