Co-Editors note: Here at WG? we focus almost exclusively on the texts and leaders who serve our students, but sometimes you have to break your own rules and Dr. Lee Gabay’s new title warrants a deviation from our own bounds and traditions. Perhaps more will follow.
Perfectly-sized for the busy teacher, administrator, or curious outsider, Dr. Gabay has written the first book that combines both a researcher’s questions and insider insight into Passages Academy. Written over the course of a decade, and just published a few months ago, I Hope I Don’t See You Tomorrow furnishes the reader with a literature review that provides meaningful context situating the work of Passages Academy. Dr. Gabay has elected to keep his voice and perspective present as someone who worked at Passages for many years, and his book reports on and analyzes mostly anonymous interviews he conducted with colleagues. For administrators and policymakers whose work dovetails with incarcerated and detained youth and whom have never taught in a Passages classroom, this book is essential reading. For students of criminology and criminal justice, as well as judges and the slew of social agencies and arts agencies who endeavor to concern themselves with the welfare of court-involved youth, and for any educator who ever wondered if they might have something to contribute in a detention setting, this book is highly recommended. While it is an academic work, Gabay intends his writing to be accessible and straightforward. Six chapters encompass the researcher and text’s contextualization, the methodology used, an overview of the history of education and juvenile justice, an exploration of the students’ experience, and the results of Gabay’s interviews with colleagues.--Jessica Fenster-Sparber
Gabay, Lee A. I Hope I Don’t See You Tomorrow: A Phenomenological Ethnography of the Passages Academy School Program. The Netherlands: Sense Publishers, 2016.