A People’s History of the Supreme Court by Peter Irons
A comprehensive history of the people and cases that have changed history, this book is the definitive account of the nation’s highest court.
Beyond Deep Breathing: A New Vision for Equitable, Culturally Responsive, and Trauma-Informed Mindfulness Practiceby Addison Duane, Arlène E. Casimir, Lauren C. Mims, Cierra Kaler-Jones, & Dena Simmons for The Middle School Journal
As the research on mindfulness expands to include school-based interventions, middle school educators across the country have implemented mindfulness in the classroom. However, similar to other social-emotional learning approaches, when implemented in the absence of cultural context and trauma-informed care, mindfulness can be weaponized. In this paper, scholars describe how educators can facilitate mindfulness practice in the classroom in affirming, culturally responsive and trauma-informed ways.
Can PBIS Build Justice Rather Than Merely Restore Order? by Joshua Bornstein for Okilwa, N., Khalifa, M., & Briscoe, F. (Eds.) The School to Prison Pipeline: The Role of Culture and Discipline in School
In this case study, the researcher explains how school leaders used the PBIS system to exchange one deficit identity of “disorderly” student for another of “disordered” student, subsuming other considerations of race, class, and gender identity. This chapter proposes more liberatory practices for PBIS that interrupt dominant culture discourses of normal behavior and power, and hold promise for establishing justice, rather than simply reinstating order.
Ending the School-to-Prison Pipeline/Building Abolition Futures by Erica Meiners for The Urban Review
Placing prison abolition on the horizon for scholars committed to interrupting the flow of young people toward prisons and jails, this article offers movement analysis, frameworks, and associated questions surrounding educator advocacy and engagement.
How My School Gets Students to “Behave” by Kelly Lagerwerff for Rethinking Schools
‘Doing the right thing’ is based on standards of obedience that are nearly impossible for children, who are doing their best under difficult circumstances. Their choices are to do exactly what the teacher wants and receive empty praise, or to go against what the teacher wants and be publicly shamed when they do not receive the reward. This article critiques this hierarchical and exploitative system with suggestions for better alternatives.
The RULER Approach
This is the website for RULER, a research-based approach to social and emotional learning (SEL) that teaches emotional intelligence to people of all ages, with the goal of creating a healthier, more equitable, innovative, and compassionate society.
Transformative Justice in Education Center at UC-Davis
The Transformative Justice in Education Center is a visionary space in the School of Education at the University of California, Davis that supports a vibrant community of researchers, designers, and futurists engaged in equity-oriented, justice-seeking education projects. Their work is guided by the 5 pedagogical stances created by Maisha T. Winn—History Matters, Race Matters, Justice Matters, Language Matters, and Futures Matter—that enable educators to pursue and achieve justice.
Troublemakers: Lessons in Freedom From Young Children in School by Carla Shalaby
In this book, a former elementary school teacher explores the everyday lives of four young “troublemakers,” challenging the ways we identify and understand so-called problem children. Through delicately crafted portraits of these memorable children, it allows us to see school through the eyes of those who know firsthand what it means to be labeled a problem.
Why We Can’t Afford Whitewashed Social-Emotional Learning by Dena Simmons for Ed Leadership
This article outlines how social-emotional learning (SEL) skills can help educators build communities that foster courageous conversations across difference so that students can confront injustice, hate, and inequity.
We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching & the Pursuit of Educational Freedom by Bettina Love
To dismantle the educational survival complex and to achieve educational freedom—not merely reform—teachers, parents, and community leaders must approach education with the imagination, determination, boldness, and urgency of an abolitionist. This book introduces an alternative to traditional modes of educational reform and expands our ideas of civic engagement and intersectional justice.
When SEL Is Used As Another Form of Policing by Communities for Just Schools Fund
SEL conversations, practices, and curricula are too often based on white, cisgender, patriarchal norms and values which further enact emotional and psychological violence onto Black, Brown, and LGBTQ+ youth of color, in particular. The current narrative around SEL is that students must manage and regulate themselves and their emotions, conform and constrict their identities, and not express their fullest, most authentic selves. As school districts begin to devise plans for back-to-school, this article encourages educators to re-examine how we talk about and teach SEL.
