Teachers Speak Up!: Stories of Courage, Resilience, and Hope in Difficult Times

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. Alicia López 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.