Tina M. Durand, PhD, is a clinical associate professor of applied human development at Boston University, Wheelock College of Education & Human Development. She is a developmental psychologist who teaches courses on anti-oppressive practices and the psychology of race, and a former K-12 public school teacher. She has published widely in the areas of critically conscious teacher pedagogy, home and school contextual factors that promote student success, and the development of ethnic-racial consciousness and advocacy among adolescents.
Dr. Durand's book is a timely, necessary, and important contribution. Making the Case for Race in Middle School: Supporting Adolescents and Teachers in Critical Racial Consciousness and Advocacy offers student and teacher testimonies as a way to 'make a case' for the importance of racial consciousness in adolescence and beyond. It challenges the discourse of so-called 'neutrality' in today's schools and offers teachers a new way forward where not just race matters, but students' racialized humanity matters. --Alyssa Hadley Dunn, PhD, director of teacher education, professor of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Connecticut, Neag School of Education