Teaching Resistance: Radicals, Revolutionaries, and Cultural Subversives in the Classroom

Teaching Resistance is a collection of the voices of activist educators from around the world who engage inside and outside the classroom from pre-kindergarten to university and emphasize teaching radical practice from the field. Written in accessible language, this book is for anyone who wants to explore new ways to subvert educational systems and institutions, collectively transform educational spaces, and empower students and other teachers to fight for genuine change. Topics include community self-defense, Black Lives Matter and critical race theory, intersections between punk/DIY subculture and teaching, ESL, anarchist education, Palestinian resistance, trauma, working-class education, prison teaching, the resurgence of (and resistance to) the Far Right, special education, antifascist pedagogies, and more.

Edited by social studies teacher, author, and punk musician John Mink, the book features expanded entries from the monthly column in the politically insurgent punk magazine Maximum Rocknroll, plus new works and extensive interviews with subversive educators. Contributing teachers include Michelle Cruz Gonzales, Dwayne Dixon, Martín Sorrondeguy, Alice Bag, Miriam Klein Stahl, Ron Scapp, Kadijah Means, Mimi Nguyen, Murad Tamini, Yvette Felarca, Jessica Mills, and others, all of whom are unified against oppression and readily use their classrooms to fight for human liberation, social justice, systemic change, and true equality.

Royalties will be donated to Teachers 4 Social Justice: t4sj.org

What People Are Saying

“Teaching Resistance brings us the voices of activist educators who are fighting back inside and outside of the classroom. The punk rock spirit of this collection of concise, hard-hitting essays is bound to stir up trouble.” —Mark Bray, historian, author of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook and coeditor of Anarchist Education and the Modern School: A Francisco Ferrer Reader

“Where was Teaching Resistance when I was in school? This essay collection both makes a compelling case for why radical classrooms are necessary and lays out how they can be put into practice. A perfect guide for educators and anyone working with young people, this book vitally also speaks to the student’s experience. Even for the kid-adverse activists among us, Teaching Resistance reminds us that kids can be our comrades if we meet them halfway. The younger generations deserve more from us—this is the primer for how to start providing it.” —Shawna Potter, singer for War on Women, author of Making Spaces Safer

“Schools are implicated in the reproduction of inequality in society, but they don’t have to be. When educators are intentional about their desire to challenge inequality, when they are unafraid of disrupting the status quo and challenging hierarchies, and when they actively seek to empower their students, schools can be-come a force for equity and justice. Teaching Resistance is written by educators who are currently doing this kind of work and it will serve as a source of inspiration to others. Teachers who are willing to use their power in the classroom to encourage critical thinking and creativity can become genuine allies of their students and the communities they serve, and they can indeed make a difference.” —Pedro A. Noguera, author of City Schools and the American Dream and The Trouble with Black Boys: . . . and Other Reflections on Race, Equity, and the Future of Public Education

“In Teaching Resistance an extraordinary collective of educators combines a sophisticated analysis with philosophical nuance and original theorization of radical educational practices. This is a great collection and one that we need to understand radical education at the ground level—and to do so for a wide range of purposes.” —Andrej Grubačić, coauthor of Wobblies and Zapatistas and Living at the Edges of Capitalism: Adventures in Exile and Mutual Aid

“At a time when white supremacist fascism has (re)asserted its ascendancy in the U.S., the putrid effluent perpetually oozing from its gangrenous societal tissues having become a torrent threatening to drown us all, resistance of the most concrete and effective sorts is imperative. In this respect, a book like Teaching Resistance couldn’t be more urgently needed.” —Ward Churchill, author of Wielding Words like Weapons: Selected Essays in Indigenism, 1995–2005

About the Editor

John Mink is a social studies teacher who has worked at the high school and adult school levels, and who refuses to hide his political radicalism from his students. He has been a contributing writer and editor for underground publications and zines including Slingshot, Absolutely Zippo: A Fanzine’s Anthology, and Collapse Board. Editor of the Maximum Rocknroll monthly column “Teaching Resistance” and a vocalist/bassist for several internationally recognized punk bands, John lives in Berkeley, California, with his partner Megan March, who is also his bandmate in the truewave/punk group Street Eaters.

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