Praise for Learning From Counternarratives in Teach For America
“Sarah Matsui's book offers an unusually rich example of what practitioner knowledge and inquiry can contribute to critical conversations about educational equity and the toll that simplifications can take on teachers and, by extension, their students.
Her intelligent and thoughtful narrative unpacks the complex interplay between TFA's persuasive discourse and the intense experiences of corps members as they grappled with profound gaps between expectations and their on-the-ground experiences as participants in the most highly touted reform of teacher education in recent history.
Conducted with great sensitivity to their self-described conflicts and trauma of participation, Matsui's analyses and interpretations of her extensive interviews are informed by her considerable knowledge and insights as an insider, as well as her use of compelling interpretive frameworks drawn from a number of disciplines.
The book is timely and provocative, a must-read for anyone who cares deeply about teaching, teacher education, and quality education for urban communities."
--Susan L. Lytle, Professor Emerita, University of Pennsylvania
“Few elements of the education reform movement have been as polarizing as Teach For America. Critics of TFA have focused on its leadership, the inadequacy of the training, and the placement of recruits in mostly high-poverty minority schools, but Sarah Matsui’s study opens a new and important window into why TFA deserves critical reconsideration. Matsui provides a detailed and revealing look at what it means to be a TFA recruit, including the pressures, challenges, and consequences for those recruits and the students they serve. This is a fair and complex work that contributes important nuance to how education reform is often misguided. Matsui’s critical confrontation of TFA narratives and experiences calls for a re-imaging of what it means to become and be a teacher.”
--P.L. Thomas, Associate Professor of Education, Furman University
“Sarah Matsui has written an ambitious book that highlights the tensions and struggles that Teach For America corps members face during their tenure in Philadelphia schools. Through extensive interview and survey data, Matsui presents powerful counternarratives that engage many of the key questions and concerns that continue to circulate regarding TFA including how corps members negotiate various traumas, how they take up or resist the TFA discourse, how they address issues of race and privilege, and how they understand their own identities as teachers.”
--Katherine Crawford-Garrett, Assistant Professor of Teacher Education, Educational Leadership, and Policy, University of New Mexico
“In this book, Sarah Matsui deeply captures the experiences and struggles of teachers who enter the teaching force through Teach For America. Matsui’s thoughtful exploration of corps members’ stories and experiences, along with her own, helps us not just understand the challenges particular to teaching in TFA, but also the challenges and struggles of teaching in contexts, macro and micro, that under-support and deprofessionalize teachers. From the carefully analyzed self-reports of corps members, we learn so much about the personal and professional struggles that they experience. From this deep, contextualized look into their insider experiences, which Matsui examines using multiple interpretive frameworks, can come vital learning that is hopeful and promising for teachers and those who educate and work to support them.”
--Sharon M. Ravitch, Senior Lecturer, University of Pennsylvania
Her intelligent and thoughtful narrative unpacks the complex interplay between TFA's persuasive discourse and the intense experiences of corps members as they grappled with profound gaps between expectations and their on-the-ground experiences as participants in the most highly touted reform of teacher education in recent history.
Conducted with great sensitivity to their self-described conflicts and trauma of participation, Matsui's analyses and interpretations of her extensive interviews are informed by her considerable knowledge and insights as an insider, as well as her use of compelling interpretive frameworks drawn from a number of disciplines.
The book is timely and provocative, a must-read for anyone who cares deeply about teaching, teacher education, and quality education for urban communities."
--Susan L. Lytle, Professor Emerita, University of Pennsylvania
“Few elements of the education reform movement have been as polarizing as Teach For America. Critics of TFA have focused on its leadership, the inadequacy of the training, and the placement of recruits in mostly high-poverty minority schools, but Sarah Matsui’s study opens a new and important window into why TFA deserves critical reconsideration. Matsui provides a detailed and revealing look at what it means to be a TFA recruit, including the pressures, challenges, and consequences for those recruits and the students they serve. This is a fair and complex work that contributes important nuance to how education reform is often misguided. Matsui’s critical confrontation of TFA narratives and experiences calls for a re-imaging of what it means to become and be a teacher.”
--P.L. Thomas, Associate Professor of Education, Furman University
“Sarah Matsui has written an ambitious book that highlights the tensions and struggles that Teach For America corps members face during their tenure in Philadelphia schools. Through extensive interview and survey data, Matsui presents powerful counternarratives that engage many of the key questions and concerns that continue to circulate regarding TFA including how corps members negotiate various traumas, how they take up or resist the TFA discourse, how they address issues of race and privilege, and how they understand their own identities as teachers.”
--Katherine Crawford-Garrett, Assistant Professor of Teacher Education, Educational Leadership, and Policy, University of New Mexico
“In this book, Sarah Matsui deeply captures the experiences and struggles of teachers who enter the teaching force through Teach For America. Matsui’s thoughtful exploration of corps members’ stories and experiences, along with her own, helps us not just understand the challenges particular to teaching in TFA, but also the challenges and struggles of teaching in contexts, macro and micro, that under-support and deprofessionalize teachers. From the carefully analyzed self-reports of corps members, we learn so much about the personal and professional struggles that they experience. From this deep, contextualized look into their insider experiences, which Matsui examines using multiple interpretive frameworks, can come vital learning that is hopeful and promising for teachers and those who educate and work to support them.”
--Sharon M. Ravitch, Senior Lecturer, University of Pennsylvania
Online Reviews
Review on Radical Discipleship by 18 year veteran teacher, Detroit activist, and co-editor of Radical Discipleship, Tom Airey.
Review on Medium by Philadelphia Student Union organizer, activist, and writer Beth Patel.
Review on Amber K. Kim Consulting by education professor and TFA alumna Dr. Amber Kim.
Review on Medium by Philadelphia Student Union organizer, activist, and writer Beth Patel.
Review on Amber K. Kim Consulting by education professor and TFA alumna Dr. Amber Kim.
Reader Reviews
“Even if you've not familiar with the Teach for America program, Sarah Matsui's book speaks to the complexity and dis-ease of sending idealistic young people into "struggling" contexts to "save the day." Through interviews with fellow teachers, Matsui delves into the bodily effects of unrealistic expectations: mental health struggles, alcohol consumption, weight changes and trauma. Only through addressing the culture of guilt and shame and its connection to the hero teacher narrative, is it possible to get at the roots of what's plaguing the TFA reality. Matsui's thoughtful approach offers important perspectives and life-giving alternatives that embody justice and wholeness for all.”
--Joanna Shenk, Associate Pastor, First Mennonite Church of San Francisco
“This is a provocative read, and a helpful voice at the table for both students and teachers. It's brilliant, readable, and has some really wise insights into the tension between individual experiences and the broader narratives of a “movement.”
While Matsui roots her discussion in the narratives and structure of TFA, I’ve found many of the relational themes (of teacher to student to structural system) much more broadly relevant.
As someone who works in the nonprofit space but outside the classroom, I appreciate that this book is bold in asking questions and acknowledging experiences that can often be brushed off as self-serving among service professionals (e.g. “What is my identity and what is my identity in relationship to my students? Who am I to be doing this? Can I do this? Do I want to do this? What is the effect my environment and work have on me, and what effect do I have in the classroom?”). As the book explains, it is these very questions that must be examined in order to better serve students (in this case), and build a movement for progress that is real about how to work towards change.
Despite being a student in a planning program (so, not explicitly education focused), I’ve thought of and referenced this book in class a few times already. As the community development world catches up to the realization that work needs to be done in direct partnership with communities, many of these questions of relationship between outsider/insider and human/system come into play. Matsui’s book provides nuance to these questions and brings some necessary perspectives into the conversation.
This is a critical read for anyone interested in developing equity-oriented perspectives and working towards justice in our social systems.”
--April Ognibene, MCP candidate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
--Joanna Shenk, Associate Pastor, First Mennonite Church of San Francisco
“This is a provocative read, and a helpful voice at the table for both students and teachers. It's brilliant, readable, and has some really wise insights into the tension between individual experiences and the broader narratives of a “movement.”
While Matsui roots her discussion in the narratives and structure of TFA, I’ve found many of the relational themes (of teacher to student to structural system) much more broadly relevant.
As someone who works in the nonprofit space but outside the classroom, I appreciate that this book is bold in asking questions and acknowledging experiences that can often be brushed off as self-serving among service professionals (e.g. “What is my identity and what is my identity in relationship to my students? Who am I to be doing this? Can I do this? Do I want to do this? What is the effect my environment and work have on me, and what effect do I have in the classroom?”). As the book explains, it is these very questions that must be examined in order to better serve students (in this case), and build a movement for progress that is real about how to work towards change.
Despite being a student in a planning program (so, not explicitly education focused), I’ve thought of and referenced this book in class a few times already. As the community development world catches up to the realization that work needs to be done in direct partnership with communities, many of these questions of relationship between outsider/insider and human/system come into play. Matsui’s book provides nuance to these questions and brings some necessary perspectives into the conversation.
This is a critical read for anyone interested in developing equity-oriented perspectives and working towards justice in our social systems.”
--April Ognibene, MCP candidate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
