What This Book Is About

This book aims to provide an introduction to transformative education, to give teachers the knowledge and tools they need to create equitable classrooms. To that end, the book is divided into three parts.

Part 1 discusses how teachers can create a culture of opportunity with students by becoming culturally competent, transforming the curriculum, and shaping classroom culture. Part 2 calls teachers to speak the language of freedom by articulating their purpose, vision, and mission; communicating with students; and engaging with families. Part 3 challenges teachers to assess at cultural intersections by understanding intersectionality; diversifying assessments; and committing to reflection, professional development, and modification. Each of the following chapters covers a fundamental aspect of educational practice and aims to answer the question of what teachers need to know and do to create an equitable classroom. To support your learning, each chapter begins by identifying learning targets and key vocabulary relevant to the main topic and concludes with a series of questions for reflection.

Beginning in part 1, chapter 1 discusses why cultural competence is the starting point for creating an equitable learning environment. It introduces three pedagogies that culturally competent teachers adopt in their practice: (1) culturally relevant, (2) culturally responsive, and (3) culturally sustaining.

Chapter 2 explores how teachers can modify the curriculum to become inclusive, equitable, and justice driven with students’ identities, needs, and values in mind. Readers learn tools for evaluating their curriculum and selecting instruction and assessment strategies.

Chapter 3 shows how an inclusive classroom culture is at the heart of student well-being. Readers learn to center student expectations, practice behavior management, prioritize verbal communication, monitor body language, and initiate teacher-student collaboration as tools for creating an equitable learning environment where all students belong and thrive.

Chapter 4 starts part 2 and guides readers to write purpose, vision, and mission statements as a way of embodying the new concepts and tools they encountered in the previous chapters. Using the statements, readers design daily practices to help them meet their goals at individual, school and community, district or regional, and national and international levels.

Chapter 5 examines how an equitable learning environment nurtures positive teacher-student relationships. Readers learn to develop and sustain relationships with students, craft a syllabus that sets the tone for relational dynamics in the classroom, and foster student leadership.