What do you think?
Rate this book
Lessons in Liberation: An Abolitionist Toolkit for Educators
A political vision for a future ripe with alternatives to imprisonment and punishment.
“Lessons in Liberation is an abundant and generous offering, packed with resources to help us collectively build toward abolition in and out of the classroom. This excellent toolkit is a call to imagine, to act, to dream, to expand our notions of what education is and can be—and of the bold and radically nurturing society we can grow together. It's an essential read for teachers, organizers, and students of all kinds!” —Maya Schenwar, co-author of Prison by Any Other Name and editor-in-chief of Truthout
“This resource book underscores the necessity and urgency of abolition of the prison industrial complex in, by, and through educational systems. Chock full of ideas, workshop activities, guiding principles, tools, reflections, and campaign strategies, Lessons in Liberation will grow and deepen our movements. For those looking for an on-ramp into abolition through education—this is for you.” —Liat Ben-Moshe, author of Decarcerating Disability: Deinstitutionalization and Prison Abolition
“Lessons in Liberation is an inspiration! The authors establish foundational knowledge about what it means to be an abolitionist educator while also providing concrete actions for those who are committed to co-constructing a more just world with the youth in their classrooms. It is a deeply critical, empathetic, and loving text—the medicine that is needed to rise together.” —Curtis Acosta, Ethnic Studies Educator
“The tools needed for liberation and freedom are in this book. Like all of us, if you are striving to be an abolitionist educator, this book is your guide. Lessons in Liberation pushes us to unlearn, to be vulnerable, and to find our humanity so we can enter classrooms ready to freedom dream, to dismantle, and build for collective struggle, liberation, and love.” —Bettina L. Love, author of We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom
“Abolition is a theory whose time has come in classrooms and schools, but those of us practicing in these spaces need a more complete picture of what that looks like on the day to day. Lessons in Liberation is just that. Each page is an invitation to dream and create a new world, but also how to build that world and what tools we may need to do so.” —Teachers 4 Social Justice
Born from sustained organizing, and rooted in Black and women of color feminisms, disability justice, and other movements, abolition calls for an end to our reliance on imprisonment, policing and surveillance, and to imagine a safer future for our communities.
Lessons in Liberation: An Abolitionist Toolkit for Educators offers entry points to build critical and intentional bridges between educational practice and the growing movement for abolition. Designed for educators, parents, and young people, this toolkit shines a light on innovative abolitionist projects, particularly in Pre-K–12 learning contexts.
Sections are dedicated to entry points into Prison Industrial Complex abolition and education; the application of the lessons and principles of abolition; and stories about growing abolition outside of school settings. Topics addressed throughout include student organizing, immigrant justice in the face of ICE, approaches to sex education, arts-based curriculum, and building abolitionist skills and thinking in lesson plans.
The result of patient and urgent work, and more than five years in the making, Lessons in Liberation invites educators into the work of abolition.
Contributors include Black Organizing Project, Chicago Women's Health Center, Mariame Kaba and Project NIA, Bettina L. Love, the MILPA Collective, and artists from the Justseeds Collective, among others. View the full table of contents here.
The Education for Liberation Network & Critical Resistance Editorial Collective are a team of writers, educators, and thinkers from various backgrounds and social movements working toward abolition in our time.
“Lessons in Liberation is an abundant and generous offering, packed with resources to help us collectively build toward abolition in and out of the classroom. This excellent toolkit is a call to imagine, to act, to dream, to expand our notions of what education is and can be—and of the bold and radically nurturing society we can grow together. It's an essential read for teachers, organizers, and students of all kinds!” —Maya Schenwar, co-author of Prison by Any Other Name and editor-in-chief of Truthout
“This resource book underscores the necessity and urgency of abolition of the prison industrial complex in, by, and through educational systems. Chock full of ideas, workshop activities, guiding principles, tools, reflections, and campaign strategies, Lessons in Liberation will grow and deepen our movements. For those looking for an on-ramp into abolition through education—this is for you.” —Liat Ben-Moshe, author of Decarcerating Disability: Deinstitutionalization and Prison Abolition
“Lessons in Liberation is an inspiration! The authors establish foundational knowledge about what it means to be an abolitionist educator while also providing concrete actions for those who are committed to co-constructing a more just world with the youth in their classrooms. It is a deeply critical, empathetic, and loving text—the medicine that is needed to rise together.” —Curtis Acosta, Ethnic Studies Educator
“The tools needed for liberation and freedom are in this book. Like all of us, if you are striving to be an abolitionist educator, this book is your guide. Lessons in Liberation pushes us to unlearn, to be vulnerable, and to find our humanity so we can enter classrooms ready to freedom dream, to dismantle, and build for collective struggle, liberation, and love.” —Bettina L. Love, author of We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom
“Abolition is a theory whose time has come in classrooms and schools, but those of us practicing in these spaces need a more complete picture of what that looks like on the day to day. Lessons in Liberation is just that. Each page is an invitation to dream and create a new world, but also how to build that world and what tools we may need to do so.” —Teachers 4 Social Justice
Born from sustained organizing, and rooted in Black and women of color feminisms, disability justice, and other movements, abolition calls for an end to our reliance on imprisonment, policing and surveillance, and to imagine a safer future for our communities.
Lessons in Liberation: An Abolitionist Toolkit for Educators offers entry points to build critical and intentional bridges between educational practice and the growing movement for abolition. Designed for educators, parents, and young people, this toolkit shines a light on innovative abolitionist projects, particularly in Pre-K–12 learning contexts.
Sections are dedicated to entry points into Prison Industrial Complex abolition and education; the application of the lessons and principles of abolition; and stories about growing abolition outside of school settings. Topics addressed throughout include student organizing, immigrant justice in the face of ICE, approaches to sex education, arts-based curriculum, and building abolitionist skills and thinking in lesson plans.
The result of patient and urgent work, and more than five years in the making, Lessons in Liberation invites educators into the work of abolition.
Contributors include Black Organizing Project, Chicago Women's Health Center, Mariame Kaba and Project NIA, Bettina L. Love, the MILPA Collective, and artists from the Justseeds Collective, among others. View the full table of contents here.
The Education for Liberation Network & Critical Resistance Editorial Collective are a team of writers, educators, and thinkers from various backgrounds and social movements working toward abolition in our time.
376 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2021
27 people are currently reading
1181 people want to read
About the author
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 18, 2021
If you've read anthologies put out by AK Press, you'll know that the editorial tendency can seem to be rooted in a fear of leaving anything out. That happens at all levels, from individual sentences to the number of pieces included. I can understand the political prerogative to grant extensive autonomy to authors or project collectives, but the result, quite frequently, is redundancy. Lessons in Liberation is no exception. As a way to understand the current ethos of abolitionist educators, then, it's quite effective, but as a 'toolkit' it requires the reader to really dig through to find the useful tools to take back out into the world.
Also, for those who engage in training and teaching outside of the typical institutional context, know that the book is extremely focused on teaching in schools, school disciplinary systems, etc. There is lots that might be taken and extrapolated from for application to other learning contexts but again, this will take some digging and a little work.
All that said: if you're new to the movement for abolition and you do teach in schools, this could be a tremendously helpful anthology to take some time with.
Also, for those who engage in training and teaching outside of the typical institutional context, know that the book is extremely focused on teaching in schools, school disciplinary systems, etc. There is lots that might be taken and extrapolated from for application to other learning contexts but again, this will take some digging and a little work.
All that said: if you're new to the movement for abolition and you do teach in schools, this could be a tremendously helpful anthology to take some time with.
November 1, 2021
I can't say enough good things about this collection of abolition essays, art, and poetry. The genius of the book is its accessibility. It achieves the perfect blend of theory, pedagogy, and practice. It is truly a toolkit with some of the chapters written in lesson plan format for working with youth or groups of teachers.
March 13, 2023
I rly liked this! Though there was a lot of fluffy language that I felt was unhelpful and not specific enough. I wouldn’t totally recommend for learning about abolition for the first time, but I got a lot of good tools that I will use!
October 31, 2021
This book has quite a few really great essays in it. I'd recommend them. There are others I skimmed, but overall a good read, often about the nuts and bolts of being abolitionist educator.
3.5/5
3.5/5
December 12, 2021
Great workbook for anyone who interacts with kids. While I don't create lesson plans, I am excited to use these strategies with the young folks I work with. I am trying to work more through an abolitionist lens and this is a helpful way to start that. Great framing and suggestions.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews