A reviewer from Stanford University wrote that Banks’ book of essays “illustrates the importance of the current quests by marginalized groups around the world for full citizenship and sheds light on the heated and divisive debates that are taking place around citizenship and civic education.”

Banks has gathered many titles over the years; he is the Kerry and Linda Killinger Endowed Chair in Diversity Studies Emeritus and the founding director of the UW’s , which is now the

He is the author of many books and dozens of articles. Often referred to as “,” Banks retired from the 91̽��in 2019 but remains active professionally.

91̽��Notebook caught up with Banks for a few questions about his new book.

What guided your choices as you gathered these essays from across your career?��

James Banks: Because I am an African American who grew up in the Arkansas Delta in the 1950s and 1960s, I was denied many citizenship rights that most White Americans take for granted because of racial segregation. For example, our school’s yearly visit to the zoo in Memphis, Tennessee (which is about 60 miles from Marianna, Arkansas, the town in which my school was located), was a highlight of the school year. However, we could only visit the zoo on the day reserved for Blacks, which was Thursdays. Consequently, the yearly visit to the Memphis zoo is a both a painful and joyous memory.

Because of my personal journey in the South and later in Chicago after I migrated there in 1960, how to change schools and social studies teaching so that African Americans and other marginalized groups would attain full citizenship rights became a major goal of my teaching and publishing career. This collection of essays consists of articles that I published from 1983 to 2019 that focus on ways in which the social studies and civics curriculum in schools can be changed so that students of color and other marginalized groups can attain full citizenship rights within the schools and society writ large.

The book explores what you term “the citizenship-education dilemma.” Could you explain that a little? Is it about the disconnect of teaching democratic values in an often unequal and unjust world context?��

J.B.: Yes, the “citizenship education dilemma” is about teaching students about justice and equality when they are being educated in schools and a nation that contradict and violate the values and ideals they are being taught.

I was educated in a racially segregated school in which we walked five miles to and from school, while the White students rode to school in a bus that spilled mud on us as it speedily passed us on the muddy road. That is one of my most powerful and poignant memories of my school days. Yet each day in the school morning exercise we said, “I pledge allegiance to the flag and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

Our Black teachers knew there was not “liberty and justice for all” in the Arkansas Delta nor in the United States. That is why our teachers required us to sing both the “Star-Spangled Banner” and the Negro National Anthem, “,” every morning in morning exercise. Our teachers wanted us to develop an identity and loyalty to the United States but also an identity with our cultural and ancestral roots.

Throughout the U.S., students are still experiencing a “citizenship education dilemma” because they are learning about democratic ideals and social justice in schools and a nation that are highly stratified by social class inequality and in which racism, sexism and negative attitudes toward LGBTQ people are widespread and institutionalized.

You write that students can learn democratic values by directly experiencing them in transformative classrooms, which you envision in the book. To the non-educator or parent, what might transformative classrooms look like?��

J.B.: In a lengthy, engaging, and informative 2018 history of the United States that I finished reading last night, , “All over the world, populists seeking solace from a troubled past sought refuge in imagined histories.” In the U.S. as well as in most other nations, the social studies curriculum is replete with “imagined histories”: national myths, the denial and marginalization of the struggles of diverse racial, cultural, ethnic and religious groups, and the glorification of and the conquering of indigenous groups such as Native Americans and Aboriginal Australians.

In the transformative curriculum, students develop the knowledge and skills that are needed to question “imagined histories,” to construct versions of history that reflect the struggles and experiences of diverse groups within the nation, and to conceptualize ways in which they can take civic action to make their local communities, the nation, and the world more humane and just.

They examine case studies of transformative citizen actors, such as Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Rosa Parks, who took actions that violated local laws but which actualized human and civil rights. In transformative classrooms, students learn to know, to care, and to act to make their communities and nation more just and humane.

Do you remain hopeful for the future in such a time as this?��

J.B.: , the great African American educator and founder of Bethune-Cookman University said, “Without faith, nothing is possible. With it, nothing is impossible.” My African Americans teachers in Arkansas were greatly influenced by the teachings and example of Mrs. Bethune. Consequently, I have internalized her ideas about faith and hope.

As educators we must be hopeful, and we must have faith that our work will make a difference. Faith and hope enable us to wake up every morning and to keep going — believing that we can make a difference. Without faith and hope we are immobilized.

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Other education book notes:

Jennifer Hoffman book studies connection between higher education and sports

A new book by 91̽��College of Education faculty member , delves into the intersection of athletics and higher education, exploring how college athletics departments reflect many characteristics of their institutions and are susceptible to many of the same challenges in delivering on their mission.

One of the book’s key messages is that all who work in higher education must view sports not merely as a spectator, but also be mindful of ways sports can be more educational and purposeful on college campuses.

The book also explores the level of control athletes have over their name, image and likeness. Hoffman is a faculty affiliate of the UW’s

Learn more and listen to a podcast with Hoffman on the College of Education .

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Education faculty Meredith Honig, Lydia Rainey to publish book on supervising school principals

An upcoming book by College of Education faculty members and will explore how school district leaders can more effectively support principals as instructional leaders. “ will be published in May by Harvard Education Press.

Based on extensive research of school district central offices, the authors argue for a shift in the focus from an orientation of compliance and evaluation to one where administrators are learning partners for the principals.

Honig is a professor in the program and an adjunct professor in the Evans School of Public Policy & Governance. Rainey is a research scientist and director of research for the College of Education’s . The college plans a on the topic in coming months.

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Three 91̽��researchers among editors for ‘Education in Movement Spaces’

“” is a new book edited by

, and of the 91̽��and Timothy San Pedro from The Ohio State University.

Studying recent social movements in the U.S. — from Standing Rock to Black Lives Matter — the book shows the vital connections among Native American and Black communities in education.

Contributors to the book — scholars, educators and organizers — highlight the importance of activist-oriented teaching and learning “in community encampments and other movement spaces for the preservation and expansion of resistance education.”

Django Paris is the James A. & Cherry A. Banks Professor of Multicultural Education and directs the Banks Center for Educational Justice. Rae Paris is an assistant professor of English and affiliate of the center and Alayna Eagle Shield a research assistant. The book was published in April by Routledge.

In a region known for outdoor recreation, barely one in five youth in King County gets the recommended hour of physical activity each day, while some neighborhoods lack the parks and programs to serve them. A report released Sept. 10 — the product of research led by the 91̽�� — gives Seattle and King County a “D” in getting youth active through sport, play and outdoor recreation.

That report, not only reveals the need for greater access to and resources for youth sports and recreation, but also launches the King County Play Equity Coalition to leverage local leadership and increase youth physical activity. The new report is a comprehensive landscape analysis of regional trends, barriers and opportunities, released in conjunction with community partners that include the Seattle Mariners, Seattle Children’s Hospital, YMCA of Greater Seattle, Bezos Family Foundation, Kaiser Permanente and evo.

Researchers in the , part of the , conducted the eight-month study, which involved more than 1,600 local adults and children and teens in kindergarten through 12th grades in interviews, focus groups and surveys. The research also was guided by an advisory board of local youth-recreation leaders and representatives who provided insights, expertise and feedback.

“State of Play: Seattle-King County” followed a national framework created by the Aspen Institute, which has issued similar reports on five other communities nationwide. The report consists of eight strategies, or “plays,” designed to increase healthy, developmentally-appropriate participation in sport and physical activity.

“Seattle and King County have a unique opportunity to improve the lives of youth through sports, broadly defined,” said Tom Farrey, executive director of the Aspen Institute Sports & Society Program. “Few if any areas in the country have a richer combination of natural and human resources to draw on. I can say that as a former resident. Our Project Play team hopes this report is used as a tool to mobilize stakeholders from across sectors, as has happened in other communities where we have worked.”

The benefits of living in a region known for being at the forefront in health and wellness are not trickling down to the area’s youth. In the study, 91̽��researchers found:

• King County youth are less active than youth nationally. Fewer than one in five youth (19%) meets the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s physical activity guidelines (60 minutes of moderate activity, seven days per week). Not only is this rate declining over time from , but it also is lower than the national average of 26%.
• While King County has abundant opportunities for outdoor recreation, it is not meeting the demand to support equitable access to physical activity. Youth in South King County have fewer playfields and parks in their neighborhoods, and access to them is more limited than in the rest of the region. Youth of color and youth who do not speak English at home spend less time at the parks near them than their white or English-speaking peers.
• Access to physical activity opportunities is limited by race, language, affluence and ability. Youth of color are less likely than white youth to participate in organized physical activity, and those who do participate play a narrower range of sports. Youth from less-wealthy families are also less active and less likely to have ever participated in organized physical activity than more affluent youth.

“State of Play: Seattle-King County” is intended as a catalyst for collective action. Over 30 local organizations in a variety of sectors have been involved in the project thus far. In the coming months, the group will turn its efforts toward the creation of the King County Play Equity Coalition. The coalition aims to increase the rate of King County youth meeting the CDC’s physical activity guidelines through policies, programs, research and information-sharing so that all youth have access to the benefits of movement on mental, emotional and physical well-being.

“In the report, we prioritized the voices of youth and families most disenfranchised from physical activity in our region,” said Julie McCleery, research associate at the UWCLA and the report’s principal investigator. “Now we have to collectively commit to taking that data seriously. It’s time for King County to recognize the vital role that physical activity plays in community health and educational outcomes and do something bold to address the inequities in who plays sports, who has recess, and who has access to outdoor play spaces.”

The King County Play Equity Coalition will focus its efforts on strategies outlined in the report, including empowering schools to be hubs for community physical activity, launching a public health education campaign, and providing program staff and policymakers with an equity toolkit to help them increase access to physical activity.

King County Parks will use findings in “State of Play: Seattle-King County” to inform strategic upstream investments of the county’s Youth Sports Grants, which support fit and healthy communities by investing in programs and capital projects that increase youth access to physical activity. The county recently expanded that effort, providing $2.5 million for programs and capital projects through a competitive process, along with $1 million in discretionary grants awarded by King County Council members.

“King County has once again partnered with the 91̽�� on an initiative to improve the quality of life in our region,” said King County Executive Dow Constantine. “We are leading a united effort with the public and private sectors to make it possible for more young people to be physically active, which contributes to their health and well-being. We are excited to be a part of the next steps of this effort.”

“All children deserve to have the mental and physical benefits that come from play,” said 91̽��President Ana Mari Cauce. “As this report shows, we have important work to do as a community to ensure that every child has access and opportunity to the playtime and physical activities that help them grow and thrive.”

Learn more about the “State of Play: Seattle King County” report and 91̽��Center for Leadership in Athletics . For more information, contact McCleery at 206-543-7922 or juliem4@uw.edu, or Jon Solomon at the Aspen Institute, 205-572-2907, jon.solomon@aspeninstitute.org.