After receiving her PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, Karen V. Hansen joined the faculty at Brandeis University and for thirty-five years taught courses on social inequality, immigration, families, and historical sociology. The author of four books and numerous scholarly articles, and the editor of three anthologies, Hansen has been awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship; a Fulbright Distinguished Chair in American Studies at Uppsala University, Sweden; an Andrew W. Mellon Faculty Fellowship in the Humanities, Harvard University; and conferred with an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Southern Denmark.
“Reconstructs the extraordinary story of a seemingly ordinary public school . . . What emerges is not only a chronicle of one school’s culture, but also a meditation on belonging, equity, and the transformative role educators can play in young lives.” —San Francisco Book Review
Working-Class Kids, grounded in both sociological research and personal reflection, chronicles how one racially diverse public high school in 1970s California fostered student pride, inclusion, and engagement through deliberate practices that are deeply relevant today. Sunnyvale High School faculty developed an innovative curriculum and intentionally created spaces where students could ask questions, feel valued, and motivated to come to school. Students contributed meaningfully to school governance and extracurricular life.
Teachers viewed their students with “a pedagogy of hope” and left lifelong impacts. In acting as mentors and models for civic responsibility, social justice, and excellence, they remind us that great teachers are those who believe in their students’ potential and challenge them with high expectations, rooted in empathy and respect. Many teachers credit SHS with being the best job they have ever held.
“An impassioned, well-researched history of a groundbreaking California Public School.” — Kirkus Reviews
Now out in paperback!!!
Order from Bloomsbury, for a 30% discount.
Working-Class Kids has won an Independent Press Award!!!
