Here are recommended books on history and current issues in school reform and education policy. We also suggest a subscription to the Rethinking Schools magazine for articles on education from a social justice perspective. Find children's/YA books and more titles on teaching in our full collection of booklists by theme.
Most of the books on these lists are linked for more information or purchase to Powells.com (an independent, unionized bookstore) and/or Bookshop (an indie bookstore platform). A small percentage from book sales through these links goes to Teaching for Change.
Titles with reviews on this site are noted with an asterisk (*).
Engaging the African Diaspora in K-12 Education
Edited by Kia Lilly Caldwell and Emily Susanna Chávez
The New Teacher Book: Finding Purpose, Balance, and Hope During Your First Years in the Classroom
Edited By Linda Christensen, Stan Karp, Bob Peterson, Moé Yonamine
A People's Curriculum for the Earth: Teaching about the Environmental Crisis
By Bill Bigelow (Editor), Tim Swinehart (Editor)
Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years: Resources for Teaching about the Impact of the Arrival of Columbus in the Americas
By Bill Bigelow (Editor), Bob Peterson (Editor)
Rethinking Globalization: Teaching for Justice in an Unjust World
By Bill Bigelow (Editor), Bob Peterson (Editor)
Rethinking Mathematics: Teaching Social Justice by the Numbers
By Eric (Rico) Gutstein (Editor), Bob Peterson (Editor)
Rethinking Sexism, Gender, and Sexuality
By Kim Cosier (Editor), Rachel Harper (Editor), Jeff Sapp (Editor)
Rhythm and Resistance: Teaching Poetry for Social Justice
By Linda Christensen (Editor), Dyan Watson (Editor)
Teaching Climate Change to Adolescents: Reading, Writing, and Making a Difference
By Richard Beach, Jeff Share, Allen Webb
Education for Extinction
By David Wallace Adams
Educating Harlem: A Century of Schooling and Resistance in a Black Community
By Ansley T. Erickson (Editor), Ernest Morrell (Editor)
The Lost Education of Horace Tate: Uncovering the Hidden Heroes Who Fought for Justice in Schools
By Vanessa Siddle Walker
Rethinking America's Past: Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States in the Classroom and Beyond
By Robert Cohen and Sonia Murrow
Teaching History for Justice: Centering Activism in Students' Study of the Past
By Christopher C. Martell and Kaylene M. Stevens
The White Architects of Black Education: Ideology and Power in America, 1865-1954
By William H. Watkins
Beyond Heroes and Holidays: A Practical Guide to K-12 Anti-Racist, Multicultural Education and Staff Development
By Enid Lee (Editor), Deborah Menkart (Editor), Margo Okazawa-Rey (Editor)
Courageous Conversations about Race: A Field Guide for Achieving Equity in Schools
By Glenn E. Singleton
Educating Harlem: A Century of Schooling and Resistance in a Black Community
By Ansley T. Erickson (Editor), Ernest Morrell (Editor)
Lessons in Liberation: An Abolitionist Toolkit for Educators *
By Education for Liberation Network & Critical Resistance Editorial Collective
Putting the Movement Back Into Civil Rights Teaching: A Resource Guide for Classrooms and Communities
By Deborah Menkart (Editor)
Strong Black Girls: Reclaiming Schools in Their Own Image
Edited by Danielle Apugo, Lynnette Mawhinney, and Afiya Mbilishaka
Teach Freedom: Education for Liberation in the African-American Tradition
By Charles M. Payne (Editor), Carol Sills Strickland (Editor), Charles E. Cobb, Jr. (Foreword by)
We Can't Teach What We Don't Know: White Teachers, Multiracial Schools
By Gary R. Howard, Sonia Nieto (Foreword by)
Young, Gifted, and Black: Promoting High Achievement Among African-American Students
By Theresa Perry, Asa G. Hilliard, III (Joint Author), Claude Steele (Joint Author)
The Big Test: The Secret History of the American Meritocracy
By Nicholas Lemann
Pencils Down: Rethinking High-Stakes Testing and Accountability in Public Schools
By Wayne Au (Editor), Melissa Bollow Tempel (Editor)
Affirming Diversity: The Sociopolitical Context of Multicultural Education, 7th Edition
By Sonia Nieto, Patty Bode
Beyond Heroes and Holidays: A Practical Guide to K-12 Anti-Racist, Multicultural Education and Staff Development
By Enid Lee (Editor), Deborah Menkart (Editor), Margo Okazawa-Rey (Editor)
Open Minds to Equality: A Sourcebook of Learning Activities to Affirm Diversity and Promote Equity
By Nancy Schniedewind, Ellen Davidson
Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice
By Maurianne Adams (Editor), Lee Anne Bell (Editor)
Teachers as Allies: Transformative Practices for Teaching Dreamers and Undocumented Students
By Shelley Wong (Editor)
"lift Us Up, Don't Push Us Out!" Voices from the Front Lines of the Educational Justice Movement
By Mark R. Warren, David Goodman
Quality Education as a Constitutional Right: Creating a Grassroots Movement to Transform Public Schools
By Theresa Perry (Editor), Robert P. Moses (Editor), Joan T. Wynne (Editor)
Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools
By Jonathan Kozol
Schooling in Capitalist America: Educational Reform and the Contradictions of Economic Life]
By Samuel Bowles, Herbert Gintis
Teach for America Counter-Narratives: Alumni Speak Up and Speak Out
By Jameson T. Brewer (Editor), Kathleen Demarrais (Editor)
These Schools Belong to You and Me: Why We Can't Afford to Abandon Our Public Schools
By Deborah Meier, Emily Gasoi
"You Can't Fire the Bad Ones!" And 18 Other Myths about Teachers, Teachers Unions, and Public Education
By William Ayers, Crystal Laura, Rick Ayers
Between Families And Schools: Creating Meaningful Relationships
By Teaching for Change
Beyond the Bake Sale: The Essential Guide to Family-School Partnerships
By Anne T. Henderson (Editor)
A Chord of Three Strands
By Soo Hong
Parenting 4 Social Justice: Tips, Tools, and Inspiration for Conversations & Action with Kids
By Abigail Healey (Author), Leila Raven (Author), Angela Berkfield (Editor), and Rowan Parker (Editor)
Powerful Partnerships: A Teacher's Guide to Engaging Families for Student Success
By Karen Mapp, Ilene Carver, Jessica Lander
The Dark Fantastic: Race & the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games
By Ebony Elizabeth Thomas
Doing Critical Literacy
By Hilary Janks
Rethinking Popular Culture and Media - 2nd Edition
Edited by Elizabeth Marshall, Özlem Sensoy
The Day You Begin*
By Jacqueline Woodson, Rafael López
Spanish version available here: El Día En Que Descubres Quién Eres
The Oldest Student: How Mary Walker Learned to Read
By Rita Lorraine Hubbard and Oge Mora (Illustrator)
Students on Strike: Jim Crow, Civil Rights, Brown, and Me
By John A. Stokes, Lois Wolfe, Herman Viola
55 Strong: Inside The West Virginia Teachers' Strike
Edited by Elizabeth Catte, Emily Hilliard, and Jessica Salfia
Creating the Opportunity to Learn: Moving from Research to Practice to Close the Achievement Gap
By A. Wade Boykin, Pedro Noguera
Education and Capitalism: Struggles for Learning and Liberation
By Jeff Bale (Editor), Sarah Knopp (Editor)
Teach Freedom: Education for Liberation in the African-American Tradition
Edited by Charles M. Payne and Carol Sills Strickland
Why We Teach Now
By Sonia Nieto (Editor)
Young, Gifted, and Black: Promoting High Achievement Among African-American Students
By Theresa Perry, Asa G. Hilliard, III (Joint Author), Claude Steele (Joint Author)
