Teaching Defiance

This is a book about choice. It urges activist educators to help people break free from their pasts, take control of the present, and make deliberate defiant choices about their futures. Michael Newman examines the use of rational discourse, non-rational discourse, and storytelling to bring about personal and collective change. Using a powerful blend of theoretical discussion and step-by-step accounts of practice, Newman returns to what actually happens in that magical encounter between teacher and learner. He examines the educational use of emotions such as frustration, dismay, anger, hatred, and love. He proposes ways of teaching and learning insight. He examines how educators can teach people to take effective action, and he discusses how educators and learners can work together to make that action morally justifiable.