Shatter the System - by Candice Dowd Maxwell (Paperback)

About the Book

Shatter the System highlights the pervasiveness of race, gender, identity, and socioeconomics in schools.

Book Synopsis

Shatter the System highlights the pervasiveness of race, gender, identity, and socioeconomics in schools.

Review Quotes

Being uncomfortable with inequity can be a starting point for change, but discomfort is not enough. Candice Maxwell's book suggests it is instead up to us to combine knowledge and integrity, which are the cores of leadership, to meet the considerable challenge of inequity. The truth is if we don't ensure others do well, others succeed, others have the opportunity, then we all fail. Social justice is not merely a term or a trend or a cause it is an imperative. Shattering the System addresses this fact through an all important educational lens.

Masterfully crafted! A transformative and timely must-read for everyone working in education and anyone seeking to disrupt educational inequity. Dr. Maxwell brilliantly intersects historical analysis with an actionable framework for internal, interpersonal, and systemic equity and social justice interventions. Shatter the System is a powerful and practical tool to achieve the collective impact and generational change our children deserve!

Maxwell, a professor and executive coach, effectively unpacks an equitable social change process model to provide four phases toward achieving equitable and transformative change. Maxwell states that the absence of humility dishonors the dignity of other people and is a direct reflection of how practitioners see themselves. She designed a humility, diversity, equity, and inclusion (HDEI) model and framework for equity leaders engaged in interpersonal skills, which starts with humility as the foundation. Maxwell provides reflexive questions, exercises, and ideas to consider at the end of each chapter for policy makers, professors, school administrators, and teachers to organize their thoughts about the social conditions that have shaped education. This is a must read for novice and experienced educators eager to diagnose and redesign instructional systems to give their students a fair and equitable education. Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals.

Shatter the System challenges its readers to confront and reconsider everything we thought we knew about equity. Dr. Maxwell deftly tackles the policies and practices that have led to systemic racism, particularly in education. She also highlights the potential we have, as a society, to shift the narrative and dismantle exclusionary education. Dr. Maxwell provides practitioners with a powerful model that serves as both a needs assessment and an accountability tool. This book is required reading for anyone who cares deeply about educational equity and social justice.

Within each chapter, Dr. Maxwell's boldness is on full display throughout this call to action to "Shatter the System..." regarding equity leadership and social justice advocacy. What I enjoyed most about this work is her intentionality in providing practical steps that we all can to do advance our leadership, and perhaps most importantly, to be more EFFECTIVE in our leadership and social justice advocacy efforts. Wanting to lead is one thing; being equipped to achieve your leadership goals in a humble, effective, and steadfast manner is another. This book is a must-have resource for mid-career and executive leaders. It is chock full of specific tools, theory, and action steps to advance your influence as a leader and advocate.

About the Author

Candice Dowd Maxwell is the Distinguished Education Equity Fellow and Full Professor at the University of Central Arkansas. She is praised for her ability to work with organizations and schools to strengthen, internalized, and operationalize their equity efforts.