Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 160
•
Trim: 6⅜ x 9½
978-1-4758-5210-3 • Hardback • August 2020 • $71.00 • (£55.00)
978-1-4758-5211-0 • Paperback • July 2020 • $34.00 • (£25.00)
978-1-4758-5212-7 • eBook • August 2020 • $32.00 • (£25.00)
Trevor Gardner has always believed that education is the most powerful way to transform society to be more just, healthy, and equitable; to this end, he has worked as a teacher and school leader in San Francisco and Oakland for over 20 years. He is currently the Director of Teaching and Learning at ARISE High School in Oakland, CA. His first book, Discipline Over Punishment, was published by Rowman and Littlefield in 2017.
DedicationEpigraphPreface: The Importance of Diverse VoicesAcknowledgementsIntroduction: Naming the BeastChapter 1: The Dangers of DefinitionBy Milton ReynoldsChapter 2: Focus on the Core: Leading Towards Community, Solidarity, and PurposeBy Trevor GardnerChapter 3: Leading with “Tenacious Love”By Kristin BotelloChapter 4: The Freedom to Think CriticallyBy Meredith GavrinChapter 5: Students in the CenterBy Eran DeSilvaChapter 6: “This is the Work”: A Personal and Professional Mantra for Sustaining in the Belly of the Beast By Tim BremnerReferencesAbout the Contributors
Understanding diverse perspectives of community is increasingly urgent for developing equitable school systems. Leading in the Belly of the Beast, edited by Gardner, an experienced teacher and school leader, brings together six different leaders in education from across the country, many of whom work primarily with students of color and students living in poverty, to engage issues of institutional accountability and equitable school development. In these intentionally curated essays, the six contributors bring to bear diverse perspectives on the current state of the US education system and how to elicit transformational change. Their perspectives range from addressing systemic challenges to school equity to developing community solidarity and purpose. This text takes a thoughtful look at developing schools designed to succeed through responsive school leadership. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty; professionals.
— Choice Reviews
This is an impressive collection of essays by thoughtful and experienced educators on the complex challenges facing urban schools. Drawing on their practical and professional experience as leaders on the frontline of addressing the needs of our nation's most vulnerable children, the authors share their insights and the lessons they have learned from doing this critical work. For school leaders, parents and educators of all kinds, this book will be an invaluable resource.— Pedro A. Noguera Ph.D, distinguished professor of education UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies
This book is a powerful and inspiring tool for educators who work within schools and educational institutions that enable inequality, disrespect students, and perpetuate failure. It is at the same time a rich source of examples of creative resistance, a guerilla manual for progressive struggles and a call to action.— Herbert Kohl, author, 36 Children, I Won't Learn from You, and The Discipline of Hope
Leading in the Belly of the Beast presents a fascinating array of astute, insightful, and intelligent first person accounts by teachers and administrators about their experiences confronting the privatization, vocationalization, and fiscalization of education in our time. A widely diverse group of educators tell their stories through individually authored pieces that meld together dynamically into a collective conversation of indispensable importance to everyone who cares about today’s students and the hand they have been dealt by history.— George Lipsitz, author, " How Racism Takes Place"; Professor, Department of Black Studies, UC Santa Barbara