- Pedagogy Unbound
- Posts
- One Classroom at a Time
One Classroom at a Time
Publication Day!
David Gooblar
August 12, 2025
Dear Friends,
After nearly six(?) years of daydreaming, brainstorming, bullshitting, spitballing, so much reading, more than a hundred pages of research diary entries, making a proposal, working with an editor, drafting, revising, freaking out, talking to myself, drafting, revising, pacing, walking, sometimes running (all while talking to myself), rationalizing reader reports, more revising, stressing, more drafting, proofreading, copyediting, indexing, shoehorning in a few more last-minute edits, choosing a cover, and then waiting almost another whole year, One Classroom at a Time is finally out in the world.
Here’s the first entry in my first research diary for the project (though I had been working on it, in fits and starts, for many months before then):
Am I embarrassed that the book that I described five years ago sounds pretty much like the book I ended up writing? A little bit! Why does writing take me so long?
In lieu of telling you how great the book is, I’m going to let the kind souls who read advance copies tell you. Here’s what John Warner (author of many books, including the recent and fiendishly titled More Than Words: How to Think About Writing in the Age of AI) said:
At a time when there are serious threats to the ability of institutions to serve diverse populations, David Gooblar reminds us that there are no insurmountable barriers to the work of teaching the students who come before us in our classrooms. Helping students learn, regardless of their prior experience, is the work we are all called to do.
And here’s Susan Blum, author of the excellent I Love Learning; I Hate School:
The structures and practices of higher education have been largely unchanged for at least a century. But the students entering have become more varied, and they are often ill-served by the status quo. Do we just keep blaming the students? David Gooblar offers a resounding no. In this timely book, Gooblar provides practical ways to improve learning and a sense of belonging for everyone. If you follow even half the suggestions here, your classes will be more effective and enjoyable, for the instructor and the students alike.
You might wonder: what does Kevin Gannon, author of Radical Hope: A Teaching Manifesto, think of the book? Wonder no more:
In our current moment, all too many colleges and universities are running away from ‘DEI’ work, as if diversity were not an empirical reality and equity and inclusion not ethical imperatives in higher education. Thankfully, David Gooblar has written a vital intervention, urging a return to the foundational principles of meaningful teaching and learning. One Classroom at a Time offers a wealth of ways, from specific strategies to overall mindsets, for us to shape a more just and sustainable future. This energizing and important work should find its way to every teacher’s bookshelf.
Finally, the mighty Kathleen Fitzpatrick, author of Generous Thinking: A Radical Approach to Saving the University, and co-editor of the MLA Handbook(!), was kind enough to say this:
As David Gooblar notes, the histories that accompany many students as they enter the classroom act like scar tissue—the remnants of active wounds. Unless we are aware of and tend to those scars, we risk perpetuating the harm. One Classroom at a Time engagingly provides both research-driven arguments for transforming instructional practices and hands-on, pragmatic suggestions for ways to go about effecting that transformation.
I’m so excited that the book is finally out in the world! I hope it reaches and inspires people who want to improve our colleges and universities and proves educational to those with the power to effect change.
You can buy One Classroom at a Time from all the usual places; can I suggest you order it from Prairie Lights?
Reply