ABSTRACT
Crisis talk is often over-used in books that seek to deal with issues of crucial public importance. But this is a time when such talk seems almost understated. All around us the effects of such things as unemployment, growing economic inequalities, housing foreclosures, the defunding of programs for the poor, hunger, homelessness, loss of pensions and health care, resurgent racism, anti-immigrant sentiment and violence, and so much more are becoming ever more visible. In schools, the achievement gap, the school to prison pipeline, the attacks on serious critical multicultural content, the cuts in school funding, the utter disrespect shown in policy and the media toward teachers, and again the list could be extended as far as the eye can see—all of this is painfully evident. For those of us deeply committed to an education worthy of its name, the crisis is palpable. It forces us to ask whether education has a substantive role to play in challenging this situation and in assisting in building a society that reflects our less selfish and more socially and personally emancipatory values. The book you are about to read wants to take this issue seriously.
