Civic Literacy in Schools and Communities: Teaching and Organizing for a Revitalized Democracy

by Brian Charest, Kevin K. Kumashiro (Foreword)

This practical book provides teachers, teacher educators, and school leaders with concrete strategies for doing community-based work. By reframing the act of teaching to include working for social change, the author pushes readers to see school and community revitalization as reciprocal, not separate, projects. Drawing on the strategies and tactics of community organizers and activists, Charest describes an approach to schooling that addresses the social and economic concerns that students and families in under-resourced communities confront in their daily lives. He uses a decolonial framework to examine how schools can decenter Whiteness and reimagine curriculum and teaching. He also shows teacher educators how they can better prepare the next generation of civic-minded teachers to create a more just and democratic society. This model of intentional community engagement, when initiated by teachers and school leadership, is designed to re-position schools to take up questions of equity, racism, and the long-term health and well-being of individuals and communities. Book

160 pages, Hardcover

Published April 9, 2021

About the author

Brian Charest is associate professor in the School of Education at the University of Redlands and former public high school English teacher in both Chicago and Seattle. He's the author of a book on revitalizing democracy through civic literacy in schools and communities. He's also co-author of a book on teaching as an ethical commitment.

Reviews

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 5 out of 5]

A terrific book about how to orient learning in classrooms to the actual needs of students and communities, to help students see that school is for making the world a better place and not just preparing for tests. The hook here is that Brian actually taught in a progressive Chicago high school where he worked with other, like-minded teachers, to help student organize for social change based on principles of community organizing from the likes of Saul Alinsky.

Somewhere along the way community organizing became a derided synonym for communism or socialism (like anti-fascism) and there is some truth to this in that community organizers try to work with communities to work toward social and economic justice. Equity is at the heart of socialism. And I get it: Some people don't want schools to be part of changing the world. They want to preserve the status quo.

Brian, now a teacher educator, includes examples from his current work that will inspire you if you want to teach for engagement in civic and civil literacies, approaches that help young people understand what democracy is really all about.

I blurbed this book, to be honest

[Kevin Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic and thought-provoking read for any and all who is involved in education. Above all, this made me miss my coursework at UIC and the conversations that I was lucky enough to have there.