An essential guide for frontline educators to address systemic racial oppression, repair harm, and foster safe, liberatory learning spaces for their students
For educators and readers of Bettina Love’s We Want to Do More Than Survive, with a foreword by Leigh Patel, author of No Study Without Struggle
Toward Liberation is the timely and practical guide that pioneers new pathways for educators to repair harm and foster transformative learning spaces. This road map for liberatory pedagogy is replete with resources, tools, and strategies drawn from Jamilah Pitts’s experiences as a young Black girl, a Black student, a teacher, a former school leader, and a consultant with schools across the country.
Educators will want to mark up and keep their copy of Toward Liberation at their desks for easy reference. In its pages, they will find
- Real-life examples and student writing from Pitts’s classroom
- Explorative questions for teachers to consider in their equity work
- Constructive charts that map out manifestations of harm
- Activities to engage students in liberated learning
- Healing and self-care strategies for teachers—particularly Black women educators
Pitts infuses her writing with an extensive knowledge base of the education system, honed over years as a teacher, a coach, a dean, an assistant principal, and a national education consultant. The tenets of this book—rooted in truthtelling, activism, healing, wellness, self-care, and, ultimately, love—both inform and are inspired by the healing work Pitts does with educators to this day. In doing this work, she helps to reimagine the role of the critical teacher.
Toward Liberation equips teachers with the tools they need to carve a path toward liberatory educational practices, ensuring that students are afforded the full range of their humanity and their experience, in and out of the classroom.
“Jamilah has created a pathway for educators to begin our healing journey while transforming curriculum, teaching, and the lives of the children and communities we serve. Read this book to understand what it means to be a truth-teller working for liberation. Read this book to be reminded of being a truth-seeker whose praxis is rooted in love.”
—Sonja Cherry-Paul, adapter of Stamped (For Kids): Racism, Antiracism, and You
“Toward Liberation is a timely and personal text that champions the urgent need for anti-racist education in our society. Through thought-provoking insights from her own educational journey as a classroom teacher and administrator, as well as exploring history and actionable strategies, Jamilah Pitts equips educators with the tools needed to cultivate inclusive and sustainable environments and foster a more just and equitable future for our youth.”
—Liz Kleinrock, author of Start Here, Start Now: A Guide to Antibias and Antiracist Work in Your School Community
“This book is a love letter to truth-telling, justice, and healing. Deeply sitting with each chapter, activity, and reflection question inside Toward Liberation makes each of us closer to creating classrooms for liberation.”
—Bettina L. Love, author of We Want to Do More Than Survive
Foreword by Leigh Patel
INTRODUCTION
On Baldwin’s “A Talk to Teachers”
CHAPTER 1
Teaching as Truthtelling
CHAPTER 2
Teaching as Activism
CHAPTER 3
Teaching as Healing
CHAPTER 4
Healing and Self-Care for Teachers
CHAPTER 5
Teaching as Love
Acknowledgments
Notes
Works Cited