Name: Dr. William Ayers Title: Co-Director, Small Schools Workshop
Email: bayers@uic.edu
Tel: (312) 996-9689
William Ayers is a school reform activist, Professor of Education, and Senior University Scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago where he teaches courses in Interpretive research, urban school change, teaching for justice and democracy, youth and modern predicament, and the cultural contexts of teaching. Besides being the co-director of SSW, he is also the co-founder of the Annenberg Challenge in Chicago, and the co-chair of the Chicago School Reform Collaborative. A graduate of the Bank Street College of Education and Teachers College, Columbia University, he has written extensively about the importance of creating progressive educational opportunities in urban public schools.
His interests focus on the political and social contexts of schooling, and the meaning and ethical purposes of teachers, students, and families. His articles have appeared in many journals including the Harvard Educational Review, the Journal of Teacher Education, Teachers College Record, The Nation, and The Cambridge Journal Of Education.
His books include:
- The Good Preschool Teacher(Teachers College Press, 1989)
- To Teach: The Journey of a Teacher(Teacher College Press, 1993) which was named Book of the year in 1993 by Kappa Delta Pi and won the Witten Award for Distinguished Work in Biography and Autobiography in 1995.
Recent edited books include:
His latest book is A Kind and Just Parent: The Children of Juvenile Court(Beacon Press, 1997).- To Become a Teacher: Making a Difference in Children's Lives,(Teachers College Press,1995)
- (with Janet Miller)A light in Dark Times: Maxine Greene and the Unfinished Conversation(Teachers College Press, 1997)
- (with Pat Ford)City Kids/City Teachers: Reports from the Front Row(The New Press, 1996)
- (with Jean Ann Hunt and Therese Quinn)Teaching for Social Justice, (The New Press and Teachers College Press, 1998)
Article on Dr. Ayers: Teacher Magazine : Rebel With A (New) Cause
