This website is dedicated to promoting the development of inclusive schools and communities. It describes my work in the areas of teaching for social justice, inclusive education and using music and movement to promote equity and inclusion.
I believe that a democratic society -- a world in which all people take responsibility for one another --- can only be achieved through a commitment to inclusion and social justice.
In this web space you will find articles, web links, and resources that can be used to inspire positive change in schools and communities.
You will also find descriptions of possible presentations (keynotes, lectures and workshops) that I am able to provide in various areas.
I welcome your feedback and interaction and look forward to hearing from you (see my BLOG page for this).
Mara Sapon-Shevin
News
hear mara at university of hawaii here (link)
My recently published book:
Binding Information: Paperback
Size: 5.5" X 8.5" Inches
Accolades
“Widening the Circle is an ambitious, impassioned argument for inclusive schools powered by a vision that goes far beyond the mutilated version of 'mainstreaming’ common in American schools today. To Sapon-Shevin the current state of affairs is a caricature of inclusive education, reductive and impoverished, a place where every student is defined by a putative deficit, imprisoned in a label. Her goal—breathtaking in its sweep—is to break through the walls of the prison, and to set us all free. She shows us that huge questions of democracy and freedom can be discovered in a simple game of musical chairs, that our deepest values are enacted in our everyday classroom practice. A dazzling manifesto and call to arms.”
—William Ayers, author of Teaching toward Freedom and To Teach
“Widening the Circle is packed with sharply observed challenges to conventional ways of thinking. It digs beneath classroom strategies to find larger truths about difference, exposing the moral implications of segregation in the process. One by one, Sapon-Shevin skewers the philosophical and practical objections to inclusion. Her book should be read by all educators, not just those in the field of special education.”
—Alfie Kohn, author of The Schools Our Children Deserve and What Does It Mean to Be Well Educated?
“I love the spirit that infuses the book and the constant reference to the connection between school values and larger democratic values, as well as its attention to the nitty-gritty of classroom life. A book both practical and thoughtful.”
—Deborah Meier, author of The Power of Their Ideas