See You When We Get There: Young Teachers Working for Change

by Gregory Michie, Gloria Ladson-Billings (Foreword)

Gregory Michie’s first bestseller, Holler If You Hear Me, put him on the map as a compelling and passionate voice in urban education. In his new book, Michie turns his attention to young teachers of color, and once again provides readers with a unique and penetrating look inside public school classrooms. Featuring portraits of five young teachers (two African Americans, two Latinas, and one Asian American) who are “working for change,” Michie weaves the teachers’ powerful voices with classroom vignettes and his own experiences. Along the way, he examines what motivates and sustains these teachers, as well as what they see as the challenges and possibilities of public education

“An antidote to the mindless tactics of punish, test, and punish again that hold our schools hostage.”
—From the Foreword by Gloria Ladson-Billings

“A refreshing look at how five inner-city teachers challenge the factory-model approach that characterizes the schooling experiences of so many youth today.”
—Angela Valenzuela, author of Subtractive Schooling

“Provides us with important insights into the motivations of dedicated young teachers.”
—Pedro Noguera, author of City Schools and the American Dream

“This is a hopeful book—a reminder that we still have a chance to get this right for the kids.”
—Penny Lundquist, Golden Apple Foundation for Excellence in Teaching

Genres: Education, Teaching, Nonfiction

224 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Gregory Michie is a public school teacher in Chicago and senior research associate at the Center for Policy Studies and Social Justice at Concordia University Chicago. He is the bestselling author of Holler If You Hear Me (2nd ed.), See You When We Get There, and We Don’t Need Another Hero.

Reviews

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those interested in education, this is a fairly interesting book. I wouldn't deem it "captivating" but I would say that it is a good way to compare your teaching style and opinions with the teachers documented in the book.

[Daviana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I couldn’t ever get over the fact that he’s a white guy discussing the experiences of female teachers of color. He could’ve named them as co-authors. He could’ve interviewed them and used transcripts to avoid putting their perspectives through his own lens. Even with the best intentions, I simply couldn’t move past that to enjoy this book. I appreciated what the teachers had to say and I appreciated their classroom methods.

[km · Rating 3 out of 5]

See You When We Get There collects Michie's observations of five young female teachers of color – African-American, Asian-American, and Latina – working in Chicago public schools. The five women Gregory Michie profiles are teachers who, according to both Michie and themselves, are “teaching for change” or “teaching for social justice.”

Each chapter of See You When We Get There profiles the work and practice of one teacher through direct quotes from the teacher’s classroom, the teacher’s own reflections, and Michie’s observations of classroom and other teacher-student interactions. Michie’s own “pulling together” of, and comments about, these observations are the lens through which we view these profiles; thus, Michie acknowledges that his accounts of these teachers and their classrooms are not, and cannot be, truly objective. Like all narratives, these profiles involve choices of omission and inclusion. Michie’s background, perspective, and desire to tell a coherent story, influence what he notices, what he deems significant, and how he makes sense of what he observes.

Michie and the teachers featured in the book note that most accounts of urban education and students of color “star” white teachers. In seeking to avoid what he and his subjects describe as the “white teacher hero narrative,” See You When We Get There is explicitly and intentionally focused on the work and practice of young teachers of color. Yet, as several of these teachers point out, there is an irony to a volume of work devoted to women of color teaching for social justice, when that teaching is observed, recorded, and narrated by a white man.

[Ted Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting look at teacher quality in urban schools. Michie shows us a view of qualoty teaching through the stories of 5 teachers in Chicago and their students.
Though the research of this book was collected a decade and a half ago, the content is as relevant as ever. Michie illustrates the battle between teaching what students need, and teaching what outsiders think students need, as well as the constant battle between teahcing everything one wants and the ever present time constraints of school. For those working, or thinking of working in urban school, heck schools in genral, it should be added to the must read pile.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just couldn't get into this book. His white man's apologia for writing an ethnography on women teachers of color was sincere; still, I felt his guilt as I read and kept wondering what that was doing to the narrative and analysis. I loved Holler, and wanted to love this one, too. Maybe I'll come back to this.