Routledge Hope and Healing in Urban Education: How Urban Activists and Teachers are Reclaiming Matters of the Heart

Hope and Healing in Urban Education proposes a new movement of healing justice to repair the damage done by the erosion of hope resulting from structural violence in urban communities. Drawing on ethnographic case studies from around the country, this book chronicles how teacher activists employ healing strategies in stressed schools and community organizations, and work to reverse negative impacts on academic achievement and civic engagement, supporting their students to become powerful civic actors. The book argues that healing a community is a form of political action, and emphasizes the need to place healing and hope at the center of our educational and political strategies. At once a bold, revealing, and nuanced look at troubled urban communities as well as the teacher activists and community members working to reverse the damage done by generations of oppression, Hope and Healing in Urban Education examines how social change can be enacted from within to restore a sense of hope to besieged communities and counteract the effects of poverty, violence, and hopelessness. Review "In this important new book, Shawn Ginwright reminds his readers that urban youth need far more than high test scores and college readiness if they are to succeed. Without hope and healing far too many youth will become victims of the bleak circumstances that limit and oppress them. He shows us how to undertake this transformation and in so doing, he reminds us of the power and potential that lie in engaging youth as agents of change." --Pedro A. Noguera, Peter L. Agnew Professor of Education, New York University "Shawn Ginwright’s remarkable new book provides us with a powerful vision of radical healing through which teachers and community activists empower urban youth to challenge injustice and promote community health and well-being." --John Rogers, Professor of Education, UCLA About the Author Shawn Ginwright is Associate Professor of Education in the Africana Studies Department and Senior Research Associate for the Cesar Chavez Institute for Public Policy at San Francisco State University.