A review by joymeetsworld
Bad Teacher! How Blaming Teachers Distorts the Bigger Picture by Therese Quinn, Kevin K. Kumashiro, William Ayers

5.0

Kevin Kumashiro gifted this book to me a few years ago and I'm glad I finally got the chance to read it. Bad Teacher succinctly challenges American society's framing around public education and connects these cultural shifts to larger patterns of deregulation, privatization, nationalism, and patriarchy. The main premise is that blaming teachers and schools obfuscates the true drivers of education disparities - existing systems of oppression exacerbated by both conservative & liberal attempts to create better educational systems. I especially appreciated the thorough yet easy-to-understand explanation of neoliberalism in Chapter 2 and the condensed history of right wing philanthropy's role in pushing the agenda of education "reform" we've seen over the past three decades in Chapter 4. If you're looking for a short read that doesn't skimp on the research or analysis, I'd recommend this one.