Diving In: Bill Ayers and the Art of Teaching into the Contradiction

Inspired by the life and work of Bill Ayers—particularly his advice to “teach into the contradiction”—Diving In reflects the intellectual adventures that Ayers has always encouraged those around him to undertake. Written by leading educators and activists, the collected chapters within this book are as diverse as the myriad contradictions that teachers encounter in their day-to-day practice and their out-of-class musings. The contributors use themes suggested by Ayers’s work to open up new perspectives and discourses on key issues in education, such as education as a human right, participatory democracy, social justice, and liberation. Diving In offers much-needed hope at a time when teachers need it the most.

Contributors: Alexandra Allweiss, Patrick Camangian, Bernardine Dohrn, Hubert Dyasi, Michelle Fine, Carl A. Grant, Ming Fang He, Rashid Khalidi, Alice Kim, Joyce E. King, Fred Klonsky, Craig Kridel, Gloria Ladson-Billings, Lisa Yun Lee, Avi D. Lessing, Karla Manning,  Erica R. Meiners, W. J. T. Mitchell, Sonia Nieto, Bree Picower,  Therese Quinn, William Schubert, David Stovall, William H. Watkins, Joel Westheimer

“A moving, urgent collection, Diving In strives toward hope, bursts with creativity, and insists on impassioned resistance. Like the masterful teaching of Bill Ayers, it leaves you feeling richer, more connected, and asking new questions.”
—Martha Biondi, professor of African American Studies at Northwestern and author of The Black Revolution on Campus

“This astounding collection of new essays animates the themes of contradiction and discomfort within social-justice work as embodied by one of education’s true visionaries, Bill Ayers, and in so doing, brilliantly models his pedagogical and mentoring style. Both sparked by and inter-flowing with his life work, Diving In invites readers to similarly situate our own struggles and strivings into this larger movement as we each embark on living and teaching radically but in ways yet unimagined.”
—Kevin Kumashiro, author of Bad Teacher! How Blaming Teachers Distorts the Bigger Picture