Teaching with Dignity: How to Cultivate Classroom Ecosystems Where People Thrive

Teaching has never been more demanding and difficult. But neither students nor teachers need fixing. What’s needed are dignity-centered classrooms.

Through a compelling gardening analogy, Teaching with Dignity shows educators how to create dignity-centered classrooms by focusing less on eliminating weeds and more on cultivating healthy plants. It introduces a decisive mindset shift: instead of trying to control outcomes, educators can create classroom ecosystems where students and teachers thrive and communities flourish.

Drawing from dignity research, implementation science, and real classrooms—including the award-winning teaching practice of contributing author Summer Snyder—the authors offer a practical, inspiring roadmap for transformation, including these:
* Practices that restore clarity and purpose to the work of teaching
* Tools for nurturing relational trust and positive social connectedness
* Strategies to shift from reactive discipline to responsive, relational teaching
* Guidance for implementing well-known teaching frameworks to preserve their intent

If you're an educator committed to providing students and families with the education they deserve, this book offers tools for you to do so with clarity, care, and purpose.
It’s time to reclaim the heart of teaching by cultivating conditions where students and teachers can truly thrive.

“As my mentor, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, reminded me, there is no peace in the world without the awareness of the inherent worth of all human beings. If all teachers were trained to teach with dignity, we just might have a chance to shift the way we live together.”
—Donna Hicks, PhD, Harvard University, Author of Dignity and Leading with Dignity

"We have been waiting for such a book! A clear, insightful, and enjoyable read for educators to create dignity-based classrooms, giving students and teachers the skills to grow together in positive and impactful ways.”
—Beau Barberis, Country Chair for Germany, Global Dignity

“Dignity is one of the most important concepts to understand if you want to create the schools our kids deserve. And no one has taught me more about it than John Krownapple and Floyd Cobb.”
—Jim Knight, PhD,, The University of Kansas, Author of The Definitive Guide to Instructional Coaching

“The authors show how educators can use dignity to disrupt deficit narratives and create conditions for true educational justice. Through a brilliant gardening metaphor, they remind us that learning is about growing and teaching is about nurturing that growth.”
—Michelle A. Bowman, EdD
Senior Vice President, Networks and Continuous Improvement, Learning Forward