I am posting this title in response to a conversation I recently had with a school administrator, in which she told me that she considered Mr. Kozol’s book ‘old’ and ‘no longer relevant’. Apparently I own a time machine, or perhaps I’m just visiting schools in the wrong America. ~ pinky

This is a compilation of very good, mostly short essays on critical pedagogy. What is critical pedagogy? Well to me it’s a learning-communication process that helps us to see and understand the unseen world; we use it as a means of creating a world that is more fair, more open, and has more happiness in it. Of course the writers in this book define critical pedagogy in many different ways, which is one of the reasons why I like this book so much. On a side note, it’s also important to consider how one of the leaders in producing/exporting a particularly insidious brand of predatory education (Harvard Graduate School of Education) also ends up supporting the publication of a book (via the Harvard Educational Review - a journal with an editorial board comprised entirely of students) that discusses strategies for identifying and resisting these very kinds of education-products. Fascinating. ~ pinky

I’m going to post this book on this list even though I haven’t read the whole thing yet. I’ve only read one chapter so far but it was excellent and I’m excited enough to post it already. The chapters: Low Impact Living, Decision Making, Health, Education, Food, Cultural Activism, Autonomous Spaces, Alternative Media, Direct Action. It’s sad how so many people are afraid of ‘doing it themselves’! We need to change this. ~ pinky

[ http://hbfc.clearerchannel.org/ ]

Required reading, period. The first edition of From a Native Daughter had an essay called (I think - I can’t find my first edition copy at the moment) Coalitions Between Natives and Non-Natives (?) that is unfortunately not included in the second edition. I really love that particular essay - please try to find this essay somewhere and read it. ~ pinky

[ note from Bunny: If you can’t find a copy of the first edition you can find Coalitions Between Natives and Non-Natives in Volume 41 (1991) of the Stanford Law Review. ]

My opinion: If we could put NCLB aside for a minute and reflect on the many ways of knowing and learning described in this book, maybe human beings will be able to avoid destroying the entire Earth and themselves along with it. ~ pinky

I love reading almost any kind of book about learning and teaching, but especially the ones that tell stories about what happens in classrooms from the perspective of students and teachers. This book focuses on indigenous knowledge and learning from this perspective. ~ pinky

This is not another book on ‘multicultural education’ just as Native Americans are not just another ‘ethnic minority’. The various chapters include discussions of the relationship between red power/pedagogy and genocide, colonialism, feminism, and sovereignty. ~ pinky

From the Prologue:

We do not tell the history of education from the perspective of the perspective of the educated. We write about what we have learned to learn from those who have no access to education; who cannot get the developed person’s prescribed quota or recipe for education; or those who, having trustfully and diligently undergone the education planned for them, have by now come to know too well the bitter taste of false expectations, dubious benefits, or failed promises.

This book does not attempt to package and sell one more reform initiative or proposal about improving or expanding the educational system. It has no new literacy project for the illiterate. It has no “informal education” remedy for those left sick or incapacitated by “formal education.” It does not create multicultural medicines for the diseases of monoculturalism.

Instead, it celebrates well-being: still enjoyed in the commons and cultures of peoples living and learning at the grassroots. It celebrates the cultural richness, the prolific abundance that still exists in the many and diverse words of the social majorities. For they need no classrooms, no computer workshops, no laboratories nor libraries, nor even Walmarts to teach and learn from each other. They have not forgotten their diverse arts of survival and flourishing “in lieu of education”.

- Madhu Suri Prakash and Gustavo Esteva

From 1932 to 1961, people from all walks of life went to the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee to learn how to make social change happen: desegregation, workers’ rights, civil rights, environmental justice. Miles Horton was one of the founders of the school and this book is part autobiography, part historical record, and part meditation on how human beings can come together in order to change their world. ~ pinky

There are a million books about critical pedagogy. And while I certainly haven’t read them all, I do like this one. It’s written in a very clear, straightforward way which is no small feat considering Mr. Shor is trying to talk about something that by nature tends to get very complicated. On the back cover of the book, it says that this book is a good starting point for teachers here in the United States who want examples of how the work of Paulo Freire could be applied to a First World context. I think that’s a fair statement, but basically I think pretty much any person who believes in the power of dialogue and freedom would be very happy to read this book. It is filled with many exciting ideas and lots of illuminating examples that will force you to rethink everything you assume to be true about the way people learn in schools. ~ pinky

This book is helping me so much to think very carefully about how I want to communicate with others and why. Much of this book is made up of lots of down-to-Earth examples of learning taking place in classrooms, as a way to help us understand how to create this very difficult thing called ‘education’ in a way that is respectful and transformative. ~ pinky

bell hooks is one of my favorite human beings. Actually I’ve been deeply influenced by every book of hers I’ve read, but I’ll put this one on this list because it is specifically about how we learn and what we (’we’) are trying to become. ~ pinky

It’s difficult to put into words how important this book is to me. I don’t want to try to summarize it here. I’ll just say that this book is about education, it has power, and I read it constantly. And every time I read it, I move a little closer to freedom. ~ pinky