Teach For America Counter-Narratives; Alumni Speak Up and Speak Out

Description

In its twenty-five years of existence, Teach For America (TFA) has transformed from an organization based on a perceived need to ameliorate a national teacher shortage to an organization that seeks to systematically replace traditional fully-certified teachers while simultaneously producing alumni who are interested in facilitating neoliberal education reform through elected political positions. From its inception, TFA has had its share of critics; yet criticism of the organization by its own members and alumni has largely been silenced and relegated to the margins. This book - the first of its kind - provides alumni of TFA with the opportunity to share their insight on the organization. And perhaps more importantly, this collection of counter-narratives serves as a testament that many of the claims made by TFA are, in fact, myths that ultimately hurt teachers and students. No longer will alumni voices be silenced in the name of corporate and neoliberal education reform. Cover Dedication Contents Introduction Section I: TFA’s Recruitment, Training, and Support Structure Chapter One: The TFA Bait and Switch: From “You’ll Be Making a Difference” to “You’re Making Excuses” (Jessica Millen) Chapter Two: The Blip on the Resume or the Seed of Social Justice?: The Eight-Year Impact of Eight Months with Teach For America (Erin M. Nolan) Chapter Three: Productive Mistakes: Teacher Mentorship and Teach For America (Brendon Jobs) Chapter Four: Ignoring the Ghost of Horace Mann: A Reflective Critique of Teach For America’s Solipsistic Pedagogy (Michael J. Steudeman) Chapter Five: What Is an Excellent Education? The Role of Theory in Teach For America (Laura Taylor) Chapter Six: Teach for Ambivalence, Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love to Teach (Matthew Lynde Chesnut) Chapter Seven: Teach For America, Neoliberalism, and the Effect on Special Education (Ian Scott) Section II: TFA’s Approach to Diversity Chapter Eight: Dysconscious Racism, Class Privilege, and TFA (Sarah Ishmael) Chapter Nine: Perpetuating, Committing, and Cultivating Racism: The Real Movement Behind TFA (Amber Kim) Chapter Ten: Teach For (Whose?) America (Jay Saper) Chapter Eleven: Elite by Association, but at What Expense? Teach For America, Colonizing Perspectives, and a Personal Evolution (Anne Martin) Chapter Twelve: “I Always Finish Everything”: The Challenge of Living Up to My TFA Commitment (Monica Chen) Chapter Thirteen: The Gaps Between You and Me: Being Gay in TFA (Summer Pennell) Section III: TFA’s Approach to Criticism and Critics Chapter Fourteen: Good Intentions Gone Bad: Teach For America’s Transformation from a Small, Humble Nonprofit into an Elitist Corporate Behemoth (Wendy Chovnick) Chapter Fifteen: “I Confess, I Am a TFA Supporter. But…” (Walt Ecton) Chapter Sixteen: From 106th to 41st, One Chicagoan’s Experience with Teach For America and Chicago Public Schools (Ryan Garza) Chapter Seventeen: Can We Change? Reflections on TFA’s Ongoing Internal Criticism (Derrick Houck) Chapter Eighteen: Beyond Dupes, Disciples, and Dilettantes: Ideological Struggles of TFA Corps Members (Terrenda White) Chapter Nineteen: Voices of Revitalization: Challenging the Singularity of Teach For America’s “Echo Chamber” (Barbara Torre Veltri) Chapter Twenty: The Grandfather of Alumni TFA Critics (Gary Rubinstein) Index