Calls for Articles

Radical Teacher is a socialist, feminist, and anti-racist journal grounded in radical left politics. We publish articles that focus on education written by educational workers at all levels, in traditional and nontraditional institutions. Since 1975, we have provided a forum for progressive and accessible voices, promoting peace, social justice, and equality. We encourage potential contributors to explore our politics, our submission policies, and our past issues at radicalteacher.org.

Radical Teacher: Teaching Inside Carceral Institutions

This issue of Radical Teacher will consider the possibilities for and limits of radical teaching inside prisons and other institutions of incarceration. Following on our Summer 2010 issue of Radical Teacher, "Teaching Against the Prison Industrial Complex," this issue asks what happens when we teach "inside" carceral institutions such as prisons and detention centers. Assuming there is nothing intrinsically "radical" about teaching inside the prison walls, we seek submissions that examine the practice of critical pedagogy in the disciplinary context of the prison. We are also interested in framing this question in terms of educational settings on the "outside," which are increasingly becoming prison-like in their purpose, nature, and ends. What kinds of alliances across different sorts of institutions are needed to enable "radical teaching" in the current carceral and academic context? What unique challenges are posed by teaching within carceral institutions in a moment of changing models of K-12 schooling and deepening resistance to public access to GED and higher education in general?

We seek proposals for essays of roughly 4,000 words that address these issues and consider the implications of teaching within institutions of incarceration. We are especially interested in essays that consider specific tools, resources, or teaching experiences that address or take into consideration the challenges discussed above.

Questions essays might consider include:

  • How do we understand the relation between teaching inside carceral institutions and teaching against the prison industrial complex, and how does that relationship shape our teaching practices?
  • How can we identify and engage the specific obstacles raised by carceral and academic institutions in our efforts to create cross-sectoral and cross-institutional collaboration related to the stated and unstated goals of public education?
  • What are the potentials and problems presented by "radical teaching" in a context where access to higher education is often framed as opposed to the interests of the carceral institution itself?
  • How do teachers discern and reckon with their own preconceived notions or stereotypes about prisoners and about teaching in prisons, notions and stereotypes that may include racial and sexual stereotypes, or fantasies about the "real" prisoner or "authentic" teachers and teaching?
  • What tools are available for teaching within these contexts that are also sharpened and adapted for teaching against these contexts?

Please send proposals for essays to Kate Drabinski, () and Gillian Harkins () by December 19, 2011. Full articles will be due May 7, 2012.

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Teaching Notes

Is there a book, film, essay, poem, or story that you've found particularly useful in the classroom and want to share with other Radical Teacher readers? We are especially interested in Teaching Notes on new materials not widely known, but we would also like to hear about newly rediscovered older works, as well as new ways of teaching familiar ones.

Or has something challenging, encouraging, or frustrating happened in class? If you think our readers can learn from your experience—whether you handled things well, handled them badly, or are still trying to decide—we'd like to hear about it.

Contributions should run about 500 words. If you'd like to see some sample Teaching Notes, check out "Recent Issues" on our web site.

Please send a hard copy of your Note to Bob Rosen, Department of English, William Paterson University, 300 Pompton Road, Wayne, New Jersey 07470—and also an e-mail, with the header "Teaching Note," to:

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News for Educational Workers

Is there a news item, call for papers, upcoming conference, resource, teaching tool or other information related to progressive education that you would like to share with other Radical Teacher readers? Conference announcements and calls for papers should be at least six months ahead of date. Items, which will be used as found appropriate by Radical Teacher, cannot be returned. Send hard copy to Leonard Vogt, Department of English, LaGuardia Community College (CUNY), 31-10 Thomson Avenue, Long Island City, New York 11101—or email items to: .

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