The Equity Book Group discussion

What are some of your favorite summer reads and how are they related to equity issues?

Well, this summer I have been picking up, here and there, some readings for my own development in topics that have to do with power, equity, education and learning.

Teachers as Cultural Workers: Letters to Those Who Dare Teach, by Paulo Freire, translated by Donaldo Macedo, Dale Koike, and Alexandre Oliveira, and a forward by Donaldo Macedo and Ana Maria Araujo Freire.

Teachers as Cultural Workers is a collection of letters from friends and colleagues of the late Paulo Freire about a range of educational issues. The latter of which have to do with power, educational debates, the meaning of a progressive educator, democracy in the North American context, equity, culture, among others.

One of the points that this book is making me reflect about is the notion that often times progressive educators turn Freire's dialogic and problem-posing "method" (however, for Freire it was NOT a method, more a philosophy) into a group therapy session and only deals with the individual's psychology as opposed to making a political and ideological analysis as well.

As current and future teacher educators, what are some ways in which you go beyond "group therapy" in your classrooms?

Teachers as Cultural Workers: Letters to Those Who Dare Teach

I'm trying something new this summer - a virtual book group. Latoya Peterson, moderator of Racialicious.com, started a year-long reading of the works of Octavia Butler. So far, we've read Wild Seed; I've appreciated the discussions that focus on race, slavery, gender, and immortality (she IS a sci-fi writer!). Join us! http://www.racialicious.com/2011/07/0...