For some, it is difficult to envision schooling spaces that are loving and caring for Black boys. However, new scholarly efforts are shifting from deficit informed approaches to narratives of possibilities. This book deftly examines how a caring schooling environment uses social identities as a pedagogical device and in relationship building. Ransom helps us reimagine the power of caring adults and schools in the lives of students where education precarity has become commonplace. The ability to comprehend multiple social identity positions, such as race, class, gender and sexuality hinders authentic theorizing, which limits how Black boys in school come to know and to be known. With compelling narratives and analysis of students attending an alternative school in pursuit of a high school credential, Ransom accomplishes this with the same tenderness she reveals during the study. As a result, our understanding of alternative schooling transforms and this site emerges as a source of restoration and care.

James Earl Davis, Professor, Temple University