From Antiracism to Abolition – Professional Learning for Liberating Schools

A guide for school leaders, equity facilitators, and educators aiming to transform schools into truly equitable and liberatory spaces

Why do contemporary antiracist initiatives fall short of achieving systemic educational equity? In From Antiracism to Abolition, Abby C. Emerson examines this question and offers tools to organize teacher learning that aims for freedom, care, and justice rather than compliance and punishment.

Drawing on research from more than thirty New York City schools, this book demonstrates that despite good intentions most antiracist efforts fail to disrupt punitive educator–student relationships, transform the conditions that perpetuate racial harm in schools, or generate lasting institutional change. To address this pressing issue, Emerson argues that abolitionist education can be utilized to improve teacher learning spaces and build schools that cultivate inclusion, belonging, safety, and humanity.

Offering one of the first empirical studies of abolitionist teacher learning, From Antiracism to Abolition provides concrete strategies for educators who want to use teacher development as a tool for school-wide efforts that work to collectively remove harm, control, and surveillance while fostering joy, collective care, and educational freedom.