Teaching on Days After
Educating for Equity in the Wake of Injustice

Alyssa Hadley Dunn (Author)

9780807784396

Paperback / softback, published 30 June 2026

240 pages
22.9 x 15.6 x 1.3 cm, 0.37 kg

How can teachers support students on the days after major events, tragedies, and injustices?

In a time of escalating polarization, classrooms are deeply impacted by the news cycle. In this urgent and fully updated second edition, Alyssa Hadley Dunn provides a practical, humanizing framework for how K–12 educators can teach in the hours, days, and months after social and political crises.

Moving beyond “business as usual,” Dunn shows why teachers must center equity, reject claims of pedagogical neutrality, and create spaces for dialogue, community, and healing. This timely, expanded edition addresses today’s sociopolitical climate—including guidance for navigating political pressure, misinformation, and the nationwide attacks on DEI and public education—when every day feels like a day after.

New to the Second Edition:

Contents

Acknowledgments  ix

1.  Introduction  1
Days After That I Remember, as Student and Teacher  4
Teachable Moments in Service of Justice  8
On Silence  9
What This Book Is About  10
Why Teaching on Days After Matters—and Why Now  12
What Is “Days After Pedagogy”?  13
How This Book Is Organized  14

2.  Guiding Frameworks  16
Guiding Frameworks in Context: Today’s Classrooms as Spaces for Days After Pedagogy  16
Asset-Based and Justice-Oriented Pedagogies  18
A Sociopolitical Education  22
Trauma Responsiveness and Socioemotional Learning in the Classroom  27
Conclusion  31
Theories in Practice: A Letter From a Teacher to His Students  31
Student Spotlight: Days After School Shootings  34
Marlena Young, Deidre Gorkowski, Marjorie Wiese

3.  Toward a Purpose for Freedom: Why Teach on Days After  42
Days After Pedagogy Supports Student Agency and Voice  43
Days After Pedagogy Works Against Oppression  48
Days After Teaching Redefines “Relevance”  50
Disrupting Whiteness: Pushing Against “Two Sides” on Days After  51
Days After Pedagogy Responds to Trauma in a Meaningful Way  54
Days After Pedagogy Is a Form of Trauma-Responsive Teaching  55
Days After Pedagogy Offers a Space for Transformative Learning  59
Days After Pedagogy Is Sustaining for Students and Teachers  64
Conclusion  67
Student Spotlight: Days After Community Struggle  68
Roxy Mashkawiziikwe Sprowl, Ella Ritter

4.  Putting Students First: Who We’re Teaching on Days After  72
Days After Pedagogy Is About Knowing Students Deeply  75
Days After Pedagogy Is for All Ages  76
Days After Pedagogy Is for All Content Areas  83
Days After Pedagogy Uses Student-Centered and Humanizing Lessons  86
Conclusion  88
Student Spotlight: Days After the COVID-19 Pandemic  89
Sudeshna Flores

5.  Educators: Who Is Doing the Teaching on Days After?  91
Days After Pedagogy Requires Teachers to Be Vulnerable  92
Days After Pedagogy Pushes Teachers to Be Curricular Risk-Takers  97
Days After Pedagogy Pushes Teachers to Work Through Fears and Challenges  104
Days After Pedagogy Necessitates That Teachers Negotiate Their Positionality  109
Conclusion  116
Student Spotlight: Days After Political Upheaval  117
Corabella Dover, Ana Lucia Ontiveros

6.  The Intersections of Teaching and Politics on Days After  119
Days After Elections  120
Days After Gun Violence  128
Days After Environmental Crises  134
Days After Gender Injustice  138
Student Spotlight: Days After Racial Injustice  141
Camille Dotson, Gabrielle Dotson

7.  The Intersections of Teaching, Racism, and White Supremacy on Days After  144
Days After Racial Violence  145
Days After White Supremacist Events  149
Days After Immigration Injustice  154
Days After Local Racial Injustice  158
Conclusion  163

8.  From “Totally Out of Touch” to “They’ve Got My Back”: Administrators on Days After  164
Silence and Silencing  165
What Administrative Support Can Look Like  167
How Administrators Connected (or Didn’t) Days After Pedagogy and Equity-Centered Trauma-Informed Education  170
Conclusion  171

9.  Conclusion  172
Part 1: Institutionalizing a Space for Days After Pedagogy  172
Part 2: Where Do We Go From Here? Some Final Advice for Teaching on Days After  177

Epilogue: From January 2021 to December 2025  183
Appendix A: A Letter to Educators and Children  185
Appendix B: Methods  187
Appendix C: The Day After: An Ethnodrama About Teachers’ Decision-Making Amidst Silencing School Policies  196
References  216
Index  223
About the Author  229