The Boiled Down Juice

This page is always growing as I add new resources to the list. If you have any recommendations of books not listed here, please email me: meredith.martin466@wku.edu

Andreopoulos, George J. and Richard Pierre Claude. Eds. Human Rights Education for the Twenty-First Century. 1997. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

This collection is a wonderful introduction to basic concepts behind human rights education and its applications. The book is quite large and dense and demands a great deal of energy as it deals with topics ranging from small schools in Africa to broad discussions on the basic premises behind human rights education. I have selected a few specific essays to highlight here, however I would recommend at least skimming the entire work.

Bigelow, Bill The Line Between Us: Teaching About the Border and Mexican Immigration. A recent publication of Rethinking Schools. For
More information see the introduction and examples chapters here.

Meintjes, Garth. “Human Rights Education as Empowerment: Reflections on Pedagogy.”
PP. 64-79.

This is a wonderful essay outlining how human rights education can have a direct impact on the people engaged in human rights learning and how human rights education can address sustainable culture and power relationships.

Flowers, Nancy and David A. Shiman. “Teacher Education and the Human Rights Vision.” PP. 161-175.

This essay would work well as a companion reading to go along with examples of how folklore and education could work well together in the classroom. Because it provides background information about why educators might want to engage in human rights education, it allows teachers to see address the larger why questions of this form of teaching. Great background reading for folklorists as well.

Bell, Brenda, John Gaventa and John Peters. Eds. We Make the Road by Walking: Conversations on Education and Social Change; Myles Horton and Paulo Freire. 1990. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. 1990.

This book consists of transcribed conversations between Paulo Freire, author of the classic work, Pedagogy of the Oppressed and Myles Horton, founder of the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee. Referred to as a “talking book,” these transcribed conversations take the reader through these revolutionaries’ discussions of their formative years, their ideas about educational practice, and their beliefs about education and positive social change. I find this book particularly helpful in that, at its core, the book is an elaborate discussion of the ways in which the folklore of our daily lives, and the narratives we share with one another, are at the core of our ability to work toward engaged dialog. In engaged dialog people hear one another rather than just arguing or speaking to one another. For a more detailed review of this book, see also the “Book Reviews” section of the Blog.

See especially:
PP. 46-47-60—Working out community problems through shared community dialog.

Congdon, Kristin G. Community Art in Action. 2004. Worcester, Massachusetts: Davis Publications.

This book works particularly well as deep background reading for teachers, public program and education directors, and those interested in how cultural activities can engage students in action based dialog. In addition to write-ups of successful community art in action programs and thoughtful essays about the ways in which art can focus on everything from the built environment to ethnicity, the book is also a great resource for classroom activities that promote culturally based dialog. Side bars titled “Try This,” provide discussion based activities that would be perfect for generating possible podcasts ideas or would even work as the basis for the podcasts themselves. Here are a few of the “Try This” sections I find particularly helpful:

P 23. Ask students to list five folk groups they belong to on a sheet of paper. How is each group similar and different….discuss the diversity that exists inside the classroom.
P. 63 Identify a place outside your school or community building that could attract birds of animals….research how they live…build a sculpture for the animals that is both pleasing to look at and attractive to the birds or animals….watch and see what happens.

Dunaway, David K. and Willa K. Baum Eds. 1996. Oral History: An Interdisciplinary Anthology. New York: Altamira Press.

This 1996 collection is divided into five sections, all of which examine the way different disciplines and outlets make use of oral history as a concept and practice. Oral history is at the core of the fieldwork process, and I think addressing the ways in which folklore and human rights education research can work together necessitates looking deeply at some of our fundamental practices. As public folklorists, we often engage in interviewing. Yet as Robert Baron argues in “Theorizing Public Folklore,” we must be more aware of the tools we use everyday. I think oral history is a part of that tool kit, and, by nature, oral history is a concept that can express a core value in the importance of each human life.

Pp. 306- 320. Dunaway, David K. “Radio and the Public Use of Oral History.

This article addresses some of the roadblocks between folklorists and radio producers working together including the different perceptions of amounts of time needed to produce an audio ‘document.’ The article as provides useful tips on editing oral histories into radio pieces.
Pp.187- 197. Danielson, Larry. “The Folklorist, the Oral Historian, and Local History.”
A helpful essay in conceptualizing the ways in which folklorists and oral historians can work together. Because deep engagement with one’s local community lies at the core of human right education theory, this essay explores how oral history and folklore can come together to more deeply explore the role of local history and what an interpretation of that history can mean for the future.

Flowers, N. The Human Rights Education Handbook: Effective Practices for Learning, Action, and Change .2000. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota.
http://www.hrusa.org/

This large booklet is available for download on the webpage. It provides deep background as well as excellent overview sheets about human rights education such as
“Underlying Principles of Human Rights overview sheet, page IV.” The online sources are numerous and easily adapted into almost any setting. It also contains helpful and concise quotes about the nature of human rights education, such as:
“Education for human rights means understanding and embracing the principles of human equality and dignity and the commitment to respect and protect the rights of all people. It has little to do with what we know; the “test” for this kind of learning is how we act.”

Hooks, Bell. Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. 1994. New York: Routledge.

Hook’s work, inspired by the work of libratory educator Paulo Freire, rethinks the so-called ‘banking system’ of education and instead encourages a kind of learning which encourages dialog, reciprocal learning, and a fundamental insistence upon the importance of engaged classroom discussions interaction between students and teachers. In the first essay “Engaged Pedagogy” she writes, “To teach in a manner that respects and cares for the souls of our students is essential if we are to provide the necessary conditions where learning can most deeply and intimately begin” (13). Some readers find Hooks offensive because of her overt challenging and questioning of the status quo and our basic western system of education. However, I think Hooks is calling for a dialog-centered education that brings students’ culture into the classroom in a way that can transform the non-personal, teaching-for-the test-oriented educational system we know today. This book also provides some deep background of the theory behind the practice of multi-cultural education. Her work also reminds us that if we want to make positive changes in education, our community, or even our own lives, we have to be willing to take risks. Taking risks is at the core of learning.

See especially:
Pp 23- 44 Chapter 2 “A Revolution of Values: The Promise of Multi-Cultural Change” and Chapter 3 “Embracing Change: Teaching in a Multi-Cultural World.”

Ishay, Micheline R. Ed. The Human Rights Reader: Major Political Essays, Speeches, and Documents from the Bible to the Present. 1997. New York: Routledge.

Broken up into five chronological sections, this book is useful for exploring the historical background of human rights while also pointing to social justice traditions existent in faith systems. The concluding section “the Right to Self-Determination” includes the writing of radical thinker Frantz Fanon. Unfortunately the readings are not preceded with any kind of historical background or contextual information. These essays would make great discussion pieces in an upper level classroom and these discussions and interpretations of historic documents could be a preliminary idea for a podcast essay.

Menkart, Deborah, Alana D. Murray, and Jenice L. View. Putting the Movement Back Into Civil Rights Teaching. A Resource Guide for Classrooms and Communities. 2004. United States: Teaching for Change.
(see also www.civilrightsteaching.org)

The 2004 winner of the National Association for Multicultural Education Book Award, this 562 page volume is a wealth of information for anyone interested in the intersection of cultural studies and social justice. Ranging from articles about the American Indian Movement to women in the Black Panthers, this collection does much more than just discuss the human rights issues that were behind the Civil Rights Movement. It shows how culture and social justice are integral parts of one whole. There are lesson plans, readings for discussion, and an amazing photographs. This book would work best for middle school-high school classroom or perhaps advanced elementary students.
Below are a few of the sections I found particularly helpful.

Pp. 26-31 “The Politics of Children’s Literature: What’s Wrong with the Rosa Parks Myth.” A Discussion of how oversimplifying Rosa Park’s story can be problematic and miss the boat when it comes to teaching the importance of organizing. Over romanticizing Parks also downplays the many ‘everyday’ people who made the bus boycott a success.

Discussion: Connection to folklore theory and teaching folklore to youth:
What is the role of the folklorist in interviewing? How do we ask for the back-story about events? How do we teach students to think about these things during interviews?
Pp.220-229 “ The Power of Language and Literacy: Student Historians for Social Justice.” Lesson Plan.” In this lesson plan, each student in the fifth grade classroom works as a historian on their own family while also discussing larger questions about the nature of history. This could work well in connection with Simons Student Worlds, Student Worlds as a way of exploring history through family story.

Pp. 359-361. “Radical Equations: The Algebra Project.”
Finally, a lesson plan and ideology that combines math and cultural studies! This article found in the textbook gives some background on the project.
www.algebra.org

PP. 525-529 “Big Shoes to Fill” Philadelphia Folklore Project.
A lesson plan centering around the “Big Shoes to Fill” exhibit. This idea could also work well in the classroom as an exhibit of the students’ own shoes or perhaps as a community exhibit.

Sims, Martha C and Martine Stephens. Living Folklore: An Introduction to the Study of People and Their Traditions. 2005. Logan: Utah State University Press.

A great overall book for introducing someone to the idea of folklore as a dynamic force in our lives, which combines both tradition and innovation. This book would work well when trying to introduce someone to the idea that folklore in the classroom or community center could help encourage multicultural dialog. The book also provides a backdrop against which we can see folkloric acts such as tradition, ritual, and performance as having the ability to express and articulate the positive and negative aspects of our community.

See especially:
PP. 31-34 “What is a Folk Group”
Pp.133-156 Discussions of Performance and Emergence
Pp. 202-224 Chapter 7 “Fieldwork and Ethnography.” Includes ideas for how to “seek out” folklore and examples sample interviews. Pp.218-219 also has a helpful section of ‘intrapersonal and ethical concerns.”
Pp. 225-280 Examples of fieldwork projects with reflexive writing by those involved in the project. These examples would work well in a high school classroom as a way to spawn discussion about what fieldwork can and can not do and the ways in which fieldworkers assess the fieldwork situation. As always, these would all make for great podcast ideas or idea generators.

Simons, Elizabeth Radin. Student Worlds, Student Words: Teaching Writing Through Folklore. 1990. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook Publishers.

A wonderful resource for introducing educators to how folklore can be of use in the classroom. Although a bit outdated, the lesson plans are highly useful and the stories of how students have been inspired through folklore are encouraging. I think this book would work well along side some of the more human rights based such as Putting the Movement Back in Civil Rights Teaching. I have found the ideas in this book to be especially helpful in conceptualizing ideas for podcasts lessons for student audio diary entries and the like. The sections on writing about family photography are also very useful and could be adapted to include information about combining photography with web.

Toelken, Barre. The Dynamics of Folklore. 1996. Logan: Utah State University Press.

Much like Sims and Stephens Living Folklore, this book works well as a way to introduce human rights educators to the ways in which folklore could add to their work. I particularly like the way Toelken focuses on the dynamism of folklore, and even argues that folklore is, to some degree, a kind of learning: “Folklore functions in part as an informal, vernacular system for learning the daily logic and worldview of the people around us” (30). Such a conceptualization of folklore reminds us that folklore is not a static concept out there to be found per se, but is instead very much alive in us and all around us. We can utilize this informal learning we call folklore to help bring about dialog and focus on human rights. See also Toelken’s work The Anguish of Snails.

Hooks, Bell. Where We Stand: Class Matters. 2000. New York: Routledge.
Chapter 7. “ The Me-Me Class: The Young and The Ruthless. 81-88.
In this collection of essays Hooks address the tricky subject of class. While all the essays are very thought provoking and educational, Chapter Seven, “The Me-Me Class: The Young and the Ruthless,” is particularly helpful in providing a platform for the discussion of youth and consumer culture which is so much a part of the classroom today. Hooks argues that consumer culture is harming youth and overshadowing larger social justice problems.
Pp. 81- 88 Chapter Seven “The Me-Me Class: The Young and the Ruthless”

“Ten Ways to Fight Hate: A Community Response Guide.” 2000. Montgomery, AL: Teaching Tolerance, Southern Poverty Law Center.
Southern Poverty Law Center Booklet.

This small thirty one page document provides examples of ten specific ways communities across American have dealt with hate incidents in their towns.
See also www. Teaching Tolerance.org

Perks, Robert and Alistair Thomson. The Oral History Reader. 1998. New York: Routledge.

Similar to the Dunaway collection, these essays look into the questions of what exactly oral history does and why it matters in the first place. The essays provide discussions on the nature of listening as well as address specific situations in which oral history was able to address larger human rights issues by acknowledging human stories of action, survival, resistance, and community. Each essay contains numerous bibliographic sources, which are also quite useful.

See especially:
PPp 9-20 Haley, Alex “Black History, Oral History and Genealogy.”
Pp. 114-125 Slim, Hugo, Paul Thompson with Olivia Bennett and Nigel Cross. “Ways of Listening.”
Pp. 157- 171. Anderson, Kathryn and Dana C. Jack. “Learning to Listen—Interviewing Techniques and Analysis.”
PP. 224- 234. Westerman, William. “Central American Refugee Testimonies and Performed Life Histories in the Sanctuary Movement.”

Park, Peter, Mary Brydon-Miller, Budd Hall, and Ted Jackson eds. Voices of Change: Participatory Research in the United States and Canada. 1993. London: Bergin and Garvey.

As the preface explains, “Participatory research is fundamentally about the right to speak” (xvii). It is about research that works toward direct action via addressing oppressive power structures. In short, participatory research actively works toward a dialog between university communities and non-universities communities and demands that research provide action outside of the confines of academe. At the core of participatory research is a belief that knowledge is collective and interactive belongs to all. I think it is possible for folklore to embrace many of the techniques of participatory research so often used in other cultural studies programs today. Such an interactive response to research is imperative in human rights education.

Vorrath, Harry H. and Larry K. Brendthro. Positive Peer Culture. New York: Aldine Publishing Company. 1985.

Although not directly about human rights education, this Social Work text discusses how anti-violence methods help students in the classroom and after school programs.

Brendtro, Larry K and Arlin E Ness and Colleagues. Re-Educating Troubled Youth: Environments for Teaching and Treatment. 1983. New York: Aldine Publishing Company.

This work never uses the term human rights education, but at its core these essays address the ways in which non-violent communication is a fundamental part of working with youth. It also shows the connection between dialog and conflict resolution. I see this information as deep background to work alongside more overt discussions of human rights education theory and folklore. I think these essays would also be useful when speaking with after-school program directors and educators.

Guerra, Nancy G. and Emilie Phillips Smith eds. Preventing Youth Violence in a Multicultural Society. Washington DC: American Psychological Association. 2006.

This work is very interesting, but all through out the book they talk about how important cultural competence and cultural discussions are to preventing violence, yet offer no solutions. In short, this is a work that could have greatly used the skills of a folklorist. I think this book is important because it provides folklorists with more information about anti-violence programs, while also showing examples of how folklorists and anti-violence educators could pool their resources to address cross-cultural violence and address what the authors call the “deep structure” of culture.

See especially Chapters Nine-eleven pp 221-271:
“Culturally Sensitive Intervention to Prevent Youth Violence,” “What is Cultural Competence and How Can it be Incorporated Into Preventative Interventions?,” and “Preventing Youth Violence in a Multicultural Society: Future Directions.”

Zinn, Howard. Power Governments Cannot Suppress. 2007. San Francisco: City Lights Books.

Howard Zinn’s works challenge the history lessons we often receive in school, forcing us to see the anti-celebratory and acknowledge the United State’s less than heroic past. I include this recent collection of essays because I think it touches on one of the fundamentals of folklore and human rights education. That is, exploring culture and history with the intent to move forward toward justice and address injustice. The introductory essay is especially enlightening. Zinn notes that one of the main reasons he wants to study history is to uncover stories of people who defied the ‘that’s just the way things are’ mentality to make great changes in this country, allowing us to have many of the freedoms we have today. Our folkloric cultural acts are at the core of these positive human rights based changes, he argues. He also reminds us that people have power when they work together. Just as the fieldworker looks for those stories not found in the official history text version of history, so does Zinn work to illuminate a history of men and women creating positive social change in our world. He argues, “to omit these acts of resistance is to support the official view that power only rests with those who have guns and posses the wealth. I write in order to illustrate the creative power of people struggling for a better world. People, when organized, have enormous power, more than any government” (11). He also notes that culture, the folklore of our daily lives, is at the core of change:
“Along the way, artists, musicians, writers, and cultural workers lend a special emotional and spiritual power to the movement for peace and justice. Rebellion often starts as something cultural (16).