Series in Social Aspects
Books in Social Aspects
Being Bad
Being Bad will change the way you think about the social and academic worlds of Black boys. In a poignant and harrowing journey from systems of education to systems of criminal justice, the author follows her brother, Chris, who has been designated a “bad kid” by his school, a “person of interest” by the police, and a “gangster” by society. Readers first meet Chris in a Chicago jail, where he is being held in connection with a string of street robberies. We then learn about Chris through insiders’ accounts that stretch across time to reveal key events preceding this tragic moment. Together, these stories explore such timely issues as the under-education of Black males, the place and importance of scapegoats in our culture, the on-the-ground reality of zero tolerance, the role of mainstream media in constructing Black masculinity, and the critical relationships between schools and prisons. No other book combines rigorous research, personal narrative, and compelling storytelling to examine the educational experiences of young Black males. Book Features: The natural history of an African American teenager navigating a labyrinth of social worlds. A detailed, concrete example of the school-to-prison pipeline phenomenon. Rare insightsof an African American family making sense of, and healing from, school wounds. Suggested resources of reliable places where educators can learn and do more. “Other books have focusedon the school-to-prison pipeline or the educational experiences of young African American males, but I know of none that bring the combination of rigorous research, up-close personal vantage point, and skilled storytelling provided by Laura in Being Bad .” — Gregory Michie , chicago public school teacher, author of Holler If You Hear Me , senior research associate at the Center for Policy Studies and Social Justice, Concordia University Chicago “Refusing to separate the threads that bind the oppressive fabric of contemporary urban life, Laura has crafted a story that is at once astutely critical, funny, engaging, tearful, dialogue-filled, profoundly theoretical, despairing, and filled with hope. Being Bad is a challenge and a gift to students, families, policymakers, soon-to-be teachers, social workers, and ethnographers.” — Michelle Fine , distinguished professor, Graduate Center, CUNY "Perhaps more than any other study on this topic, this book brings to life the complicated, fleshed, lived experience of those most directly and collaterally impacted by the politics of schooling and its relationship to our growing prison nation.” — Garrett Albert Duncan , associate professor of Education and African & African-American Studies, Washington University in St. Louis
Congratulations, By the Way
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • This inspiring meditation on kindness from the author of Lincoln in the Bardo is based on his popular commencement address. Three months after George Saunders gave a graduation address at Syracuse University, a transcript of that speech was posted on the website of The New York Times, where its simple, uplifting message struck a deep chord. Within days, it had been shared more than one million times. Why? Because Saunders’s words tap into a desire in all of us to lead kinder, more fulfilling lives. Powerful, funny, and wise, Congratulations, by the way is an inspiring message from one of today’s most influential and original writers. Praise for Congratulations, by the way “As slender as a psalm, and as heavy.” — The New York Times “The graduating college senior in your life probably just wants money. But if you want to impart some heartfelt, plainspoken wisdom in addition to a check, you can't do much better than [ Congratulations, by the way ].” — Entertainment Weekly “The loving selflessness that [George Saunders] advises and the interconnectedness that he recognizes couldn’t be purer or simpler—or more challenging.” — Kirkus Reviews “Warm and tender.” — Publishers Weekly
Controversies in the Classroom
This book features the most important and exciting writing from the past 15 years of Radical Teacher magazine. Focusing on the personal experience of teachers and the practical realities of teaching, the essays cover Teaching About War; Teaching About Globalization; Teaching About Race, Ethnicity, and Language; Teaching About Gender and Sexualities; and Threats to Public Education: Testing, Tracking, and Privatization . This is a must read for all teachers who are committed to creative pedagogy and social justice. Contributors : Bernadette Anand, Nancy Barnes, Lilia I. Bartolomé, Bill Bigelow, Lawrence Blum, Marjorie Feld, Michelle Fine, H. Bruce Franklin, Stan Karp, Kevin K. Kumashiro, Pepi Leistyna, Arthur MacEwan, Sarah Napier, Bob Peterson, Nicole Polier, Patti Capel Swartz, Maria Sweeney, Rita Verma, and Kathleen Weiler. "For the many teachers who bring dreams of a better world to their classrooms, these richly helpful pages teach us how to do our work better." ― Ira Shor , Graduate Center, City University of New York “The radical teachers who tell their stories and present their ideas in this collection…are hoping to engage the young in inquiries that they didn’t ever imagine might interest them, and leave them wanting more.” ―From the Foreword by Deborah Meier , educational reformer, writer, and activist “In a time of ongoing conservative attacks on critically democratic education, more than ever we need resources to remind us of what the dangers we face are and what we can do about them.” ― Michael W. Apple , University of Wisconsin, Madison “For teachers with the courage and conviction to address the most important and controversial issues of our time, this book will be a source of inspiration and guidance.” ― Pedro A. Noguera , Executive Director, Metropolitan Center for Urban Education, New York University “This powerful collection of essays on teaching about war, globalization, race, sexuality, and threats to public education is a wake-up call to educators at all levels: We can make a difference!” ― Jean Anyon , Graduate Center of the City University of New York, author of Radical Possibilities “Controversial issues are precisely among the topics that young people need to learn about, explore, and debate if they are to become productive and hopeful citizens. Controversies in the Classroom is a gold mine of ideas and strategies to help them do just that.” ― Sonia Nieto , Professor Emerita, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Cyberspaces Of Everyday Life
Networks and computer-mediated communication now penetrate the spaces of everyday life at a fundamental level. We communicate, work, bank, date, check the weather, and fuel conspiracy theories online. In each instance, users interact with network technology as much more than a computational device. Cyberspaces of Everyday Life provides a critical framework for understanding how the Internet takes part in the production of social space. Mark Nunes draws on the spatial analysis work of Henri Lefebvre to make sense of cyberspace as a social product. Looking at online education, he explores the ways in which the Internet restructures the university. Nunes also examines social uses of the World Wide Web and illustrates the ways online communication alters the relation between the global and the local. He also applies Deleuzian theory to emphasize computer-mediated communications’ performative elements of spatial production. Addressing the social and cultural implications of spam and anti-spam legislation, as well as how the burst Internet stock bubble and the Patriot Act have affected the relationship between networked spaces and daily living, Cyberspaces of Everyday Life sheds new light on the question of virtual space and its role in the offline world. Mark Nunes is associate professor and chair of the English, Technical Communication, and Media Arts Department at Southern Polytechnic State University.
Deconstruction Machines: Writing in the Age of Cyberwar
A bold new theory of cyberwar argues that militarized hacking is best understood as a form of deconstruction From shadowy attempts to steal state secrets to the explosive destruction of Iranian centrifuges, cyberwar has been a vital part of statecraft for nearly thirty years. But although computer-based warfare has been with us for decades, it has changed dramatically since its emergence in the 1990s, and the pace of change is accelerating. In Deconstruction Machines , Justin Joque inquires into the fundamental nature of cyberwar through a detailed investigation of what happens at the crisis points when cybersecurity systems break down and reveal their internal contradictions. He concludes that cyberwar is best envisioned as a series of networks whose constantly shifting connections shape its very possibilities. He ultimately envisions cyberwar as a form of writing, advancing the innovative thesis that cyber attacks should be seen as a militarized form of deconstruction in which computer programs are systems that operate within the broader world of texts. Throughout, Joque addresses hot-button subjects such as technological social control and cyber-resistance entities like Anonymous and Wikileaks while also providing a rich, detailed history of cyberwar. Deconstruction Machines provides a necessary new interpretation of deconstruction and timely analysis of media, war, and technology.
Deep Knowledge
Deep Knowledge is a book about how people’s ideas change as they learn to teach. Using the experiences of six middle and high school student teachers as they learn to teach science in diverse classrooms, Larkin explores how their work changes the way they think about students, society, schools, and science itself. Through engaging case stories, Deep Knowledge challenges some commonly held assumptions about learning to teach and tackles problems inherent in many teacher education programs. Larkin digs deep into the details of teacher learning in a way seldom attempted in books about teacher education. Book Features: Offers a teacher education framework based on teaching for understanding and equity. Features engaging case studies of science teachers that are applicable to all teachers interested in teaching for social justice. Unpacks the problems and challenges teachers face in developing the art and skill of teaching. Applies insights from conceptual change learning in science to science teacher learning. Douglas B. Larkin is an assistant professor in the Department of Secondary and Special Education at Montclair State University in New Jersey. He currently works with preservice secondary science and math teachers in the Newark-Montclair Urban Teacher Residency program. “Willing to challenge the orthodoxy of science education, Larkin's Deep Knowledge takes on an unspoken aspect of teacher education—the intellectual lives of teachers. This volume transcends science education and engages pedagogy in every field at every level.” — Gloria Ladson Billings , Kellner Family Professor of Urban Education at the University of Wisconsin–Madison “This engaging book, based on cases of pre-service teachers learning to teach science in middle and high school, is a must read for those interested in supporting the equitable teaching of science for understanding. There is much to learn from this study about the complexities of the process involved in learning to teach science for social justice.” — Ken Zeichner , Boeing Professor of Teacher Education, Director of Teacher Education, University of Washington “In Deep Knowledge , Larkin offers a rich and sensitive account of how teacher candidates’ thinking about science teaching and student diversity evolves as they confront perennial problems of practice in their student teaching. This engaging and powerful book is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand and influence the exhilarating yet arduous process of learning to teach a diverse student population for deep and flexible understanding.” — Ana Maria Villegas , Professor of Curriculum and Instruction, Montclair State University.
Digital Sociologies(With: Jessie Daniels)
Providing a much needed overview of the growing field of digital sociology, this handbook connects digital media technologies to the traditional sociological areas of study, like labour, culture, education, race, class and gender. Rooted in a critical understanding of inequality as foundational to digital sociology and is edited by leaders in the field. It includes topics ranging from web analytics, wearable technologies, social media analysis and digital labour. This rigorous, accessible text explores contemporary dilemmas and problems of the digital age in relation to inequality, institutions and social identity, making it suitable for use for a global audience on a variety of social science courses and beyond. Offering an important step forward for the discipline of sociology Digital sociologies is an important intellectual benchmark in placing digital at the forefront of investigating the social.
Gaming: Essays On Algorithmic Culture
Video games have been a central feature of the cultural landscape for over twenty years and now rival older media like movies, television, and music in popularity and cultural influence. Yet there have been relatively few attempts to understand the video game as an independent medium. Most such efforts focus on the earliest generation of text-based adventures ( Zork, for example) and have little to say about such visually and conceptually sophisticated games as Final Fantasy X, Shenmue, Grand Theft Auto, Halo, and The Sims, in which players inhabit elaborately detailed worlds and manipulate digital avatars with a vast—and in some cases, almost unlimited—array of actions and choices. In Gaming , Alexander Galloway instead considers the video game as a distinct cultural form that demands a new and unique interpretive framework. Drawing on a wide range of disciplines, particularly critical theory and media studies, he analyzes video games as something to be played rather than as texts to be read, and traces in five concise chapters how the “algorithmic culture” created by video games intersects with theories of visuality, realism, allegory, and the avant-garde. If photographs are images and films are moving images, then, Galloway asserts, video games are best defined as actions. Using examples from more than fifty video games, Galloway constructs a classification system of action in video games, incorporating standard elements of gameplay as well as software crashes, network lags, and the use of cheats and game hacks. In subsequent chapters, he explores the overlap between the conventions of film and video games, the political and cultural implications of gaming practices, the visual environment of video games, and the status of games as an emerging cultural form. Together, these essays offer a new conception of gaming and, more broadly, of electronic culture as a whole, one that celebrates and does not lament the qualities of the digital age. Alexander R. Galloway is assistant professor of culture and communication at New York University and author of Protocol: How Control Exists after Decentralization.
God and Man at Yale
"For God, for country, and for Yale... in that order," William F. Buckley Jr. wrote as the dedication of his monumental work—a compendium of knowledge that still resonates within the halls of the Ivy League university that tried to cover up its political and religious bias. In 1951, a twenty-five-year-old Yale graduate published his first book, which exposed the "extraordinarily irresponsible educational attitude" that prevailed at his alma mater. The book, God and Man at Yale, rocked the academic world and catapulted its young author, William F. Buckley Jr. into the public spotlight. Now, half a century later, read the extraordinary work that began the modern conservative movement. Buckley's harsh assessment of his alma mater divulged the reality behind the institution's wholly secular education, even within the religion department and divinity school. Unabashed, one former Yale student details the importance of Christianity and heralds the modern conservative movement in his preeminent tell-all, God and Man at Yale: The Superstitions of "Academic Freedom."
High-Tech Heretic
The cry for and against computers in the classroom is a topic of concern to parents, educators, and communities everywhere. Now, from a Silicon Valley hero and bestselling technology writer comes a pointed critique of the hype surrounding computers and their real benefits, especially in education. In High-Tech Heretic , Clifford Stoll questions the relentless drumbeat for "computer literacy" by educators and the computer industry, particularly since most people just use computers for word processing and games--and computers become outmoded or obsolete much sooner than new textbooks or a good teacher. As one who loves computers as much as he disdains the inflated promises made on their behalf, Stoll offers a commonsense look at how we can make a technological world better suited for people, instead of making people better suited to using machines.
Holler If You Hear Me(With: Gregory Michie)
In this time of narrowed curricula and high-stakes accountability, Gregory Michie’s tales of struggle and triumph in Holler If You Hear Me: The Education of a Teacher and His Students are as relevant as ever. Since it was first published in 1999, Holler has become essential reading for new and seasoned teachers alike and an inspiring read for many others. Weaving back and forth between Michie’s awakening as a teacher and the first-person stories of his students, this highly acclaimed book paints an intimate and compassionate portrait of teaching and learning in urban America. While the popular notion of what it’s like to teach in city schools is dominated by horror stories and hero tales, Michie and his students reside somewhere in between these extremes―“between the miracles and the metal detectors.” This updated 10th Anniversary Edition of Michie’s moving memoir of teaching on Chicago’s South Side includes a new foreword by Luis J. Rodriguez, a new introduction and a new afterword, as well as updates on his students. "Michie is a passionate believer in the power of education." ― Teacher Magazine “A decade later it’s still alive with relevancy, ideas, and voices.” ― Luis J. Rodriguez , author of Always Running: La Vida Loca―Gang Days in LA “A must read for all who care about social justice and educating the future generation.” ― JoAnn Phillion , Purdue University
How to Win at College
The essential guide to getting ahead once you’ve gotten in—proven strategies for making the most of your college years, based on winning secrets from the country's most successful students “Highly recommended because it is full of practical tips that will help high school grads take the next step in life.”— Money How can you graduate with honors, choose exciting activities, build a head-turning resume, gain access to the best post-college opportunities, and still have a life? Based on interviews with star students at universities nationwide, from Harvard to the University of Arizona, How to Win at College presents seventy-five simple rules that will rocket you to the top of your class. These often surprising strategies include: • Don’t do all your reading • Drop classes every term • Become a club president • Care about your grades, Ignore your GPA • Never pull an all-nighter • Take three days to write a paper • Always be working on a “grand project” • Do one thing better than anyone else you know Proving you can be successful and still have time for fun, How to Win at College is the must-have guide for making the most of these four important years—and getting and edge on life after graduation. “This deliberately provocative book is a good way for a smart student to see how out-of-the-box thinking can lead to success in college.”— Seattle Times