This lively book will help new and veteran teachers develop the knowledge, skills, and confidence needed to successfully address racial controversies in their classrooms. The author first explains what race and racism mean and why we need to talk about these topics in schools. Then, based on an in-depth study of a high school classroom, she shows what happened when teachers and students talked about race and racism in a history and language arts classroom. Throughout the book she guides teachers in ways to discuss important issues, from civil rights to institutional racism, that will ultimately help teachers and students to change school culture. The book provides an analysis of actual classroom dialogues, illustrating the often-rough conversations that teachers and students engage in while learning to talk constructively about race and racism, useful questions, resources, and activities to help teachers get started, and ideas and strategies that teachers can use to get students to address race and racism critically in the classroom.

Do you feel prepared to initiate and facilitate meaningful, productive dialogues about race in your classroom? Are you looking for practical strategies to engage with your students? Inspired by Frederick Douglass's abolitionist call to action, "it is not light that is needed, but fire" Matthew Kay has spent his career learning how to lead students through the most difficult race conversations. Kay not only makes the case that high school classrooms are one of the best places to have those conversations, but he also offers a method for getting them right, providing candid guidance on: How to recognize the difference between meaningful and inconsequential race conversations. How to build conversational "safe spaces," not merely declare them. How to infuse race conversations with urgency and purpose. How to thrive in the face of unexpected challenges. How administrators might equip teachers to thoughtfully engage in these conversations. With the right blend of reflection and humility, Kay asserts, teachers can make school one of the best venues for young people to discuss race.

In this incisive and practical book, H. Richard Milner IV provides educators with a crucial understanding of how to teach students of color who live in poverty. Milner looks carefully at the circumstances of these students’ lives and describes how those circumstances profoundly affect their experiences within schools and classrooms. In a series of detailed chapters, Milner proposes effective practices—at district and school levels, and in individual classrooms—for school leaders and teachers who are committed to creating the best educational opportunities for these students. Building on established literature, new research, and a number of revelatory case studies, Milner casts essential light on the experiences of students and their families living in poverty, while pointing to educational strategies that are shaped with these students' unique circumstances in mind. Milner’s astute and nuanced account will fundamentally change how school leaders and teachers think about race and poverty—and how they can best serve these students in their schools and classrooms.

Veteran teacher Julie Landsman leads the reader through a day of teaching and reflection about her work with high school students who are from a variety of cultures. She speaks honestly about issues of race, poverty, institutional responsibility, and white privilege by engaging the reader in the experiences of a day in the classroom with some of her remarkable students. Throughout the day, we meet bigotry head-on, struggle with questions of racial identity, and find cultural conflict in the corridors of the school building. Along the way, we come face to face with Tyrone, a young African-American student grappling with the realities of discrimination in suburbia. We encounter Sheila, a teenage mother struggling to raise her baby in poverty, and we get to know Sarah, a white girl living on the streets of Minneapolis. Through the author's eyes, we begin to understand the complexities of teaching in today's society and we learn within the pages of this book, if only just for a moment, what it feels like to be the other.

This lively book will help new and veteran teachers develop the knowledge, skills, and confidence needed to successfully address racial controversies in their classrooms. The author first explains what race and racism mean and why we need to talk about these topics in schools. Then, based on an in-depth study of a high school classroom, she shows what happened when teachers and students talked about race and racism in a history and language arts classroom. Throughout the book she guides teachers in ways to discuss important issues, from civil rights to institutional racism, that will ultimately help teachers and students to change school culture. The book provides an analysis of actual classroom dialogues, illustrating the often-rough conversations that teachers and students engage in while learning to talk constructively about race and racism, useful questions, resources, and activities to help teachers get started, and ideas and strategies that teachers can use to get students to address race and racism critically in the classroom.

"Kernahan argues that you can be honest and unflinching in your teaching about racism while also providing a compassionate learning environment that allows for mistakes and avoids shaming students. She also differentiates between how white students and students of color are likely to experience the classroom, helping instructors provide a more effective learning experience for all students"--

"Since the highly acclaimed Courageous Conversations About Race offered educators a frame work and tools for promoting racial equity, many schools have implemented the Courageous Conversations Protocol. Now ... in a book that's rich with anecdote, Singleton celebrates the successes, outlines the difficulties, and provides specific strategies for moving Courageous Conversations from racial equity theory to practice at every level, from the classroom to the school superintendent's office"--Back cover.