1st Edition
Becoming an Everyday Changemaker Healing and Justice At School
Educators with a vision for more equitable, caring schools often struggle with where to begin. I’m just one teacher, where can I start to make change? Is it even possible? How do I do this within current constraints?
In this new book, bestselling author Alex Shevrin Venet empowers everyday changemakers by showing how equity-centered trauma-informed practices can guide our approach to school change. Unlike other books on social justice, this powerful resource doesn’t tell you which changes to implement; instead, it focuses on helping you develop the skills, strategies, and tools for making change meaningful and effective.
Topics include change opportunities and why trauma makes change harder; skills for navigating the change journey such as building relationships, working from strengths, and navigating many streams of information; and sustainable structures for lasting change. Throughout, there are reflection questions to use as conversation-starters with fellow changemakers, as well as Rest Stops so you can pause and process what you are thinking about and learning. This book will help you start your change journey now, putting you and your students on the path to equity, justice, and healing.
Part I: Understanding Change 1. How We Move Through Change Matters 2. Why Trauma Makes Change Hard(er) 3. Change Opportunities 4. Dreaming a Vision for Schools Part II: Equity-Centered Trauma-Informed Skills for Navigating the Change Journey 5. both/and 6. Everything in Relationship 7. Slowing Down 8. Working from Strengths 9. Tuning in to Many Streams of Information Part III: Sustainable Structures for Lasting Change 10. Building a Foundation of Care 11. Anticipating Change and Crisis 12. Staying in Community through the Challenges
Biography
Alex Shevrin Venet is an educator, professional development facilitator, and writer. She is a teacher educator at the graduate level. Her teaching experience includes roles as a teacher/leader at an alternative therapeutic middle and high school, a community college instructor, and an elementary after-school teacher. She lives in Winooski, Vermont.
“Reading this book felt like a long, thoughtful conversation with a critical friend who is willing to dream of what human-centered school could look like while acknowledging the very real barriers in our way. It will be the perfect book, too, for any preservice teacher candidates who are fiery change agents looking for a little bit of light to shine through school cultures so they can break in with care and empathy for students first. Creating systems change takes all of us and Alex's book provides so many entry points for teachers regardless of where they are on their individual equity journey.”
Jen Newton, PhD, Associate Professor of Teacher Education, Ohio University
"With authenticity and vulnerability, Alex beautifully weaves the threads that knit the very fibers of Everyday Changemakers in educational settings from the classroom to the district office. This book is for educators, new and experienced, and serves as a foundational text in sustaining an equity-centered trauma-informed praxis."
hemavibushani khodai, Co-Director of Undoing Knots Consultancy
"This book should be required reading for every school and district leader who is focused on equitable school change. In this book, you’ll find thoughtful, actionable, and timely information about big and small ways to make school change and how to include every voice."
Chanea Bond, Secondary Literacy Educator
"I read this book in one day and quickly realized I needed to make a space to specifically write down moving quotes because there were so many. One after another, Alex’s sentences become word gems to guide our collective road trip with care, courage, and clarity. This is the drive we needed and need. For anyone who is a facilitator, trainer, thought-partner, coach, or leader, this book invites us to embrace the practice and process -the ride- while gaining solidarity, pace, and hope towards a collective destination. As trauma- in Alex’s words- has us “doubting our own truth,” Becoming an Everyday Changemaker has us affirming our own wins, both/ands, and journeys of transformation towards justice."
Leora Wolf-Prusan, EdD, Project Director, The School Crisis Recovery & Renewal (SCRR) Project
"Too often, educators are encouraged to adopt trauma-informed approaches without clear directions for how to enact change. In Becoming an Everyday Changemaker, Venet offers a much-needed roadmap for educators at all levels by emphasizing both the journey and the destination of transformative school change. The book's practical examples and opportunities for thoughtful reflection coupled with Venet's clear and compelling writing make this a must-read for educators seeking to become agents of trauma-informed change in their environments."
Addison Duane, PhD, Researcher and educator
